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Our Own Experiences In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Are we always at the mercy of others and our own experiences? Are the truths we cling to always reality? Are we ever truly free or are we always prisoners in our own mind? These are some of the questions that went through my mind while reading Plato’s allegory of the cave. Through them I’ve come to understand one of the biggest themes in this allegory is our ability to “shackle” ourselves mentally, but also our ability to free ourselves if only we have the courage. To reach that conclusion I had to think about our lives now. Thoughts on how people are raised to believe one thing that is not always the truth and thoughts on how we make decisions out of fear or anger that may not always be the right one. Also, how sometimes our biggest roadblocks are ourselves, but does that mean that we can never break through? Not likely. …show more content…

True the prisoners in the cave were shackled in the cave from childhood as said in part one of the allegory, and hopefully we’ve never experienced something like that in our lives but the allegory never states that they never had the opportunity to escape. After the released prisoner came back and told them what he saw, they chose to stay in the cave. They persecuted him and he was, “exposed to ridicule,” as it states in part three. They were fearful and considered his ‘enlightened’ state not worth it if he could no longer see the shadows. Instead of taking his words as truth, they disregarded them and perhaps for the first time were responsible for their shackled state. The same can be true for

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