Literary Analysis Of Plato's The Myth Of The Cave

The Allegory of the Cave, also know as The Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave or Parable of the Cave is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic “ as a theory concerning the perceptions of human kind and compares the effects of education to the lack of education on our observations. The passage is written as dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates.

a. Background information: The Metaphor of the Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is to show the difference in which we perceive and believe in what is real. This essay would be about Plato Allegory and what is happening nowadays with fake news.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is also termed as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It was used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". It comprises of a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon. Socrates gives a description of a group of people who spent their lifetime facing a blank wall chained to the wall of a cave. These people saw and tried to assign forms of the shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them. These shadows as put by Socrates, are what the prisoners can view close to reality (Law 2003). He further compares a philosopher to the prisoner who is freed from the cave and comprehends that he can envision the true form of reality instead of the shadows which the prisoners saw in the cave and these shadows do not depict reality at all.

The stages of Plato’s “cave journey” begin with people stuck in a dark cave. They are chained from birth, unable to move their bodies and can only see straight ahead. A fire behind them creates the shadows of objects being flashed on a wall in front of them. They have never seen the real objects, so they believe the shadows of the objects to be real. The people stuck in the cave begin a guessing game; trying to guess which objects will appear next, and whoever guess correctly would be praised by the others. At the mouth of the cave there is a glimmer of light, and the possibility of life outside the cave.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is just one small part of his work The Republic. In this piece, in particular his use of allegory and dialogue become the two main rhetorical devices he uses to

The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic opinion that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. In "Allegory of the Cave" there there are two elements to the story; the fictional metaphor of the prisoners, and the philosophical opinion in that the allegory is supposed to represent, hence presenting us with the allegory itself.

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.

In "The Allegory of the Cave", Plato skillfully uses rhetorical appeals such as symbolism and logos to convince the reader that humans view reality as the visible world when reality is

Analogies show up frequently throughout “Allegory of the Cave”. One example includes the analogy of the shadow. The shadows are forms of figures that the prisoners think are real; they are actually representing the misinterpretations of the materialistic world. “The truth would literally be nothing but the shadows of the images (Plato 293).” The sun is also an important analogy. “the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows (Plato 293).” The sun represents being able to see the realities of the world. Plato also uses direct address throughout the story more than once. He speaks to another character about his thoughts for the duration of this piece. “But is not this unjust? He said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better (Plato 298)?” This is one of many occurrences of a rhetorical question during “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato also exaggerates and drags on about the subject to help covey his point. Many of the paragraphs in “Allegory of the cave” are based on one of Plato’s opinions. Making the point drag on after the point has already been made, this is known as an over statement. Plato uses numerous rhetorical devices to strengthen his essay and persuade the audience of his points. He gives more depth to the story by using analogies. Analogies help make his essay more interesting instead of just

In Book VII of Plato’s The Republic, the allegory of the cave paints a picture of ordinary people imprisoned in a cave. They are facing away

Plato uses this section of the dialogue to emphasize that he is now out of his realm of understanding and is in the Intelligible World where true reality, according to Plato, exists. Because the man can analyze and reason to move up to the Intelligible World, Plato shows this as a shift to the Realm of Mathematics. At the time, great value and importance was placed on the concepts of mathematics such as analytical and reasoning faculties of the mind and thus would have influences Plato to place it on a higher level. Due to his level of understanding and the major shift from one World to the other, he is overwhelmed and takes time to slowly learn the new concepts. However, once the man is adapted enough, he can look directly at the beings and the objects that cause the shadows on the wall. In the theory of the Divided Line, Plato exemplifies that the man is looking at what are the known as the Forms. The Forms are the perfect objects that exist in the higher realm of understanding and are shadowed on the wall of the cave. Thus, he is stating that what the people in the cave see are simply imperfect and skewed representations of the true and perfect forms from which they originate.

This paper discussed The Allegory of The Cave in Plato's Republic, and tries to unfold the messages Plato wishes to convey with regard to his conception of reality, knowledge and education.

In the parable "The Allegory of the Cave," Plato suggests that the reality we think we know isn't reality at all. Plato uses an allegory to suggest we are like the prisoners in the cave, unenlightened. Our reality is based on our perception of shadowy objects. He says, "here is a parable to illustrate the degrees in which our nature may be enlightened or unenlightened." Plato believes only when we break our chains can we be truly enlightened. In this story, Plato asks us to picture a cave with prisoners that have been chained to look only at a wall since childhood.

As Socrates is describing the cave and the situation, he stresses the point that the prisoners are completely oblivious as to what is reality as they would know nothing but the shadows casted by items held by the puppeteers, and believe this to be their own reality. This is important to the story as it shows that what we believe is real from the moment we are born is completely wrong based on our own flawed interpretations of reality. The point so far is that it is not what we can see but what we can’t see is what grasps our minds and Plato describes this thinking as “imagination.”

“See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling” (193). Although Plato’s famous allegory of the cave doesn’t appear until Book VII of The Republic, its significance cannot be understated. The meaning behind the Greek philosopher’s imagery manifests itself throughout the rest of the work, specifically Book I. After outlining the description of the cave and demonstrating how the rest of The Republic dramatizes it, I argue that Plato (or Plato’s Socrates) is revealing a relationship that posits philosophy, which can only come about through mutual respect, as critical for the city’s well-being, but ultimately not enough just by itself.