Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

David Reeves
English 115.03
Paper 1
2014-10-30
Literature In its most basic definition, literature is anything that has been written down but in practice it is much more than that. Literature is written to convey information and portray an idea. Literature always contains an intention and seeks to influence the reader in some way. It is designed to always allow the reader to relate to it, even if every reader understands it differently. A reader should question his views and knowledge after reading a piece of literature. Literature by its very nature conveys information to its reader. That information can come in many forms or genres including novels, poems, essays, allegories, and short stories. At a basic level, literature allows the transfer of information from its writer to the recipient. This allows the reader to benefit from the information such as learn from past mistakes made by others or learn to do something a better way. The introduction to the first unit (26) describes how humans admire the past and strive to seek it's effect on the present. In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Plato demonstrates how new knowledge and experiences can change a

The information and lessons we learn from literature are crucial to helping us progress. Imagine if we were only able to learn from our own experiences and couldn't be told the events of the past or given suggestions on what to do. As argued in the intro to the first unit, the art of storytelling has long been an integral part of society. It allows us to learn and not reinvent the wheel on a regular basis. With literature, we are able to understand things we couldn't understand otherwise. The intro claims literature “helps explain relationships, hopes, fears, and dreams.” Literature helps us understand ourselves and others better. Because literature frequently contains morals or messages, we learn our own morals from the literature we