ipl-logo

Stereotypes In Plato's Allegory In The Cave

933 Words4 Pages

a) In today’s context, stereotypes are easily perpetuated via many platforms. One of such a platform is media, a prevalent presence in our lives. As exposure to media is inevitable, stereotypes are constantly being perpetuated to people of all ages. For example, in the film Mean Girls, the popular girls are portrayed as fake, mean and obsessed with their outer appearance. Throughout the film, many other stereotypes are incorporated as well, one of which includes nationality stereotypes. As the protagonist is a new student from Africa, the teacher mistakenly welcomes a black student. Later on, one of the characters asks the protagonist, “If you’re from Africa, why are you white?” The two situations perpetuate the stereotype that Africans are …show more content…

In The Cave, there are a few key elements and symbolisms. The shadows represent the false illusions and reality that the prisoners, people cloaked in this false reality, believe to be the truth. The fire represents the thing that perpetuates the false reality, the puppets represent the true reality and ascending to sunlight represents the prisoners slowly gaining part of the truth.
The relation of the topic of stereotypes being perpetuated by media to The Cave is as follows. The fire in The Cave is represented by the media, which perpetuates the stereotypes. The prisoners are represented by those who believe in the stereotypes, the shadows cast on the wall represent the stereotypes perpetuated by the media and the puppets represent the truth, which is the reality and invalidity of the stereotypes and ascending to sunlight represents those who once believed in those stereotypes slowly being liberated, and realising the reality of the …show more content…

This also applies to the Cave I have chosen as it is impossible for one to transfer the knowledge of the reality of the stereotypes to another, but rather one needs to have experience with many different types of people to understand the invalidity and reality of the stereotypes. However, in The Giver, the knowledge is simply transferred from The Giver to The Receiver, although there is still experience involved in the

Show More
Related
744 Words | 3 Pages

In the Allegory of the Cave, there is a group of prisoners chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. One prisoner is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all. Although the prisoners were experiencing something different than what was happening outside the cave, they were still in the same reality as the people outside the cave. In the Man Who Lived Underground, Fred Daniels, a young black man unjustly accused of murdering a woman, is forced into signing a confession.

Read More
98 Words | 1 Pages

In addition he delivered the Second Inaugural Address. President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was carried out on March 4, 1865 during his second appearing as President of the United States. A point that was stated in his address was slavery. He reminded everyone how slavery was the main point of the Civil War and he felt and proposed it insulted GOD. Another point was about the war.

Read More
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
1170 Words | 5 Pages

The cave as a whole represents the visible realm. In the dialogue, the prisoners are chained so that they can only see what is in front of them and being depicted on the wall. “They’ve been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, with their necks and legs fettered, able to see only in front of them,” (514b). A prisoner is freed and dragged outside the cave,

Read More
1564 Words | 7 Pages

Stereotypes rampant in today’s society. They are implanted in one’s mind from a young age and learnt from school, media, friends or family. Moreover, the unique qualities of a person which can be beneficial for society can be hidden due to stereotypes. As a result, society can undermine a person by judging that judging that person based on the general idea it has about that person’s age, race, personality and/or financial status. Consequently, stereotypes have been a common topic that many authors have used in their books, with one such book being John Ball’s

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

Hidden Stereotypes There is one hard and very evident fact that exists in the world we inhabit; that fact is that stereotypes are as common as rain. A stereotype, as defined by bing.com, is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. They happen so often that we aren’t even aware that they occur. These atrocities appear in books, films, the news, and other worldwide forms of media.

Read More
968 Words | 4 Pages

The people who are chained up get set free by the keeper, who is a symbol of the sun, or the “Rooster” who wakes people up from their illusions. The people are blinded by the sun and they want to go back to their illusion of life. This is when the people are in the Belly of the Whale or when they are symbolically dead. Once the people realize there is no way of going back to the way it was, they are “reborn” from their illusions and live their lives to the fullest and not take for granted what they have. Plato’s Allegory of the cave is

Read More
1005 Words | 5 Pages

Stereotypes are simple images or beliefs over the attributes assigned to a particular social group, are models of behavior that become schemes deeply rooted in our mentalities to the point that we adopt them as part of human naturalness. Stereotypes can be racial, religious, sexual and social. These could be the caused of a known incident or attitude years earlier, or simply the result of frequent rumors. Stereotypes can affect different spheres of society. These assumptions can filter into many aspects of life.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

The fire and these statues cast shadows across the wall which the "prisoners" are able to see. As the prisoners watch these shadows and because they are the only things they see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. The Shadows are mistaken for reality because of the ignorance that comes

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

All Asians are good at math, all blondes are dumb, all Muslims are terrorists - these are all common stereotypes. Without even realizing it, stereotypes have undeniably played an enormous role in individual lives. Minds seem to already set a certain image in them based on the people they encounter. People judge others by their skin tone, ethnicity, and physical appearance unconsciously, and this have been proven by many social experiments. Of course, though these stereotypes might be accurate at times, there are situations where they are completely defied.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

Two truths can be contradictory, but that does not make them any less true. The truth is just the way people perceive, or want to perceive truth. Plato, a Greek philosopher from the Classical Greek era, wrote Allegory of the Cave. Allegory of the Cave is a great depiction of perception of the truth, and how the truth can be different for different people. What some people might find to be true can be false to others; however, both truths are as true as people make them.

Read More
606 Words | 3 Pages

#2 Plato’s Allegory In Modern Day Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about the human perspective and enlightenment. In todays society Plato’s allegory is still relevant and is deeply rooted in education. College students are a perfect analogy for the “Allegory of the Cave”. We are told from the very beginning that we need to have an education to be successful in life.

Read More
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
921 Words | 4 Pages

Entertainment is a big part in defining all stereotypes. Many people today believe that how the characters act in tv shows and movies are exactly how people act in real life. This is how the mental pictures of the stereotyped groups get over exaggerated. Stereotypes affect individuals who perhaps like different things or do different activities, but feel ashamed of doing so because of the stereotype put on them due to society. Stereotypes happen because people assume there must be something important that led to a groups common classification in the first place, something that makes the group essentially similar.

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

Read More

More about Stereotypes In Plato's Allegory In The Cave

Related Topics

Open Document