Analyzing Plato's 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave was an interpretation of the aversion humans have to things that are outside of their experienced reality, as well as a proposed solution.

One rhetoric that " The Allegory of the Cave" has is a metaphor. The central idea is, some prisoners were locked in a cave and the couldn't get away. It represents that how much freedom is worth. If you never had a chance to see the outside world, you

Society is often content with adhering to orders and often don't question the true essence of what they’re being told. Plato ventured towards this issue within his famous “The Allegory of the Cave” by using rhetorical devices such as metaphors to illustrate his message. Plato explores the philosophy of society in a particular structure that forces the reader to ponder on the mindset of a blind individual who finally sees the light.

This stage begins by describing the perspective of a prisoner who is freed and forced to look at the fire and puppets that produced the shadows. The fire epitomizes a falsified truth because it shines light on the puppets, which themselves are imitations of veracity. Socrates asks, “What do you he’d say if someone told him that what he saw before wasn’t worth seeing anyway, and that he was seeing better now because he was that much closer to the truth of things [?]” (Plato 241). The freed prisoner, after dealing with initial pain and refusal, ultimately realizes that the puppets he sees are more real than the shadows. Next, the freed prisoner is dragged outside and is exposed to the things that the puppets represent. Furthermore, he believes that these things are more legitimate than the puppets and accepts the cave as a filter or imitation of the truth. Finally, the freed prisoner is “able to catch sight of the sun, not just reflected in water, or as it appears in any alien location, but the sun itself, by itself, in its own place, and observe it as it is” (Plato 242). Thus, the freed prisoner looks at the sun and realizes that it is the source of light that allows him to see. The sun, which shines outside the cave and remains unknown to the prisoners, represents the ultimate Truth. By passing Campbell’s threshold, the freed prisoner passes the

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley presents us with a Dystopian society, for as we read, there is a revelation of the true nature of the society. The basis of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is that the shadows in which the trapped conformists see are the flawed reflections of ideal forms, such as beauty. Within the society of Brave New World, the entire population appears perfect for they are manufactured to be that way, therefore, the ‘outsiders’ appear as the flawed reflections of their ideal forms, which is present in the Allegory of the Cave, as well as other similarities.

Plato’s Allegory of the cave represents life/death/rebirth. Life/death/rebirth is a popular archetype that most authors use in fictional books. Plato’s Allegory of the cave begins with people that are locked in chains inside of a cave. The people inside the cave see shadows on the wall of animals and creatures that they think represents their life. This cave is an illusion of life that the people are experiencing. The people who are chained up get set free by the keeper, who is a symbol of the sun, or the “Rooster” who wakes people up from their illusions. The people are blinded by the sun and they want to go back to their illusion of life. This is when the people are in the Belly of the Whale or when they are symbolically dead. Once the people realize there is no way of going back to the way it was, they are “reborn” from their illusions and live their lives to the fullest and not take for granted what they have. Plato’s Allegory of the cave is

When the enlightened prisoner returns to the cave “they all laugh at him and say he had spoiled his eyesight by going up there”(Plato __). Plato infers that society will purposely be blind to conform to society’s norms.When the escaped prisoner returns to the cave he “gets his eyes full of darkness” (Plato ___). The freed prisoner explains what the actual objects were that they were seeing were. Plato demonstrates that the ignorance and blindness to the truth is by choice. Plato says the prisoners that are chained up could not fathom the new truths; they are

In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato breaks the story into four main scenes to demonstrate the path to enlightenment for the unenlightened reader. He uses a story of a man trapped in a cave,

The Allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous metaphors in Western philosophy. This continuous metaphor speaks about educations effects on the human soul. As one of the prisoners held in the cave is freed from his bonds he is able to begin experiencing reality, however painful the initial reaction is. When the same prisoner leaves the cave he is blinded, but eventually adjusts and views the world around him and acknowledges the sun as the cause for everything he sees. The sun essentially is representative of a Form of the Good and thus the prisoner has reached a type of higher understanding. This higher understand is then suppose to be given to the other prisoners by the initial discoverer. However, who is to say that the man who has been given this higher understanding will not abuse his knowledge in order to manipulate others into following him. Additionally, this man was enlightened on his own and thus the enlightenment he bestows upon others may be increasingly separate from reality. As he explains the meaning of all he is seeing and

