ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Plato's Misconceptions

1046 Words5 Pages

In life there are many misconceptions, people look at something and automatically make a mental note of what it is and what they think about it. Whether they are correct or not an opinion has been formed, and in order to find the truth, they must be willing to open their mind to all possibilities. Not everyone will be willing to change their opinion on something so it ultimately comes down to convincing them of your theory or changing your ways. In the stories The Allegory of the Cave by Plato and Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, you will see how the individual deals with people’s misconceptions about themselves.
Plato wrote The Allegory of the Cave as dialogue of Socrates talking with his students. In this story Socrates explains how three men had been chained up like “prisoners” facing the back wall of a cave from the time they were born, unable to see anything but …show more content…

In The Allegory of the Cave, the prisoner that escaped tries continuously to inform the others of the new world. Yet even when they threatened to murder him if he let them out of their chains, he still tried his hardest to get them to believe what he had seen. Socrates then states that “I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain those false notions and live in this miserable manner” (Plato 615). So no matter how badly they treat him he feels the need to try and persuade them to come out into the real world. In Black Men and Public Space, when people are frightened by him he begins to change the way he acts around people. Staples would whistle music from famous classical composers so people would feel more comfortable as they were passing by. He even waited sometimes for people to pass him, if they seemed on edge, so they wouldn’t feel like he was following them (Staples 466). He had to completely change how he acted around people just to avoid being treated like a

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Black Men In Public Space By Brent Staples

    553 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of all the feelings people have, the most diverse is dread, for dread can be stimulated much simpler than most feelings. However, the observation of dread or risk can be different. People can make the impression of endangerment by using prejudice, predetermined decisions, and labels. In “Black Men in Public Spaces”, the writer explains how his skin color could create nervousness in people and how he had to moderate his conduct as a result. Staples describes the actions he took to demonstrate he was not the person society anticipated him to be.

    Read More

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

    744 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is there a truer higher reality than what most people experience? This question can best be answered by examining the protagonist in both Allegory of the Cave by Plato and The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. The answer to this question, is very complex as it includes the definition of reality, how to measure the terms truer and higher, and the consensus of people’s experiences. because there is no way to prove that there is a truer higher reality beyond what most people experience, this statement is false. While there are multiple definitions of reality, the most accurate is the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.

    Read More

  • Allegory Of The Cave Comparison

    1150 Words  | 5 Pages

    “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

    Read More

  • Essay On The Complexity Of Life In Jonathan Larson's Rent

    1411 Words  | 6 Pages

    Like Larson’s play, Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ has similar themes. However, instead of using the lens of homelessness, Plato demonstrates his literary genius by building a story in which Socrates starts setting a scenario for Glaucon—Plato’s brother. In this story there are prisoners who have been locked in a cave since birth. The prisoners cannot

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    1033 Words  | 5 Pages

    When Plato crafted the allegory of the cave he was doing so with the intention of describing the ignorance of man and the importance of education. At the surface that may be all that can be learned from this tale, one must wonder, just who is the prisoner portrayed in this tale. Through examining the ideas presented it can be concluded that the man in the cave is a representation for ignorance, but is that it? Is that all the prisoner stands for or is there more to the tale. 　　　　Let’s examine the prisoner in his natural state, shackled up and staring at the shadows presented to him.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    First off, one rhetoric that " The Allegory of the Cave" has is a metaphor. A metaphor is comparing two unlike things. The focal thought is, a few detainees were bolted into a give in and the couldn't escape. It speaks to that how much freedom is worth. In the event that you never had an opportunity to see the outside world, you just can envision what it resembles.

    Read More

  • Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Stranger Than Fiction

    1140 Words  | 5 Pages

    Allegory of the Cave, a short story by renowned philosopher Plato, describes the life of prisoners chained inside of a cave where all the knowledge they receive is given by unknown strangers behind them. It continues to elaborate on their transition from a lackluster world where they were truly in the dark to one that completely surpasses all expectations. Likewise, Stranger Than Fiction, a movie written by Zach Helm, illustrates an IRS auditor, Harold Crick, that is shackled by his mundane lifestyle and also has an embodied voice that seems to be controlling his life. The movie goes on to describe his arduous journey toward finding the woman behind the voice, which ultimately gives him a new perspective on life. Zach Helm’s screenplay Stranger Than Fiction and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both describe the experience of a person escaping limited perspective darkness and discovering a more complex world than they had previously thought existed.

