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Plato's Cave

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1. The prisoners represent those people who cannot get rid of the superficial and illusory thoughts and understand the real things in the world. Unfortunately, Plato indicates that most of the ordinary people in a society are the “prisoners” and cannot find the real truth. 2. The cave indicates a ubiquitous society, which is an ignorant and backward society in Plato’s mind. It’s a society which people are limited to many rigid controls and can only see the “shadows” of the real facts so that they can only understand the lesser level of the world. 3. The prisoners in the cave won’t believe that there can be the “real facts” other than what they see and think in the cave. They are challenged and won’t accept the fact that they are in
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72 Words | 1 Pages

Society is often content with adhering to orders and often don't question the true essence of what they’re being told. Plato ventured towards this issue within his famous “The Allegory of the Cave” by using rhetorical devices such as metaphors to illustrate his message. Plato explores the philosophy of society in a particular structure that forces the reader to ponder on the mindset of a blind individual who finally sees the light.

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708 Words | 3 Pages

In reality, many people live without an absolute knowledge of the world and often times, they are comfortable with this ignorance. Likewise, Plato introduces the idea of this unawareness through The Allegory of the Cave, a short story in his published book, The Republic: Book VII. In his book, he narrates the story of a few prisoners who are held captive in a dark cave, where the only light that shines through is from a fire that burns behind them. He further explains that the prisoners are completely bound and unable to move their body or head. Moreover, he reveals that the captives grew up with no outside communication and consequently, the way of life in the cave was all they knew.

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447 Words | 2 Pages

However, as the story progresses, Montag begins to question the validity of these norms and embarks on a journey of enlightenment, defying his society's expectations. Similarly, in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners are trapped in a state of ignorance, knowing only the shadows cast on the cave walls. For another example, “He will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion” (Plato 1). It is only when one prisoner breaks free and ventures outside the cave that he discovers the true nature of reality, symbolizing the pursuit of knowledge and

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

“Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?” This quote describes when the colonies wanted to kill the American Indians that settled in part of America so they could expand east from west and colonize. Tecumseh says this because the great spirit didn’t make the country of united states for the Indian Americans, both elderly and infants to be killed and taken away from their homes.

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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.

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331 Words | 2 Pages

Plato compares a number of things in this essay- the material world to the world of ideas, the life of the mind to work of governing, silver and gold to virtue and wisdom. How does he use his comparisons to make his arguments? 2.)Plato creates the Allegory of the Cave to be a conversation between his mentor Socrates and one of his student Glaucon. Plato sets the story to demonstrate that the “blinded” prisoner or in a more cultural sense the men of iron. The Greeks created 4 classes of civilization the gold,silver,bronze and the iron.

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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,

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940 Words | 4 Pages

The oppressive and mindless society of submissive followers depicted in Fahrenheit 451 illustrates imprisonment in the cave. Within their distorted community, the human beings willingly allow themselves to be left ignorant in the dark, unknowing of the true beauties and horrors of the world. Plato had described humanity as if “they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave. They are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around” (Plato 193). Rendered immobile, they are unable to make their own decisions and have control over their own life.

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1694 Words | 7 Pages

In the beginning portion of “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato introduces the story of the prisoners in a cave to illustrate the foundation of why some do not like change. He begins by explaining there are three prisoners in a cave who are bound and can only see the shadows of objects projected by a fire behind them (Plato 201). The author begins with this portion of the example to set the context for the rest of the allegory. Plato then goes on to describe how one prisoner is released to the outside world to experience the

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1377 Words | 6 Pages

1) In the allegory of the cave, Plato’s main goal is to illustrate his view of knowledge. A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave their whole lives and all they have ever been exposed to were shadows on the wall and voices of people walking by. The prisoners in the cave represent humans who only pay attention to the physical aspects of the world (sight and sound). Once one of them escapes and sees the blinding light, all he wants is to retreat back to the cave and return to his prior way of living. This shows that Plato believes enlightenment and education are painful, but the pain is necessary for enlightenment and it is worth it.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

The cave story symbolizes the world we live in today; moreover, as humans our everyday life is shaped on our human senses or evidence, and our life decisions are based on people we meet, government and power. The cave represents the world of ignorance, the physical world that consist of materials and normal life. The prisoners represent every human on earth; furthermore, from the day we are born into a world of ignorance, we are given so many ideas, words which are not a hundred percent true, but find a way of keeping us hostage and making us view things from just one perspective. The shadows The represents illusion of the reality, our society today has created a system of belief, cultural, and societal values that blind our eyes from the

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919 Words | 4 Pages

To Be of Use In the poem "To Be of Use," Marge Piercy centers the poem on hard work and perseverance. One should embrace the challenges of life as lessons and opportunities to improve. Many people see work as an obligation or rather, a burden but Marge Piercy uses many literary devices to convince one otherwise. In the poem "To Be of Use," Marge Piercy uses strong metaphors and vivid imagery to encourage us to embrace the challenges on the journey to success and not just the result, good or bad.

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728 Words | 3 Pages

Because of this they cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these real people that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes of the people whom they do not

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1658 Words | 7 Pages

Comparing this situation from the story to one’s real life, it can be inferred that in most cases people just see one side of a coin while the reality is perceivable only when one be aware of the two sides. The allegory of the cave also portrays that understanding of the reality is obtainable

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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

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