The Allegory Of The Cave

In the story of “The Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato found in his book The Republic. To sum it up, “The Allegory of the Cave” is about prisoners who are locked in a cave and who are forced to watch the shadows of everything that is happening outside of the cave. Surprisingly one prisoner is freed and dragged out the cave against their will. Eyes are difficult to adjust to the very bright light outside the cave. Once they adjust he sees life is more than just dark shadows, there are colors and reflections. That person is so amazed what they sees on the outside that they go back in the cave to tell their prison mates that there is more to the world than just a cave, and they should also experience outside as well. The other prisoners see the freed prisoner as very
delusional and forcefully stay chained up and stay in the cave. When Plato wrote this is was a backlash to the death of his teacher, Socrates. The moral of the story was people that are uneducated, ignorant, and naïve will are closed minded and very complacent. I believe not everybody, but most people have had an experience where they were freed from a cave and their life long prison mates were not believing him/her. There has been a couple time in my life where this same analogy has happened to me. One of the caves I was in, and still feel I am still in, is society; more specifically the black society. I am not the type of the person to ridicule or call out every imperfection on my own beautiful race at all, I already know no one is perfect and never will be. I’ve had multiple experiences, one I can recall is recently was telling my friends about the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how he protested by using organized non- violent alternatives. Some of them did not care what I had to say and said you always have to fight hatred with hatred and fighting is always the answer. I tried to explain to them my reasons behind it and why we should stop being so closed minded, but they just said I was dumb for that idea. At that moment I knew that everyone will not be open to your ideas and will shoot them down without even hearing a reasoning. Learning from other peoples mistakes is something I always do, so I learned for myself to not be ignorant to other opinions and/or ideas. Always be open to people ideas because the next person knows something you never knew. A cave that I have also experienced has been my friends and relatives I have back at home.
I have known most of my friends since childhood and all my relatives since I can remember. Finishing my first semester of college was a very eye opening experience. Meeting new people from totally different backgrounds and new ways of thinking was amazing to me. After completing my first semester at eastern I learned a lot, more so out of the class room. I shared my new knowledge with my friends, more specifically what I learned in my introduction to African American studies class. I was sharing information on the book I read named The New Jim Crow. My friends did not want to hear about the book I was reading or the issues it was concerning. I was baffled by the fact they thought that everything I was saying was irrelevant and/or completely blasphemous. They shut the idea quick and said those topic do not concern us at all. I learned from that experience that everyone will not believe you even you are stating a fact. I was speaking to my friends in a narrative manner, I was not speaking persuasively; and I was not trying to persuade anyone because I was only stating the facts I learned not the
opinions. Another moment I can recall is with my relatives. Coming back from college I’ve switched my diet and now eating healthier. I found new methods to become heathier, such as using all organic products and detox my body. Explaining to my relatives on ways they can drastically improve their wellbeing was one of my goals when I came back from school. When I told my relatives about using new methods and products they can take to improve their health. When I finished telling them, they wouldn’t even try a sample of the products and didn’t want to know the benefits. Again I was confused on why they didn’t believe me. I thought they didn’t trust me or thought I was lying to them. I again had to realize that everyone will not be open to new idea and products. The “The Allegory of the Cave” is a fantastic excerpt and I can relate to it a lot. I believe everyone has been in the position of the freed prisoner trying to help his/her prison mates. People would rather be satisfied suffering than to take a chance and see what the outside would look like.