Analysis Of Allegory Of The Cave

Reality, Truth, and Understanding The Allegory of the Cave by Plato questions truth, reality, and demonstrates how we are similar to the prisoners within the cave. Every person has a personal “cave” and only with knowledge and understanding can we escape from the captivity ignorance. The prisoners in the story were only allowed to see shadows in the cave and it’s what they believed as true. In the story Plato states that the prisoners came to know reality as nothing more as “the shadows of those artificial objects” (Plato 50). Most people have only seen a narrow and small perspective of the world with a skewed sense of reality. They only know what’s happening around the globe from what’s told through the news outlets and from the surroundings. Lack of knowledge of things they haven’t seen or people they haven’t encountered before is someone’s personal “cave”. Throughout the story the theme of not believing everything you see and hear is prevalent and can be used in every person’s life. Once one of the prisoners is presented with the truth and is allowed outside of the cave he sees the world for what it truly is. The prisoner is then hurried back down to the cave, chained once again and is forced to look at
Plato states the prisoner rather ‘be on earth as a hired servant in the house of a landless man” than to fall back to “live in the old way” (52). Plato displays that it’s extremely difficult to change people’s views on reality but he states it’s the duty of the philosopher to help educate those have yet to comprehend the truth. Many people in the world are still held captive by their own, distorted beliefs and it should inspire everyone’s to show them the truth. Displaying unique characteristics, whether it be culturally, ability, or socially can help tell people to get out the