Socrates The Allegory Of The Cave

In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates begins the story in a cave where cave dwellers are bound in chains, facing a wall, and unable to move in any way. This implies that they were prisoners of the cave. In between the prisoners and the opening of the cave was a fire and a walkway. On this walkway people pass by the fire carrying statues and a variety of other things such as trees and animals creating shadows for the prisoners to see. Because of the fact all the prisoners can do is talk to each other, they begin to name things, which is a way of identifying and understanding what they sense around them. The things that they are trying to identify are not true though; they are shadows of statues of the real thing. One of the prisoners gets

the opportunity to leave the cave but when he finally gets to move it is very painful and he has to be compelled to turn around. This makes him upset and disoriented and when he sees the light of the sun it practically blinds him. The prisoners’ eyes adjust and he begins to see the true things that have been behind him for so long. After seeing these truths this man begins to feel sorry for the other prisoners that are stuck in the bottom of the cave. The prisoner is then forced to go back down into the cave where he is chained back up and tries to explain to the other prisoners what he had seen. The other prisoners mock him and make him play a game on who can name the most shadows. Well, this prisoner cannot identify the images because his eyes have not adjusted back to the dark, as a result he does terribly in the game. Socrates then begins to explain how this ties into the actual world.
As the story goes on, we begin to see the symbolism that is given to us by Socrates. The prisoners at the base of the cave represent the people and the world of lies that they actually live in. They are unable to welcome any new ideas that are put in front of them because they were ignorant. The sun represents the good and truth that exists outside of their world. The world outside of the cave represents intelligence, and a world of permanence, new philosophies, and is everlasting. The people out of the cave that were casting the shadows signify power and opinion makers. These people are the ones that choose what the prisoners at the base of the cave believe; A few examples of this in the world we live in today is: the government, teachers, parents, religious leaders, and the media. The shadows themselves represent the material world that will never survive. If these symbolisms are broken down even more, we begin to see that this allegory is representing education and the world that exists today.
Socrates begins to describe the banking model, which is the idea that students have empty accounts and teachers, who are like midwives, put deposits in. Occasionally the students put in their own deposits, but for the students to do this they need to be active in learning in order to obtain anything from their education, no matter how painful it may be. A person will not go anywhere that they do not want to go or do anything that they do not want to do! Students cannot be forced to learn, they gain knowledge when they open their minds to what is real. It is implied that we must look at education for its permanent and long lasting attributes instead of what it means to the world, for example, money and power. The moral of the story is that learning can be painful, but it is worth it in the end when you finally reach the light. We must stop being ignorant in order to reach the peak of our education.