    Read More

  • Comparing Plato's Republic And Frederick Douglass

    936 Words  | 4 Pages

    The allegory of the cave contains a very poignant message about learning and new experiences but it’s not real. It’s written as Socrates telling a story in order to illustrate his point. The first man is forcibly removed from the cave and shown the light, creating a painful experience. Douglass’ story is autobiographical and it shows a true need for knowledge in order to be free from the bondage of slavery.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Just Walk On By A Black Man Ponders His Power To Alter Public Space

    840 Words  | 4 Pages

    In his essay, “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”, Brent Staples uses the rhetorical strategies of anecdote and diction in order to convey his message that due to racial discrimination black people (mainly men) have to change the way they naturally conduct themselves in public for they run the risk of something terrible happening to them. Staples uses anecdotes to bring in the personal side of the message to the audience. Staples creates a persona of innocence and almost alienation in his writing. Anecdotes such as his both instances in which he accidently scared women on walks and the time in which he and another reporter were mistaken for murder suspects or robbers are used to show real life proof of his message.

    Read More

  • Black Men And Public Space By Brent Staples Summary

    841 Words  | 4 Pages

    In his essay “Black Men and Public Spaces,” Brent Staples explains that people often find him intimidating because he is tall and black. Staples shares his account of a number of personal encounters, arguing that in each situation, he was misinterpreted as being dangerous because of his daunting physical appearance. Staples asserts that as a result of this misinterpretation, he was continually mistreated. Staples begins his article by describing the events leading up to his life-changing realization that he has inherited “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways (183).” When he was twenty-two years old, Staples found himself one evening, walking behind a well-dressed white woman on a deserted street in a rather wealthy neighborhood.

    Read More

  • Brent Staples Black Men And Public Space

    568 Words  | 3 Pages

    After describing how a woman, assuming the worst in a black man walking at night, once ran away from him in an otherwise deserted street, he explains how “Her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” (Staples 385). Staples, having no intentions of wrongdoing in the least by taking a nigh time stroll, was rightly hurt by the woman 's actions. Writing how nefarious he felt in unintentionally making the woman run for her life leads the audience to commiserate with him. Using pathos, Staples allows his audience to see how the stereotype of the danger in black men made him feel like a vicious person. The audience does not want people to feel ostracized, hopefully, making them less likely to prejudge others.

    Read More

  • Racism In Brent Staples's Black Men And Public Space

    1103 Words  | 5 Pages

    Racism is a topic that has been relevant for many years though our time. Brent Staples wrote "Black Men and Public Space," published in Ms. Magazine in 1986, where he discusses how he became "familiar with the language of fear" (614). Throughout his essay, Staples uses logos, ethos, and pathos to give a reader an insight into the life of a black man in society, which effectively reaches his intended audience, but not his current day audience. Brent Staples starts talking about his "first victim" (613) picking up her pace until she was no longer able to be seen.

    Read More

  • Analyzing Plato's 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

    773 Words  | 4 Pages

    Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.

    Read More

  • Human Nature In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    1159 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Plato's Argument

    1829 Words  | 8 Pages

    Knowledge is Sufficient to Qualify Philosopher as a Ruler Plato insists on his proposition claiming that knowledge alone is sufficient to qualify philosophers to be the ruler “...provided that they are not inferior to the non-philosophers in virtue...they are superior pretty well for the most important one” (484d) and makes plausible arguments to support it by explaining the importance of knowledge of the form of good for the ruler in a perfect state and the most important virtue that only philosophers possess. The Argument can be formulated as: 1) philosophers have knowledge, and 2) philosophers are not inferior to the non-philosophers in virtue, and 3) Philosophers are superior pretty well for the most important virtue of understanding/knowing

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Plato's Misconceptions

Open Document