Allegory Of The Cave Summary

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The Allegory of the Cave began by describing prisoners that have lived their entire lives shackled with chains around their neck, arms, and legs, only allowed to stare at a wall. They were only able to see shadows and hear noise, unable to decipher what things actually were. These people were labeled “prisoners” not just because they were tied up and only able to see reflections, but they were prisoners of their thoughts and access to knowledge.A few prisoners were able to escape the cave and see real things and experience real sunlight unlike the fire they were all previously used to. When the escapees returned to the cave to tell the others what the real world was like, the others refused to believe or accept the crazy idea that there was …show more content…

Without education, most of us would be just like the prisoners in the cave. We see and feel things for what are on the surface but, with the help of education, we are able to get closer to the reality from knowledge and actual facts. Our society is just like the group of prisoners in the cave, unless we have education to inform us of the truth, ignorance will consume the entire society.
This is also a very accurate description of life. As children, we are fed a childlike perception of reality where everything is sugarcoated. The “education” that Socrates mentions is our exposure to reality. As we age and are exposed to many different things in life, we realize that things are not always picture perfect or as easy as the idealized version of the world we had in our heads as children. The goodness and fairness we thought was inevitable is in fact not guaranteed. However, when Socrates and Glaucon agree that the freed prisoner would not want to go back to their state of idealized imprisonment, they were not totally correct. As a teen, the moments when one realizes that life isn’t always fair are often the hardest moments of “growing up”. Sometimes we want to return to that cave of shadows and echoes, because dealing with reality isn’t as easy as people make it

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