Comparison Of Flatland And Plato's Cave Image

At first glance, Flatland shares a multitude of similarities with Plato’s Cave Image. The members of Flatland are shackled to the walls of their two dimensional reality by the bonds of their authoritative opinions on the concept of existence. When members of Flatland are able to transcend these bonds and escape the cave, they are greeted upon their return with either death or imprisonment. Consequently, the revelations that they have learned during their travels are often lost or discredited in order to preserve the status quo. Flatland also shares a multitude of similarities with our own society and the human condition as a whole. After all, modernity today has made reality exceedingly optional; and perhaps one of the most telling traits of humanity is that we consistently crucify Christ, excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce
Additionally, members are able to improve their social standing through the “Law of Nature,” which asserts that every male polygon born will have one more side than that of his father, thus, ensuring a slow rise to a greater social standing. Therefore, the aspiration of the majority of the members of Flatland is social ascension. Social Ascension in Flatland is more or less available to everyone; however, it is also severely regulated by the top ruling classes. Freedom in Flatland is scorned in favor of equal opportunity to ascend socially, the laws of Flatland are punishing or punitive, and innovation is often suppressed by the rigid hierarchy of society. Members of the lower classes that are considered to be either intellectually valuable or potentially dangerous to social equilibrium are generally killed or elevated to a higher class. More importantly, every attempt to change the current social environment is labeled as dangerous or harmful. In other words, Flatland, much like our own reality, is not ready to receive the revelations from beyond the