Summary

ENC1102- 2187- 4407

Learning Modules ... Module 3: Short Stories/Allegory Understanding the Allegory of the CaveH

Understanding the Allegory of the CaveUnderstanding the Allegory of the Cave

At this point, Plato explains the allegory philosophically. One thing he says is that a true leader has to go back to the cave in order to teach and free the others living in the dark.

Understanding the Allegory of the Cave

The allegory tells of an imagined situation in which prisoners are kept in a cave since early childhood.

The prisoners are chained to the wall of the cave, their arms and legs are bound and their necks are chained in a way that they can’t see anything but the stone wall in front of them.

Behind the prisoners someone has built a fire, and between them is a “parapet” a short raised wall.

Behind the short raised wall, there are people holding cut-outs and puppets of many things and walking around and around the fire, causing shadows to be projected on the stone wall. Those shadows are all the prisoners can see.

Plato asks a rhetorical question: If all you could see were those shadows on the wall, wouldn’t you believe those shadows were reality?

They have little else to do, so the prisoners keep busy by guessing which shadow follows the next. This guessing game becomes all-important, and others would praise the prisoners who correctly guess the most shadows.

Suddenly, someone comes from outside the cave and unchains one of the prisoners.

The prisoner doesn’t want to be taken out – the cave is all he knows, but he is pushed by the person from the outside. He passes the fire, but can’t look because the light hurts his eyes. When the prisoner sees the sun, he is blinded by the light and sits under a tree with his eyes hidden in the crook of his elbow.

Little by little, his eyes become used to the light. He begins to see that the shadows really weren’t real after all. He saw the real wagon, house, tree, not just their shapes passing through as shadows on the wall.

The prisoner returns to the cave, to free his friends, but they don’t want to go. When he tells them that what they believe to be true is not reality, they offer to kill him.

The reader can figure out what all the symbols represent in the story.

My Institution Courses Organizations Damian De La Rosa