From my understanding, Plato uses an underground cave as a symbolic representation of how humans are living in the world. There are two ideas reflected in the story, the world inside the cave and the world outside. Inside the cave were prisoners chained, faced towards the wall with a fire burning between them. The fire casts shadows of puppets on the cave wall. “Allegory of the Cave” is a metaphor for the separation between the truth and how others with a different experience perceive it.