Allegory Of The Cave By Plato's Stuck In Another World

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Stuck in Another World To start, what would your life be like if you were stuck in a world where you couldn’t see the end? This reminds me of being in a cave and not being able to find a way out to the other side. In the Allegory of the Cave by Plato: the prisoners are chained in a cave so that all they can see the shadows on the back wall. They have been held captive since childhood and were unable to move except what was in front of them. He was able to state how the prisoners were comfortable and felt safe while in the cave compared to the real world. Then, in My Bondage and My Freedom by Fredrick Douglass: the slaves are in a dangerous environment and fear for the cruelty in their lives. The slaves were being held in a place against their …show more content…

The prison had an echo coming from the other side and the prisoners had some illusions which made their ideas believe to be true. In this quote; Plato says, “And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, … “(Plato 2). This shows the shadows because what he saw was an illusion, but now his vision is clearer and is able to see what he thought was to be a shadow of another prisoner. When relating this to Douglass it shows how we understand the importance of what seems to be an appearance versus a reality. This means the reality that we want to see isn’t there and is just an incomplete knowledge that was never there in the first place. Sometimes when we want to face a reality all we want to believe is the truth of what is really outside of the real world. In both texts the shadows are shown by causing the shadows of the prisoners to seek a false knowledge that wasn’t really …show more content…

The cave is an underground chamber, the prisoners are chained and are only able to see shadows which are against the wall in front of them by a dimly lit fire, and there are shapes of vessels, statues, and figures of animals being carried to and from the inside of the cave. Being shackled into the darkness means the prisoners were safe when in the cave but once it was time to face the real world; there was pain coming from their eyes. Plato says, “And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them” (Plato 2). This means that the prisoners were not ready to make change by leaving the cave and facing the real world which is said in Douglass. It was important to leave the cave according to Plato and Douglass because it showed that they wanted to have a different life by finding new knowledge around them, and getting to know themselves when having freedom. Enlightenment is important and good for them because they were able to explore the world around them, fin new knowledge within the truth, and having realization of their own future. When leaving the cave, it is often considered painful to us because we don’t have the knowledge of knowing where we are going to go next. Also, enlightenment shows true reality of experiencing and seeking more whether

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