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Essays on symbolism in literature
Use of Symbolism
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on symbolism in literature
Use of Symbolism
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato breaks the story into four main scenes to demonstrate the path to enlightenment for the unenlightened reader. He uses a story of a man trapped in a cave,
The story begin with men bound in a cave, facing the wall. Between the men and
James Baldwin experienced two decades of successful writings in the mid-twentieth century, a time when racial tensions were high in the United States. Born in Harlem, Baldwin lived and adapted to the world of social and racial unrest; though most of us cannot understand these times, Baldwin shared through his writings the hardships many families endured. Baldwin reflects on this difficult time by writing a story titled “Sonny’s Blues”. This story is about two black brothers who are tormented with daily life and struggle to overcome the hopeless confines of the city.
In the story “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin, one of the main characters was a drug abuser. Sonny lived a miserable and lonely life. After he got hooked on drugs, his brother, the narrator stopped associating with him. On page 175, he said that it has been over a year since he had seen Sonny. Also on page 177, the narrator said “I did not write Sonny, or send him anything for a long time.”
To introduce his concept of learning, he provides two hypothetical examples about visitors to the attraction. When illustrating the discovery anecdote, he describes that the Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas “crosses miles of desert” (46), and “breaks through the mesquite” (46), creating an impression that Mr. Lopez de Cardenas’s accomplishment was impossible without struggle and perseverance. In contrast, the Boston tourist “visits his travel bureau, looks at the folder, and signs up for a two-week tour.” (46) Both men visited the canyon: the Spaniard was “amazed at the sight” (46) by his accidental discovery, while the Bostonian “take the tour” (46) and “see” (46) the canyon; the explorer stumbled upon the great attraction, whereas the tourist “decides to spend his vacation” (46) there. Percy differentiated his wordings when presenting the two men’s experiences, thoughtfully hinting that the visit outcome of the explorer is superior, as he suggests that the Boston traveler’s comfortable visit lead him to “not see the canyon.”
The audience that believed what Miner said became the prisoners that are in the cave. They accepted the story as true without thinking of what the story is trying to reveal. While as the audience that caught Nacirema is American backwards, they were the prisoner who was set free of the cave. Those people were able to realize that the article is just the generic routines that modern American citizens go through, viewed from an outsider point of
The person who releases the prisoners has been enlightened from the bonds of a false reality. The prisoners become completely free when they are realesed from their chains, and accept what things truly are, rather than what they had perceived them to be. The journey out of the cave represents a prisoners’ unwilllingness to change and a resistance to accept new truths. The prisoners have to force themselves out of the cave into this reality.
For Plato, education is a “turning around” of the soul (Plato, 248). The Truman Show is a modern movie with a similar plot directed and written by Peter Weir. In these stories, humans are visible in an alternate reality that is displayed to them unwillingly. There are countless philosophical concepts and arguments that take place in The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave differs with visual images, plot elements, storyline, and dialogue and
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a short story that has many significant parts to it. The narrator gives readers insight on how his relationship with his brother was like, how his brother was suffering from a heroin addiction. The narrator also gives the readers insight on his own problems. Due to Sonny’s heroin addiction, he suffered quite a lot as what was implied in the story. The narrator implies and describes so many themes in this short story.
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.
Searching for the truth is very challenging, as the world today entrenched in lies. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” briefly tells a story about cavemen being chained on most parts of their body, restring all movement including their head, since childhood. Then, he discussed the consequences inflicted onto the cavemen, specifically their perspective towards the truth after being chained for a long period of time in the dark cave, which resembles many events occurring in a person’s daily life. Based on the discussed effects, the author argues that human beings should always seek the real meaning of truth.
They are tied in such a way that they are unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. The prisoners are chained since their childhood and have not seen the outside world ever. Behind them burns a fire. In between the fire and the prisoners there is a small path which is used by the people.
In “The Allegory of the Cave”, Plato’s idea of the human who escaped the cave, but came back to tell about his learnings but the other people in the cave did not want to listen to him since they believed that the cave was the real truth and did not want to be educated about the outside
In fiction, the narrator controls how the audience connects to and perceives the various characters in a story. A good author can manipulate the narration to connect the audience to certain characters and deepen the reader’s understanding of their conflicts. In “Previous Condition” and “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin illustrates themes of loneliness and isolation in the pursuit of finding a space that feels like home. Although this theme is clear in both stories, Baldwin is able to portray it very differently in each story through the relationship he allows the reader to the characters struggling with these feelings. While “Previous Condition” provides a more intimate relationship to the narrator, “Sonny’s Blues” is able to deliver an additional level of understanding by telling the story through Sonny’s brother, therefore disconnecting the reader in a way that forces him or her to share the characters’ feelings of isolation and confusion.
Plato’s short story the Allegory of the Cave, Plato portrays a scene in a cave to the reader that analyzes human actions. The story is about a group of men that are chained for their entire life. The only thing they are exposed to are shadows on the wall of a fire burning by people behind them. The people exposing these men are hiding the truth of the outside world. Plato reveals that humans are easily fooled into believing what they see.