Allegory Of The Cave Essay

In the “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, He is determining what makes the best leaders in his ideal city-state. In order to explain this he uses an allegory. He depicts a cave in which there are prisoners chained down being fed information solely from unknown masters. These masters are giving the prisoners their information via a puppet show. Because the prisoners have been restrained in the cave their entire life they believe this is what reality is, because they have never seen another. To Plato, the cave dwellers represent the ignorant. The ones who take the world at face value. Eventually one escapes, and in doing so, he’s blinded by the sun's powerful rays. Plato uses the sun as a metaphor for “true knowledge” or “enlightened” describing

In the end plato exclaims that the enlightened ones, the ones who escaped the cave, are the ones fit to rule over others. In the text he says “for only in the state which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom”(7). Plato’s cave allegory speaks honestly about what he wants from his ideal city-state, but his story also showcases a personal journey from a lack of knowledge to a better understanding of oneself and their place in the universe. This allegory can be applied to my life. Until about a year ago I lived mostly in my head and never took time to understand things past the face value. I kind of kept my head down and ensured I was below the broom bristles called insight. I didn’t ever ask questions about why things were happening the way they were. I remember when I got my heart broken by my first love in high school. It was one of the worst pains I had felt and in the pain I recall asking why? Physically anguished, grasping my chest as if the world was ending, “Why is this happening to me? Why me of all people?”. And I would throw a tantrum and isolate myself from others like I always have in my time of pain. But I never really cared why. What I mean by