In Plato’s text we are given a vision of prisoners who are locked away in a cave.  They have been there since birth.  They are chained to the cave wall and limited to look in one direction not being able to turn around.  There is a fire behind them illuminating the cave wall.  People above them are carrying objects and their shadows illuminate on part of the cave wall which the prisoners face.  They try to identify these objects but are never correct.  They don’t have the knowledge to know what these objects are called. Less we not forget, they have been in the cave since birth.  For naming objects comes with the knowledge of knowing.  I believe that this is what is meant by the line:, Then the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadow of these artifacts”.

One day, one of the prisoners is dragged out of the cave to the outside world.  As the prisoner approaches the opening of the cave, he becomes increasingly blinded by the natural light.  It is very painful for him.  More so, once he is out of the cave, he is put in a sense of discomfort.  He is unfamiliar with the things he sees.

He slowly adjusts to the light and actually sees the world around him.  He now sees the objects for what they are and not mere shadows of things he saw before.  As he looks at the sun, the clearer the truth becomes.  He now sees more correctly.  His life in the cave, which he found comforting because it was all he knew, has completely changed after experiencing the outside world.  He then rushes back to the cave to inform his fellow prisoners of the truth beyond the cave.  After telling them about the world outside the cave, the other prisoners start to question his sanity. The life in the cave is all they know. Therefore, they have a hard time believing him and they believe he is a dangerous individual.  If the other prisoners could get their hands on the prisoner spreading this new so-called truth, they would kill him for disorienting their beliefs.  This is referenced to the quote “Who tried to free them and lead them upward, if they could somehow get their hands on him, wouldn’t they kill him”?  This is clearly a reference to Socrates who was killed for teaching philosophy.

After reading this, I interpret that these prisoners represent the common society. They are trying to identify the shadows in front of them. However, because they don’t have knowledge of the outside world, they don’t correctly identify these objects. Therefore, we can say that people today can often be misguided due to their ignorance of exploring new ideas. This leads to a life of lies of not knowing what is the truth.  Individuals often are put in these mindsets and don’t want to branch out because they are comfortable with what they know. So, who is the one who drags the prisoner to the light?  I believe that this person represents teachers, parents, and the media. These people guide in certain directions to which we either accept or deny what we’ve been shown. The cave also represents a world of conventional opinion, where people find their comfort.

Sometimes we have to give up our personal desires to reach new learning.  As quoted in the text, “I suppose then that he’d need time to get adjusted before he could see things in the world above.”    Once we have achieved educating ourselves, it is hard to go back to ideas we once knew like the prisoner in this allegory.

People can get confused by going from dark to light and vice versa. However, this gives some clarity to things we did not understand. People need to turn their souls much like the prisoner who seen the outside world.  For as quoted, “In the knowable realm, the form of the good is the last to be seen and it is reached only with difficulty”.   Your soul is your passion to learn.  Without passion and desire, one can never really learn leaving you chained to the darkness.