Allegory Of The Cave

The Eyes Are the Windows of Our Imagination

In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato introduces the audience to one of the most exquisite philosophers of the 14th century, Socrates. Plato depicts a lesson between Socrates and his student, Gaucon. During the lesson, Socrates generates a hypothetical situation where, since birth, people have been confined to an underground cave with their limbs and head bound to chains, eliminating any movement. Socrates illustrates that the only source of light is a fire behind the prisoners. This fire allows shadows of individuals carrying items to and fro to appear on the singular wall the restrained prisoners see. Plato writes this dialogue between Socrates and Gaucon to exercise his hypothesis that our reality

He uses these abstract ideas to facilitate the reader to completely deduce the hint that it is human nature to believe and defend our reality, and that reality is only what is exhibited to us. He provides symbolism in his tale like on page one when he suggests, “Imagine that there are people living in a cave deep underground. The cavern has a mouth that opens to the light above, and a passage exists from this all the way down to the people. They have lived here from infancy…” The cave Socrates describes is the oblivious contemporary world that we are born into which delays us from complex thinking. Plato also uses a question-answer style to challenge the readers to answer along with Gaucon while reading. For example, “Now, if he was forced to look directly at the firelight, wouldn’t his eyes be pained?”(4) First, Plato uses the fire to symbolize a portion of truthfulness the prisoner is exposed to and later, the sun, representing complete clarity. He then presents this analogy in a question to propose that being exposed to the truth may be difficult to

His parable allowed me to clearly picture the events so I could easily interpret the correlation between the hypothetical and his theory. What allowed me to comprehend Plato’s theory was when Socrates stated on page seven,

Wouldn’t he become a laughing-stock? Wouldn’t they say, “You have returned from your adventure up there with ruined eyes!” Would they not say that the ascent was a waste of time? And if they had the opportunity, do you supposed that they might raise their hands against him and kill this person who is trying to liberate them to a higher plane?

I think the quote distinctively describes how people in society will react to ideas that contradict their reality. Plato explains that it is human nature to defend what you believe and the allegory of the prisoners denying the lucky individual understanding is apprehensible. I think many people can relate to how the majority of prisoners reacted to his enlightenment because people like our families, friends, and the general public have doubted our truth similarly to the character in the allegory. However, I do question Plato’s theory in correlation with religions emerging. I believe that Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is an eminent way of expressing his theory that human nature will ultimately overtake nurture until the exposure to different