allegory of the cave

allegory of the cave

In the essay, “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, a world is discussed where people are trapped inside a cave, bound by chains so that they can see in only one direction, and a fire behind the prisoners with shadows being cast on the wall. The reason that this is called an allegory is because it discusses the abstract ideas of ignorance and enlightenment in a story designed to show how this affects us in everyday life by use of an extended metaphor. At this point, the shadows were all that the prisoners knew. Their entire lives were spent in the darkness, so how can one know what he does not know exists? These people, trapped in the darkness, unable to explore the world around them are unable to unbind themselves. That is until one of the prisoners does break free. Once able to move around, he discovers a light at the end of the cave and heads toward it. At first the light hurts his eyes, and he is reluctant to venture in to the new surroundings. The light hurts him because he is being exposed to the unknown, and is reluctant to approach it. But soon, the pain of the light subsides and the former prisoner is exposed to a new world, the real world. This real world full of color and light takes time for the prisoner to become used to, but he soon discovers himself as he truly is, out of the shadows of the cave. The prisoner needs time to adjust because he needs time to change his mindset from what he knew in the cave, to now being enlightened to what truly exists outside the cave. In the end, the prisoner tries to go back into the cave to tell the people what truly exists in the real outside world, but they will not budge from their molded positions, too unwilling to move from the safety and comfort of the dark. Seeing this, the enlightened prisoner reverts to his old, ignorant self, and chains himself back up.
To understand why these events occur, one must know what the darkness and light truly represent. The darkness represents everything that the prisoners...