Plato's Allegory Of The Cave-Incarcerated In Social Media

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).

As Plato puts it, everyone is in a cave where reality and perceptions are distorted. Plato states:

The prisoners have been in these conditions since their earliest stages of life. The cave, the wall, and the chains are all the prisoners have ever known. Behind the prisoners, there was a raised path. Above the walkway was a platform, where there was a fire burning, and in front of the fire, was a parapet, which as Plato described it , was like that of the screens Puppeteers use to hide themselves and have the puppets be visible . Each and every day, the prisoners see nothing, but the shadows of the objects and people passing between them and the fire. For their entire lives, the prisoners are exposed to nothing but those images and the sounds made by those walking around. These shadows are all they have ever known, in essence; these shadows are their only “reality”. As time passed, the prisoners would grow accustomed to these sights, later on the prisoners would match the objects with names and the familiar sounds to the images of the shadows (514; Appendix A). In discussing the allegory with Glaucon, Socrates toys around the concept of what could happen to a prisoner should they be released after having lived their lives in the cave, with the only knowledge the possess of the world, are the images and sounds by the wall.

To begin, both “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are pieces of literature that illustrate a symbolic scenario of human society, and the relationship between individual truths and reality. As they both share the same vital messages concerning society’s reactions to unfamiliar and new knowledge, both passages contain similar themes and characters. Comprising of universes that include people who are heavily influenced by physical and mental barriers, “Allegory of the Cave” and Fahrenheit 451 emphasize the importance of curiosity, insight, and radical perception.

I have use images to explain the cave, as well as the relationship of the realm of true forms. This writing is construct a bridge between the worlds of darkness and of enlightenment. I have entered back into the cave.

They are only able to see the screen , nothing behind them or next to them too far. One of the prisoners are given the opportunity to go outside and their experience is so mind boggling that they go back and tell the other

In Plato's “The Cave” shows us a group of prisoners chained to face a wall. A fire behind them casts shadows on the wall their facing of a variety of different things however they can not see what they truly are. The prisoners only reality is the shadows and the sound they associate with these shadows. They truly have no understanding of what happening other than what they see on the wall and what they hear. This distorted view of the world

    Lastly, some people can see the world differently, but the majority sees it the same. For example, in the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker the author adds, “Her eyes seemed stretched open, blazed open by the flames reflected in them.” What the author means in the quote is that years back a house was burned to the ground and it affected Maggie. Maggie witnessed the incident when she was younger and

One of Plato’s more famous writings, The Allegory of the Cave, Plato outlines the story of a man who breaks free of his constraints and comes to learn of new ideas and levels of thought that exist outside of the human level of thinking. However, after having learned so many new concepts, he returns to his fellow beings and attempts to reveal his findings but is rejected and threatened with death. This dialogue is an apparent reference to his teacher’s theories in philosophy and his ultimate demise for his beliefs but is also a relation to the theory of the Divided Line. This essay will analyze major points in The Allegory of the Cave and see how it relates to the Theory of the Divided Line. Also, this

These shadows in the cave are mere images, the lowest of the epistemological form of knowledge in the divided line. The objects which produce these shadows are the sense particulars. The sense particulars can then be counted e.g. three tree “puppets” this ability to count corresponds to the mathematical objects level of the divided line. Then once the person leaves the cave, he is able to see the actual forms, not just shadows or puppets, he is able to see the real object, and this conforms to the forms. Lastly, the sun is the thing that makes all life possible which is analogous to the ultimate Good which make all of the forms of knowledge even possible.

For they would be taking the terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass before their eyes, rather than to the real things that cast the shadows.

People are like the figures in the cave because they believe the things they see are how they truly are, much the way we believe the things we observe to be the truth. The cave is like the world we live in because the things we

In his novel Being There, Jerzy Kosinski shows how present day culture has strayed away from the ideal society that Plato describes in his allegory of the cave. In his metaphor, Plato describes the different stages of life and education through the use of a cave. In the first level of the cave, Plato describes prisoners who are shackled and facing a blank wall. Behind them is a wall of fire with a partition that various objects are placed and manipulated by another group of people. These shadows are the only action that they ever see. They can only talk to the surrounding prisoners, and watch the puppet show on the wall in front of them. Naturally, the prisoners come to believe that the shadows on the wall in front of them are

as If they were more than what they actually are and how they perceive all

“The door of the jail being flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into the sunshine, the grim and grisly