Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave illustrates the conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, as Socrates tells Glaucon the story about the men being held captive in a cave since birth. He begins by describing how they are positioned and chained up towards a wall with a fire burning behind them in order to see the puppet figures shaped as animal figures and shape of humans move throughout the cave behind them. Which these figures are represented to be their reality. Then suddenly, one of the prisoners are freed and dragged outside the cave and forced to come in contact with the real world. Socrates explains that he is shocked and overwhelmed with the new surroundings, and starts to piece things together. Since he was in the dark for so long he’s blinded by the source of light …show more content…

If he were to return to the cave for good he would most likely feel out of place and more well-informed of the shadow figures. Plato creates this metaphor to illustrate the concept of knowledge and age. This can be a comparison to our lives today. Being required to believe what one sees. People today have basically been blinded by the light, so they look towards the shadows for answers of the world. The prisoners would represent people all over the world and they’re being restrained from the truth of their actual reality, and tricked into what others want them to believe. There truth would be the shadows of images. They are only able to see what is being depicted in front of them through shadows and for all they know that is the way of life. The cave would be a representation of the world within itself, meaning all the beliefs, theories, speculations and lies and politics being thrown around. It shows that people are being trapped inside a bubble of lies and misleading knowledge. The light outside the cave would be depicting knowledge; at first it is too much but then he starts to adjust and becomes familiar with