You’ve just read Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” Look for moments where Plato emphasizes physical and concrete details the prisoners experience; for example, pay attention to anything they see, hear, and physically feel (along with what causes it). Find two of these details, and think about what they might symbolize. For each detail, write a few sentences explaining the point/s Plato makes through his imagery.
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Course Description:Â A course in effective essay writing and basic research techniques including use of the library. Demanding readings assigned for classroom discussion and as a basis for essay writing
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One detail that he makes says “You’ll be willing to say, I think, that the sun not only provides visible things with the power to be seen but also with coming to be, growth, and nourishment, although it is not itself coming to be”. The point he is trying to make here is that your growth and other things with be shown with time. Another point he is trying to make is that other people will also make you see that growth. Another detail is stated as “Then also imagine that there are people along the wall, carrying all kinds of artifacts that project above it—statues of people and other animals, made out of stone, wood, and every material”. The symbol in this is the artifact. This symbolizes the things that people likes.
Pluto believed you should live through your own eyes and use other people’s experiences to help you make better choices in your own life
The prisoners from “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato are living in a cavelike place, with neck and legs fettered, and they are able to see just what is t of them. They strongly believe that what they see is the real objects or things and not the shadows.
The cave it self symbolises a live in a dark, maybe uneducated live. The fetters and bonds may symbolise the fear of the unknown.
“sun” Plato’s uses the sun as a similar to the mind. He explains how the sun gives light which is the good. The “light” he is referring too is knowledge and education. In order to have light in our mind we need to be enlightened and more knowledgeable.
“Education isn’t what some people declare it to be, namely putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes.”
”Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn’t turned the right way or looking where it ought to look, and it tries to redirect it appropriately.”
“You know that, when we turn our eyes to things whose colors are no longer in the light of day but in the gloom of night, the eyes are dimmed and seem nearly blind, as if clear vision, were no longer in them.”
Shadows- The prisoners never see the real thing, the real objects. They believe the shadows are real
The cave- a mindless existence with no education or minimal.
“You know that, when we turn our eyes to things whose colors are no longer in the light of day but in the gloom of night, the eyes are dimmed and seem nearly blind, as if clear vision, were no longer in them.”
One of the things that intrigued me the most in reading this passage were the illustrations of power in the allegory of the cave. The idea that there’s a caste of individuals or forces that had bound the prisoners, lit the fire, and present them with the objects that make up their perception strikes me as allegorical for the unique circumstances of our own ignorance and the individual people that through their actions become forces in the minds of those who’s perceptions they’ve altered. It reminds me of how things become because they are the way they’ve always been or the way it’s been predetermined to be.
That and the use of shadow as a weapon. Shadow in most contexts has connotations of hiding and darkness but in Plato’s Allegory shadow is something that is wielded by the forces behind the fire and those who have imprisoned the people’s in body and mind. It can even drive them to rage and bloodlust by altering information.
The prisoners from “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato are living in a cavelike place, with neck and legs fettered, and they are able to see just what is t of them. They strongly believe that what they see is the real objects or things and not the shadows.
The cave it self symbolises a live in a dark, maybe uneducated live. The fetters and bonds may symbolise the fear of the unknown.
In Plato, the prisoners don’t know what the light is in the cave but, we know it as the world/earth whereas the prisoners don’t know anything about it which leads us to another symbol which is the cave where they haven’t learned anything about the world outside of the cave. Which can symbolize captivity for the cave and the light can symbolize life. I think he means that if we enclose ourselves and don’t go for it, then you may never learn the meaning behind something.
With all things considered, I believe that that these details emphasizes their lack of knowledge of the world around them. The prisoners’ have little understanding in the world around them; limited by the cave. They are all oblivious to what we know are shadows, but to them moving figures, and ignorant to the fire behind them bestowing said shadows.
From what I understand about Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” a detail that emphasizes physical and concrete details of what the prisoner’s experience was not wanting to face reality. One of the prisoners was dragged out of the cave and managed to escape. He got to see the real world and came back to bring the other prisoners with him to show them what he had seen. However, they did not trust him and thought he must have gone crazy. The prisoners were chained facing a wall and thought that the shadows on the wall when people were passing by because of the light from the fire were their reality. They refused to turn their heads and stayed ignorant of the truth because the cave was all they had known. Another detail is the light and darkness the prisoners experience. The light showed the freedom, understanding, and awareness of their situation. The prisoner that escaped loved the new world and when he came back to the cave he couldn’t adjust to the darkness anymore because he was used to the light. That’s because he was already free and enlightened to his situation. The darkness they were in symbolized the unawareness of their situation and ignorance because even after the other prisoner escaped and was trying to show them the truth they thought he was lying and didn’t listen. They kept thinking that the fire reflecting shadows on the wall was their reality.
There are some details that can be analyzed further in a question that Plato asks Glaucon: “And if someone dragged him away from there by force, up the rough, steep path, and didn’t let him go until he had dragged him into the sunlight, wouldn’t he be pained and irritated at being treated that way?”. Here, the sunlight represents reality, and the pain and discomfort represent facing such a drastic change in someone’s life.
The first element mentioned in the quote—the sunlight—makes an object visible or someone able to see such an object. However, in the cave, the source of light was not the sunlight (at least not directly); it was the fire that allowed the prisoners to see the shadows on the wall in front of them. The reality for the prisoners was based on a “fake source of light”, projecting merely silhouettes rather than the actual image.
The pain represents an abrupt change and facing an unveiled “truth”—the revelation of the real world. Having spent their whole lives inside a cave and suddenly being dragged out of their reality is bewildering, and the only feeling emerging from that situation is fear—fear of the unknown world.
The prisoners don’t see real things they seem to just see a light and don’t understand what it is it makes sense as to why they don’t understand it. The Cave is of something like an uneducated life. It is being shunned and being in a place that doesn’t care to educate. The Cave resembles a place of hardship and of no understanding.