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12/2/13

“Allegory of the Cave” Character Analysis

In the story “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, these three prisoners have lived in a cave their whole life, chained and only able to see this wall. On this wall the only thing they can see is shadows from people and objects doing things in front to make shadows. By only seeing these shadows and nothing else the prisoners have no idea about the outside world, as one of them are released he goes and looks at everything he has not seen before. He then returns to his friends that are still kept in the cave and tries telling them what he has seen, what everything really is. They do not believe him or even know what he is saying because they have not seen the things he has. Plato wants the philosopher to understand life as it is, and know what everything is.

In the story “Friday night lights” by H.G. Bissinger, Boobie one of the main characters in this story has a major epiphany. The only thing in his life is football as in comparison to “the allegory of the cave” the slaves only have the shadows of the objects. Boobie gets it all taken away from him by an injury and changes his prospective on life. “I ain’t got nuthin now”(98) is said by Boobie, as he looks at what has happened to him and realizes the one thing he has is gone. Much like an awakening for him that makes him realize things aren’t going to be the same anymore, just like the one prisoner set free. “Coach put me in”(187) says Boobie. He wants to play even though he was hurt. This can relate to “The Allegory of the Cave” because like Boobie the prisoner returns to the cave, the only thing he had his whole life. How Boobie deals with his “awakening” is he returns to “the cave”.

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