Perception In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

In the story Allegory of the Cave written by Plato, it looks into human perception, showing that what we see isn’t always the truth. In the story it begins by describing the lives of three men living inside a cave. In this cave they are chained, with their backs toward the entrance of the cave unable to see anything behind them. The three men have been living in this cave their entire lives, only being able to see shadows of any objects that pass by. The shadows, have became a game to the three men, each guessing what shadow would appear next. The three men had no idea what they were seeing was only shadows of actual objects; the shadows were all they knew, so to them the shadows were what was real. One of the three men, after years of living this way, was finally able to break free from his chains. After freeing himself from the chains, he then ventured away from the cave. After stepping out, the sun quickly burned his eyes as he walked outside.”Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself. “ only after he can look straight at the sun "is he able to reason about it" and what it is.. The Republic Book VII. Penguin Group Inc. pp. 365–401. After

Young people don’t always see how their actions may seriously affect them and their lives in the future, they can be living in darkness unaware that what they’re doing is self destructive. As reference to Allegory of the Cave teenagers are sometimes just like the remaining two prisoners in the cave, refusing to listen to what others around them are trying to convey to them. By being unwilling to acknowledge that there is so much more to life then what they see, they end up being like the prisoners in the cave . Instead of a cave, they only see things from a teenage perspective, not seeing beyond High School and making the football team or cheerleading