Emily Redd, Summary of Allegory of the Cave

“Allegory of the Cave” (Book VII) from The Republic, by Plato was written to to show the difference between people who live life in ignorance and people who live a knowledgeable life. Plato explains how humans, who have been chained up in a cave since birth know nothing more than what they see in the shadows, what others are showing them through the light. These humans are the ignorance that the world holds, only taking in what is first told to them and not expanding their knowledge any further. The shadows in the cave are the ideals that the ignorant humans take in, it’s what they only want to know. The humans who escape that cave are about to learn and acknowledge the world and infinite knowledge that is beyond that cave. The humans who escape are the knowledgeable ones, the ones who don’t follow what others say and in a way expand and grow to know more than ignorance could ever. Plato shows how the humans have a choice to flee what they are shown after escaping the cave, but that’s the difference between ignorance and the knowledgeable. The ignorant would simply go back into their cave, while the knowledgeable would want to explore the new world.