An acceptable listener is a person who is able to put aside their thoughts and opinions in order to digest someone else’s views that are possibly different. However, the person can retain their own opinions even after listening, but for that moment they had an open mind during the discussion. In “On Communication”, Bohm is trying to manifest the readers why listening is critical. Bohm states that “communication can lead to the creation of something new only if people are able to freely listen to each other, without prejudice and without trying to influence each other.” In that statement, it is clear that Bohm is telling the importance of listening to one another. However, people must listen to each other, no matter anyone’s opinion, since that’s how new ideas are created, how people come together, and how people become educated.

We, the students are the “chained prisoners”. We are only allowed to know what the “puppeteers” allow us to know. The “puppeteers” can be seen as the teachers. Now we have to ask ourselves, what are the “shadows on the wall” that we see everyday. I believe that the “shadows” represent all of the illusions that we live by as our reality. College students, myself included, tend to have a like minded way of thinking, similar to the men in the cave. We tend to think that we know everything that there is in the world, when in fact we don’t. We seemingly have a complete grasp of what our future will be, when really our future is bound to adapt based on changes in our life. The prisoner also believes he knew what was his future based on where he was at the time, until he ventured out and discovered things weren’t as easy as they seem. Upon his realization, that things were not as he perceived them, he had to adapt to the new way of thinking. Adaption is often scary, and many people will tend to avoid it at all costs. Some people deny the need to adapt, even though it is apparent that adaption is eminent, because of fear of the unknown. The chained prisoners are indeed in denial and not willing to believe their fellow prisoners new found thought because, it goes against their already perceived

Plato, a famous Greek philosopher wrote the Allegory of the Cave. He tried to answer some of the profound questions which arose about the nature of reality. He tells the story of 'Allegory of the Cave' as a conversation between his mentor, Socrates (Plato’s mentor), who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories, and one of Socrates' students, Glaucon (Plato’s older brother). He uses an allegory as a short informative story, to illustrate 'forms' and the 'cave,' in his main work, The Republic (which first appeared around 380 BC). It is one of the most perceptive attempts to explain the nature of reality. The state of most human beings is depicted in this myth of the cave and the tale of a thrilling exit from the cave is the source of true understanding. Plato has portrayed the concept of reality and illusion through the allegory of the cave.

In Plato’s dialogue, the cave allegory, I am given a story about a prisoner and allowed to depict an image of what the cave looks like. Inside the cave are prisoners, a fire, a rocky path, and people who carried various artifacts that project shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. The fire represents the sun, the rocky path symbolizes the journey of the soul, the prisoners represent us, the shadows were what they believed to be the truth, the people carrying the artifacts symbolize influences in life for example parents or teachers. The cave as a whole represents the visible realm. In the dialogue, the prisoners are chained so that they can only see what is in front of them and being depicted on the wall. “They’ve been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, with their necks and legs fettered, able to see only in front of them,” (514b). A prisoner is freed and dragged outside the cave,

Montag is clearly the prisoner that broke free, later finding out that the ‘shadows’ the government is showing them are indeed cover ups. The shadows represent the heavily censored society because you’re only seeing the shape of things, and not the tiny details. These tiny details are mirrored by how things are censored by the government. If you attempt to picture a three dimensional object after only seeing two dimensional objects then a new plethora of information is unlocked. Once the truth is unveiled the ex prisoner tries to tell others but is stopped by the them, Beatty. After rejection, our leads set out and attempt to tell the truth but people would rather fight for their own beliefs rather than try and consider or accept new

Socrates’s allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic Book VII is an accurate depiction of how people can be blinded by what they are only allowed to see. The allegory does have relevance to our modern world. In fact, all of us as a species are still in the “cave” no matter how intelligent or enlightened we think we have become.