Allegory The Cave Symbolism

In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” he writes about prisoners that have been locked up in this cave for their whole lives and only know the world through shadows and sounds. Until one day a prisoner is freed from his chains. Once this man is freed from his chains he proceeds to exit the cave and experiences an unknown world he has never seen with his eyes. He realizes that his old life and those guesses about what the shadows and sounds were useless as now he can see the truth beyond the entrance of the cave. Once he has experienced enough of the outside world and it’s beauties he wants to inform his friends of the truth. He tells them that the world they lived in their whole life is a lie and that the truth is beyond the cave and into the unknown.

I had an experience that each represents the symbol towards the Allegory of the Cave. My childhood was mostly in Jamaica where I lived with my father for two to three years. I can relate to the symbols from the "Allegory of the Cave".

An allegory is a kind of story in which writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story. One of the most important allegories ever to be gifted to humankind is Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most potent and pregnant of allegories that describe human condition in both its fallen and risen states. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. It is also known as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII of The Republic.

The Allegory of the Cave means that, people do not see things as they really are. That mankind assumes concepts but they do not have the full picture; One reason is because we only have five senses. For example, in Allegory of the Cave, Socrates explains that the chained men see the shadows and assume that they are being cast from the real item. However the shadows did not come from the real things they were just illusions and models. It also means that as humans, we tend to believe what is in front of us and not dig deeper to make sure we are correct.

Has someone ever looked at you and immediately disregard you for you are just because of your ethnicity? Have you ever done it someone? Racism is a huge culture issue that we have not only in America, but in other parts of the world, but it does not matter the color of one’s. What really matters is the character they have withheld inside but are not given a chance to express because someone didn’t even bother to give them a chance. This is idea comes from the book written by Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave” where in the book Socrates speaks of man being in a dark cave all their lives not realizing the truth until once they reach the end of the cave to see that the light is the truth. The truth is the reality of life.

In his allegory of the cave, Plato describes a scenario in which chained-up prisoners in a cave understand the reality of their world by observing the shadows on a cave wall. Unable to turn around, what seems to be reality are but cast shadows of puppets meant to deceive the prisoners. In the allegory, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to leave the cave. On his way out, he sees the fire, he sees the puppets, and then he sees the sun. Blinded by the sunlight, he could only stare down to view the shadows cast onto the floor. He gradually looks up to see the reflections of objects and people in the water and then the objects and people themselves. Angered and aware of reality, the freed prisoner begins to understand illusion

From personal experiences in high school, I formulated the belief of not truly understanding real life without experiencing death or near death. It might be stated that both life prior to a near death experience and after the event are in fact life, however, there is a distinct line between the two. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” utilizes the idea of appearance versus reality; both may appear true, but only one is real. Plato’s tool for doubting what one thinks they know can be directly correlated to my own belief of not knowing life until it nearly dissappears, by distinguishing between appearance and reality.

The allegory of the cave in the beginning of the book seven is a discussion between Socrates and Plato’s half-brother Glaucon. In the story, Plato speaks of prisoners chained in a cave looking straight ahead at the wall with it facing in only one direction. Behind the prisoners remains a fire creating shadows of what people want to show to them. One could imagine that it is a little spectacle for the prisoners to admire given their isolation. Supposedly, the play of shadows was all that they know of their world. Interpreting this story, readers can infer the population consisted of prisoners and the cave was the society.

Although he wrote many works in his time, Plato 's most famous piece was The Republic. The philosopher created what we know as "the allegory of the cave." Plato once wrote, "How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?" (Plato) In The Truman Show, created in 1998, the man that controls Truman Burbank 's life says, "We accept the reality of the world with which we 're presented. It 's as simple as that." (Nichol) The allegory portrays mankind as prisoners. Said prisoners are chained up and forced to watch the shadows that are shown on the wall in front of them. Truman Burbank 's entire life was created for him. Even though he believes it to be a reality, Truman 's life is actually a show being broadcast all over the the world to millions of people. To many, The Truman Show is a more understandable take on The Allegory of the Cave. If this were in fact true, then it would surely explain the obvious ways that the two can be compared to one another as well as contrasted.

In Plato’s voyage to determine what a philosopher king is, he presents us with the Allegory of the Cave. He explains how leaders should be educated, versus the society as a whole, and he leaves us with a significant message. Aside from The Allegory of the Cave being a primary puzzle piece of Plato’s ideal city, it can also be interpreted in many different ways. The predominant one being that human beings, especially the young, get easily manipulated by persuasive people who are looking to divert one’s attention from real life problems, and who in return fail to think for themselves.

In “Allegory of the Cave” the main protagonist is a prisoner who is held hostage in a dark cave. This prison is chained up from neck and feet, only allowing him to see straight in front of him. Along with the other prisoners who were also in the cave where the only light that could be seen was that of the fire behind them. Given to us that the only visible object they may see are those of the shadows from the objects carried by those outside of the cave. The prisoners were able to imagine the animals and figures that would pass by allowing them to create an infallible image of what was of the outside world. As time passed the prisoners continue to only visually see shadows passing by. When one of the prisoners was led free and was finally

In the wonder of a person arises two causes that leads a person to either see a mere reflection of a Form or learn the value of a Form. In “Book 10” and “Allegory of the Cave” in “Book 7” of The Republic by Plato; Socrates and Glaucon discuss the need of a State’s citizens to recognize that all Forms come from one creator and the rest or imitations and that a citizen must learn to question, believe and then retell inforamtion learned to others.

The grand examples of symbolism are so universal and so meaningful that even to this day, centuries later, the Allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous allegories in history. The shadows that we see today are the realities that we are limited to. It is reality in a way, but not the entire spectrum of reality as a whole, which one could reason to be infinite. The symbolism represented in the cave by the prisoners watching shadows on the wall is still very relevant today, because the shadows we see distort our sense of what is real. It takes an incredible amount of work and determination to overcome these so called shadows (Jacobus).

The allegory of the cave by Plato explores the notion of reality vs The True Reality. Through dialogue based narrative, Plato tells a story of several men chained to the cave since birth. The only things the men can see are the shadows of the objects on the cave wall projected by the fire behind them. The shadow on the wall is the only reality those men see their whole life. One day one of the prisoner is set free, he goes outside, and has hard time adjusting to the light but after suffering through it, he sees the true reality that the men were missing their whole life.

The Wachowski Brother’s film, The Matrix, and “The Allegory of the Cave” from Plato’s Republic are both centered on the concept of how reality is perceived. In both works, there is someone who is trapped in a false reality but then comes to know true reality. In Neo’s case, he was escaping from a computer generated reality, while in Plato’s work, the prisoner was escaping from inside a cave. Both works share the common theme of the acceptance of actual reality in order to know truth.