“Allegory of the Cave” Analysis Essay

The Allegory of the cave is an metaphor written by Plato with the social function to represent the way a philosopher gains intimacy. This allegory is a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, where Socrates comp ares the issues appearance vs. earthly concern, education vs. ignorance. There are both oddballs of knowledge represented in this allegory, the one that is told and expected to be believed and accredited and the one that is learned by a persons take experiences through life. The writing is organized in a way in which the author tells a story in a sequence of pellucid events that makes the reader understand better. It wasnt really clear for me the way he described the guess metaphorically and it was difficult to visualize the scenario to realize the purpose behind it because of the rarity of it. Thats why I went through it so many times, but once I was able to understand what was handout on and where the point was, I could see that the way he explained and the fanciful evidence he used was very strong. Plato writes about Socrates describing a scene where there are chained people in a blasphemous cave.They keep back been there since their childhood and they preempt barely move their heads. screwing them, at the distance, there is a blazing fire, and between the fire and the captives there is a wall meant for objects to pass. Because of their limited vision ( need of movement), those men can barely see their own shadow and the shadow of unalike sculptures that pass over the wall, which are carried by other men they cant see. iodine of those prisoners is released and starts walking around the cave. He is very confused by what he sees but finally he realizes that the shadows are just a government agency of what is really there. The prisoner is forced to go out of the cave, his eyes grow to adjust to the sun light, and he cant look at anything more than shadows. Accustomed to the light, he begins to see other objects like tre es, flowers and houses and he realizes that the perspective he had about the world was completely different from what it really is.Finally the prisoner comes back to the cave to convince the others about the conception of the things he saw. Accustomed to sunlight, he sees blurry shadows, making others laugh, and they would remark that it would get down been better, if he had stayed in the cave, and if someone tries to release another prisoner, that person should be caught and put to death. Platos main idea is to reflect the different stages and the runof education, how a philosopher can reach the top and become enlightened. In this allegory the chained men symbolize the most unreasonable and ignorant people. The released prisoner who confuses fake objects and the fire with cosmos, and has not even left the cave, symbolizes those people who feeling awkward about the growth of knowledge and who are not assemble to confront it. The released prisoner that comes out of the cave a nd tends to return, represents the man accustomed to the error, who doesnt recognize the truth even when it is in front of him, and is afraid to submit their past views. When he comes out, and he only sees the shadows and the reflections of natural things, those actions symbolize the process of adaptation and preparation.The final process, where he becomes enlightened, is represented when the now ex-prisoner is able to agreement the Sun as the cause of all things. Returning to the subject of the types of knowledge, these devil ways of thinking referred to by Plato represent two completely different aspects of us. That kind of knowledge where the persons belief is based on what he/she can see or hear due to his/her lack of education is discernable when the people in the cave see the images on the cave wall created by the puppets and figures with the fire and hear the echoes. These people would mark off things as reality solely because they believe what they are being told. This type of knowledge is based on truths without any type of personal connection. The sanction type of knowledge, which is based more on learned life experiences, is evident in the released prisoner who discovers the real world through his own experience. another(prenominal) important point about the allegory is the uses of certain treatments which have a particular meaning in the story, making the reader campaign themselves to understand the greater meaning behind his words.Some of those words are shadow, cave, fire, prisoners, voices and light. The word prisoner refers to ourselves, arguing that we are prisoners of our own beliefs. The cave is the virtual(prenominal) prison made by ourselves because of the ignorance behind our minds. The word shadow, represents an illusion of reality, a false vision of the truth, are those false ideas created by the lack of knowledge that people live by in this world. The fire, in my opinion, is what produces the false reality or world of appearanc es. The voices represent the authority those things we believe are true(a) just because someone told us, like a teacher in a classroom, the government in a country, your parents at home, etc.Finallythe word light or the Sun, used to represent the ultimate truth, the answers found to those erroneous beliefs that you thought were true. I completely agree with Plato and I think we can apply this logic to many equations we face in life as intelligent, moral and empathetic people. I learned that people see reality as the patent world when reality really is more than the visible world. This text helped to push me along the way because it is directly related with college life, where a successful student is the one who considers that his/her mission is questioning and challenging the legitimacy of those things that we believe are true.