Richard Wright's Allegory Of The Cave And The Man Who Lived Underground

Every individual spends their entire life trying to understand what reality is; however, because reality consist of two forms- perceived reality and actual reality, it is essential that you understand both in order to truly comprehend reality. Perceived reality is one’s perception of reality based on personal experiences and surroundings. Actual reality is actual and definite or the factual aspect of reality. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” Dick Gregory’s “Shame” and Frederick Douglass’ “Learning to Read and Write” illustrate examples of reality being composed of two different perceptions and how the ability to comprehend both is necessary in order to conceptualize

In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them. However, one prisoner is released and forced out into the reality, allowing the reader to understand that the world one sees and experiences is not the reality, but rather an illusion. Similarly, in The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol, Truman Bank has been growing up in Seahaven Island, a place created just for him to live in for a television show that is all about him. Throughout the film, Truman realizes that Seahaven is not the real world, and viewers see his journey to get out of this illusion, and into reality outside the false world. Both The Allegory of the Cave and The Truman Show prove that the physical world is an illusion that prevents one from discovering reality. The concept of illusion versus reality is evident in both works through similarities in plot, similarities in symbolism, and differences in character.

Often times, it is assumed that learning does not have negative consequences and leads to one’s enlightenment What people don’t realize is that being thrown into the light can burn. Associating learning with pain is clearly illustrated in both Plato’s Republic and Frederick Douglass’ The Education of Frederick Douglass. Both works represent people who move past their ignorance through the acquisition of knowledge and step into the light, both literally and metaphorically; they become aware of their own situations and with that comes pain.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” has a variety of rhetorical devices that play a major role in the story. Right off the bat this whole story is an allegory because it has a very powerful meaning behind it. The story has metaphors in the passage that supports the story. There are personification that gives human like qualities to non living things. There are many more rhetorical devices used throughout the whole story that supports the entire meaning for example; metaphor, polysyndeton, personification and allegory.

In “ The Allegory of the Cave” 360 BCE, Plato emphasises that the cave explains human existence and envisions the world as a dark cave, and humans trapped as prisoners in that cave. Using symbolism he supports this statement by demonstrating to his students that our minds conceive the sources of shadows and the material world we live in as false truths. His purpose is directed towards his students, to help others out of the cave, to reveal the burden of false truths also know as the shadows. Plato uses a didactic tone to help his students understand and encourage them not to stay in the cave, but to free themselves and help others become free of the shadows the

Ray Bradbury born in 1920 to a middle class family. Bradbury went on to write and publish over five hundred pieces of literature. One of the novels he wrote was Fahrenheit 451, where he attempted to predict what the United States of America would look like in the future. The novel illustrates the idea of a totalitarian government and society burning books to stop the spread of knowledge, by following the development of the main character Guy Montag. Furthermore, the novel bring up the idea of Plato’s cave, in which Montag attempts to overcome the ideas of the society he grew up around. Plato’s Cave portrays prisoners captive in a cave and forced to look at the shadows projected on the wall in front of them for their entire life, until one of them is set free and allowed he choice of going back to the cave or leaving the cave . Many suggest that the novel Fahrenheit 451 represents the Allegory of the Cave given by the philosopher Plato; from the symbolism of the main character realizing the truth of his society and government, to wanting to know more about the situations around him and how they came to be, and finally making the decision to not go back to the society he grew up in.

Within Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, and Descartes Meditation I, there are multiple similarities and differences in them. Reality is questionable within both of these stories. There is skepticism in them on whether they are truly living, and if it is real, or if it is controlled by something else entirely. In both stories, they also wanted to leave what they understood to be reality, to find what they thought and sensed to be the true reality.

Imagine a country in which the only emotions you feel are joy and happiness but underneath all of this lies a terrible fact. The story Those who walk away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin tells of all this and it can greatly be compared to The Allegory of the cave by Plato, The book 1984 by George Orwell and to The United States of America in many ways.

Plato’s short story the Allegory of the Cave, Plato portrays a scene in a cave to the reader that analyzes human actions. The story is about a group of men that are chained for their entire life. The only thing they are exposed to are shadows on the wall of a fire burning by people behind them. The people exposing these men are hiding the truth of the outside world. Plato reveals that humans are easily fooled into believing what they see. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real.

In the dialogue, Socrates claims that after a prisoner leaves the cave and sees the sun (which symbolizes truth and knowledge), he will not participate in the cave dwellers’ ignorance. Similarly, individuals who chose to become enlightened to the true nature of reality do not partake in the ignorance of humanity; instead they encourage individuals to believe in philosophical knowledge. The cave dwellers believe that the shadows on the walls are real, just like individuals accept the reality of the world with which they are presented; however, they are both illusions, which are perceived. This is because over centuries human perception is merely a shadow of reality and individuals are like the cave dwellers who believe the perceptions created by society (Cleveland). Therefore, humans need to raise past the perceptions governed and taught by society in order to break through ignorance and travel on a path of

Even though there are people willing to risk it all to go back to the life they had, there are some that become submissive and stop fighting. In Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Stanford phycology department. They recruited college students to run a mock prison so they could study the effect of becoming a prisoner and a prison guard. In this experiment that was supposed to run for two weeks ended up being stopped by the researchers on the six day because it was getting out of control. This is stated by the heads of the experiment Philip Zimbardo, Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and David Jaffe in their report of the experiment. In the six days that the experiment ran they saw the personalities that the prisoner and prison guards took.

Plato tells of a group of prisoners held in a dark cave chained to the walls. These people have never stepped outside into the world and can only experience shadows that are displayed on the opposite side of the cave through the light outside of the cave. One of the slaves, now liberated steps outside of the cave and is able to experience reality, or what we can distinguish as objective truth. After returning to explain to the other what he has seen there seems to be quite a difference in opinions(Plato). In his article Plato’s Cave, T.F Morris attempts to dissect Plato’s allegory and explains his belief that “… the shadows on the wall of the cave correspond to what we call reality…(Morris 417)” As Adler previously stated objective truth exists whether or not the human being has experienced it, in this instance the forms that cast shadows while passing by the cave. It can be inferred that both Adler and Morris agree that the negative response of the remaining prisoners in the cave towards stepping out and experiencing reality is a subjective truth and depends on the opinion of each prisoner, thereby belonging to the sphere of taste. Plato is able to present a situation in which both objective and subjective truth can cause a rift in the relationships that human beings can

They are tied in such a way that they are unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. The prisoners are chained since their childhood and have not seen the outside world ever. Behind them burns a fire. In between the fire and the prisoners there is a small path which is used by the people. Because of this they cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these real people that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes of the people whom they do not

The two Authors of the allegory of the Cave and Fahrenheit 451 also perceive shadows as a reality. The Shadows in the cave are the only form of interaction with the outside world in the cave and create a sense of reality to the prisoners viewing them. This is clearly shown when one of the prisoners manages to escape the cave and returns to tell his friends. However his companions refuse to believe him and think he has gone mad because they have been forced into a reality that is false in every

“The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is about a group of prisoners that were chained up in a cave with their backs facing the exit of the cave, unable to see what was going on in the outside world. They occasionally would see shadows on the wall and would