Allegory of the Cave Summary

Allegory of the weaken Summary Platos Allegory of the Cave presents an enthralling concept that holds strong to this day. In the allegory three main ideas atomic number 18 illustrated that we have been conditioned to a definite reality since birth, we spurn being brought into the light of knowledge, and that we (as a society) reject anything that contradicts the notions of our preconceived reality. Clever Plato took these ideas and weaved them into an intrigue story of prisoners trapped in an underground cave, and then what happens when one of them was enLIGHTened.Surprisingly it applies in many ways to our society in modern times, nowadays no one questions what is true and what is false. Its exactly as Aldous Huxley feared, weve become missed in a sea of information which debilitates us to gain certain understanding of information. Weve been raised in a society of dont question it which leaves the people vulnerable to the people carrying the statues across the rout out, cre ating our sense of reality. When we are first brought into this cave at the beginning of the allegory, it contains prisoners bound by imprisonment in such a way as to force their heads to view at this wall.It continues to tell us that theyve been this way since birth, and that a massive conflagration behind them that allows them to see shadows broadcast onto the wall, periodically people go be the fire with statues of people and creatures which cast shadows onto the wall and this shadow world is what the prisoners drive their reality. They are all content with this knowledge and nothing changes until one of the prisoners is gear up free. The prisoner, once hes set free, is blinded by the fire the moment he turns his head to face the fire.He looks certify to the shadows which he identifies as reality, and looks back and forth between the fire and the wall until he ultimately accepts that the fire may be more real. His enlightenment is continue as hes squeeze up the stairs and forced into the sunlight to view the real world. He begins slowly only identifying shadows at first and slowly progresses until hes able to identify the sun, and scan the sun as an idea and not just as an object.He continues development about this new reality until he is fully convinced. Remembering his creator companions he grows full of pity for them, knowing that they dont packet his knowledge of what is real and what is a mere shade of reality. With this thought in his head he heads back to the cave. Once hes back in the cave his eyes are full of darkness and hes unable to see things as clearly as his companions, for he had grown accustomed to the reality of light, because of this his former companions made fun of him.They knew he wasnt as adept to their reality, which they perceived as being the mature one. Seeing what happened to their former companion when he was taken into the light, they decided that theyd never ascend because if they ascended theyd lose their sight o f reality. With that the enlighten one left, knowing that his companions were lost in blissful ignorance, and he could do nothing to convince them for fear of death.