Malcom X And The Allegory Of The Cave

Conversely, Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" describes the ascent from ignorance to knowledge, as one prisoner is freed to make his

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

In their work, Plato and Paulo Freire have offered harsh critiques of education and learning. Plato compares people to prisoners in a cave of darkness in relation to knowledge, and Freire refers to a “Banking Concept” of education in which teachers put their thoughts and information into students’ minds much like money is deposited into a bank. Instead of this money being of value, Freire and Plato acknowledge that the value declines. Although many people refute the concept of accepting new knowledge and admission of mistakes, I claim that both Plato and Freire produce valid points about the corruption of education because people cannot learn unless they have an open mind and truly desire to learn. Ultimately, what is at stake here is the effectiveness of learning and continuing the cycle of education.

By nature, humans thrive on comfortability. Plato compares life to being chained prisoners in a dark cave with only the sight of shadows dancing along an illuminated wall, in Allegory of the Cave. The prisoners in the story have been in this cave since early on in their childhoods. So by this point, their eyes have only adjusted to the dark and they have accepted that this is what reality is. One day, a prisoner was freed and given the opportunity to escape to the outside world. He looked before him into the sun and was enlightened that he had only been seeing shadows of the world opposite him. At first he dealt with the difficult task of adjusting to the light by first viewing the shadows as they were, then reflections in the water, and finally by looking directly into the sun.

One without knowledge can only conform to a leader or the majority’s will. A man from a cave, who has experienced the taste of enlightenment, would never return to his former dwelling with the same ideals he left behind. Plato meticulously introduced this idea in his allegory comparing the enlightenment o knowledge to a man, who found light after only recognizing darkness since birth. Despite the pain light can induce to eyes adjusted to the pitch black cave, the man was happier in the light than in the dark. Knowledge can aid in overcoming pain to find ecstasy. Knowledge would then develop into wisdom that can educate future generations of one’s own thoughts and culture. Knowledge and wisdom are inevitable assets to

The narrative of the world claims that the purpose of life is in reaching enlightenment. Whether it be religious or spiritual, many approach this long and often difficult process in hopes of discovering the ultimate truth of life. Unfortunately, not everyone is successful in achieving this salvation. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury depicts the journey of Guy Montag, a fireman, from illusion toward enlightenment. Similarly, the essay “Allegory of the Cave,” from Plato’s longer work The Republic, illustrates a prisoner’s climb toward enlightenment, beginning with an escape from illusion.

Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” examines the quest, responsibility, and cost of intellectual enlightenment. The story is of a man, being held prisoner since birth, being freed and learning that his perception of reality was inaccurate. He shared his discovery, which was met with contention and anger from the people in his society when he tried to relieve them of their ignorance. The group were all born prisoners in a cave where they could not see behind them, and only could hear the echoes, and see the shadows cast of people and items moving behind them. One day, the man was released and was forced to embark out of the dwelling to see that it was actual people and inanimate objects being reflected in front of them. After having difficulty

Plato characterizes the people who leave the cave as “enlightened”, and the “enlightened” one that makes a mission to enlighten others is symbolic for a philosopher. King is the philosopher in relation to “The Allegory of the Cave” because he seeks to “ create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise form the bondage of myths and half truths” (King 81) the same way the enlightened one tries to “free another and lead him up to the light”(Plato). King plans to remove the figurative shackles of the men in the cave, being the Negro citizens, and lead them to the light, which is rebuking racism. King yearns to help men “rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racisms to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood”(King 81). The clergymen are the men in front of the fire who present the reality for the shackled men, figuratively the shadows but literally the court. The clergymen want to use the court as a mechanism for the men inside to follow; the court is symbolic for the shadows. King hopes to break off the shackles form the men inside of the cave by letting them know that the court is a false reality, and all

Upon first exiting the cave we are blinded by the brightest of light, though we cannot recognize its origin, we know that it charts our course. Slowly we begin to notice at first little variations of light, mostly little color changes, as if we could not have possibly have taken it in all at once. This is the first realization of education; past truths are either put into perspective or proven false. Either way our mind is finally opening up to the ideas and images that have evaded us for so long. The ability to reason is building within us and we start to question all things past we knew to be true. The eyes start to see even more now and the pain has subsided. We are ravenous and cannot seem to get enough of our surroundings. The strangest thing starts to happen, it seems that the more knowledge we acquire the more questions that present themselves. The same could be said for education in two different ways. First, the more knowledge that we acquire, the more ability we seem to have for the future acquisition of knowledge. Its as if we are not limited by the container we use to store this information, on the contrary, we now have discovered that its depths are limitless. Secondly, the more knowledge we acquire, the more confidence we seem to find in regards to taking on bigger challenges and tasks.

The Allegory of the Cave speaks its ancient challenge today by stressing the importance of education systems which free students from impediments to learning. Envisaging those “strange prisoners” - students who have been chained “in an underground cave [since] childhood [and must] grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world” (Plato) – compels recognition that such improvements only function once ingrained into student habits of study. One way of understanding the impact of removing such shackles comes to us from an examination of literacy. Literacy acts as a symbolic gateway to greater learning. It illustrates the power handed an individual to stride boldly beyond past limitations. Malcolm X, a famously eloquent civil rights leader, ruminates

“Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is story that contrasts the differences between what is real and what is perceived. He opens with Glaucon talking to Socrates. He has Glaucon imagine what it would be like to be chained down in a cave, not able to see anything other than what is in front of him. He tells a story of men that were trapped in a cave and were prisoners to the truth. These prisoners have only seen shadows. But because of their ignorance, these slaves to the cave believe that the shadows are real. The story goes on to say that one of the men has been dragged out of the cave. He is not happy to see the real world, yet upset because he is being taken

Plato once said that, “Ignorance [is] the root and stem of all evil”. Ignorance is the cause of everything that is wrong and bad in the world since people are unable to see the truth. If people start breaking free from ignorance, mankind will become happier and more transparent. In the short story, “Allegory of The Cave” by Plato and The Matrix by the Wachowskis, they portray the idea that in order to gain enlightenment, one must break free from ignorance; which opens himself to knowledge; this new truth must then be shared with others for the good of mankind.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato describes education in his "Allegory of the Cave" as a process of spiritual enlightenment. According to Plato:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, has never spoken truer words. The unexamined life is a recurring theme in both Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave and Richard Wright’s The Library Card. There are many ways to achieve enlightenment, for example, going out and obtaining information, through individualism, learning from mistakes, becoming an intellectual reader, or contemplation.

Education can be described as the acquisition or development of knowledge. In the time of ancient Greeks, people had begun to take it upon themselves to become more educated. For Plato, a Greek Philosopher, education is like a transition from a place of darkness or ignorance into the metaphorical light of knowledge. In this essay, Plato’s Allegory of the cave will be defined and explained in order to show a clear understanding of this story. In addition to this, the different components of this myth will also be discussed in practical terms in order to connect the story to real life as well as show its relevance to education in South Africa.