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Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ rotates around the notion of our vision as humans being limited, and only being exposed to a certain extent of knowledge within our surroundings. The Allegory of the Cave presented a rare case where prisoners were trapped in a cave for all their lives with hands, neck and feet bound to look at a wall with shadows beings casted by a fire that lies behind them. Once a prisoner breaks free of the binds, his curiosity allows him to follow the light that then exposes him to the real world where he is blinded by the sun. Each of the elements in the allegory are symbols that can be related to modern day situations as metaphors. Though society has evolved drastically, many struggles that we face today resemble the allegory. …show more content…
Women are nurtured with different ideals than men, they are taught to behave a certain way and look a certain way. Virtuous, quiet, obedient, and proper, those are some of the attributes or values that young girls are taught to be like, that they carry with them for the majority of their lives. The cave is a familiar setting, in some way a sense of security even though it may not have a good impact, we are frightened to break free of what has been taught for generations. In the Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners were kept in the dark for so long they never questioned why; similarly, as children, it’s ingrained in to their minds they behave that way subconsciously without asking why they should be any different. As a child, I was influenced by my mother’s teachings but as a curious child I also questioned why, like why men were allowed to speak their minds but women were not, or why the men got to wear whatever they wanted while women had to stay modest. I often used to question, but as I grew older I stopped and understood that was the way it was always going to be. Childhood is comparable to oblivion in many aspects, the naivety in children overlook the prejudice of the world by being entranced by the world they conjured in their mind. The prisoners were so caught up in the shadows, they …show more content…
As a woman in the world, I am a prisoner, trapped in an idea of how women should be and how I should force myself to be. In the allegory one prisoner had escaped, until we can put aside the standards and expectations that were forced upon us, we cannot escape the endless cycle. The shackles bind the prisoners, to only view what the captors allow; the feeling of being held back and being weighed down by invisible forces. Women are bounded by expectations, standards and limited to their success, we are always one step behind. If we speak what we think, we are threatening others and if we act the way we want, we are condemned. Even now, as a teenager when I walk the halls of Weston; I hear derogatory words being thrown mercilessly at a woman for dressing the way she wants, what is seemingly provocative in their minds. Her clothes automatically determine what type of personality or character she is, without knowing who the person really is. One can think that a high school filled with millennials, they would be more evolved in their way of thinking but still that is not the case. Why are women degraded to some type of object? Many of us feel as though, we can’t dress the way we want or a label will be put on us, we think about how we should dress in the morning and how people
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” explains his beliefs on education of one’s soul and the core of the way they shape themselves. The rhetorical devices that Plato represents inside of his story explains how much freedom is worth in this world. The deeper meaning inside of what Plato describes can further be found out once a reader realizes the type of rhetorical devices are being used. For example, Plato portrays prisoners being locked inside of a cave without a way out. These prisoners never got to see the outside world, yet he mentions they “see shadows” which explains they are only able to catch a glimpse of reality from the outside. Plato’s use of imagery gives us a mental picture on the tease we may feel to notice reality but not be able to experience it. In reality, we do not value freedom as much as we are supposed to. We seem to not see the world as he sees it. With the help of personification, Plato uses human like characteristics to describe non-living things to give
The Allegory of the Cave is a parable that demonstrates how humans are afraid of change and what they do not know. In this work, Plato suggests a situation in which men are living in an underground cave. The one entrance is located near the top and there, a burning fire casts shadow. The men of the cave are chained so that they can only see the wall and cannot turn around. When objects pass by it creates a shadow on the wall. The shadows are the only thing they can see and therefore is the only thing they know to exist (747). Somehow one of them gets loose and wanders outside the cave (748). When he gets out, he is astonished at what he finds. He comes back in to tell the others about what he saw. The other men think he is mad and plot to kill him (749). This illustrates how fear, inherent in the primitive nature of man, only serves to promote his ignorance.
Throughout Plato 's story "The Allegory of the cave" men are stuck in this cave with their backs turned away from the light, until one day a man turns towards the light and learns for himself what the light is about. The man than explores and begins to educate himself on everything and anything, he then tries to take everything he has learned back down to the cave to get his fellow cave members to step out and learn what the light is all about. The metaphor that Plato 's places in this story is how the cave is represents the human mind and the light represents the understanding of life
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.
In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, Plato explores the origin of human misery through intellectual explanations. Although Plato begins with a story of men in the “cave”, he continues with intellectual insight, logically explaining the misery found within the cave. Plato uses insight when he states, “The prison-house is the world of sight, the light of fire is the sun” (Plato 46). Plato taps into human intellect through making parallels from aspects in The Allegory of the Cave to prevalent subjects. The prison-house, or rather the cave, represents the enslaved state in which humans are unaware of reality, while the fire, parallel to the sun, represents potential knowledge humans can gain from coming out of the cave and into reality. Philosophy appeals to those who are unfamiliar with the emotional connections found within a societal group, and therefore resort to intellect and rationale in order to make sense of the foreign world around
Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and Jean Paul Sartre with " Existentialism". Generally, Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre suggested that human life should be free. They differ in what that freedom is. Plato thinks it is found in the world of intellect, Thoreau thinks freedom is found in nature, and Sartre thinks freedom is found in subjectivity of individual.
True reality is not obvious to most of us. We mistake what we see and hear for reality and truth. This is the basic premise for Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which prisoners sit in a cave, watching images cast on the wall in front of them. They accept these views as reality and they are unable to grasp their overall situation: the images are a ruse, a mere shadow show orchestrated for them by unseen men. At some point, a prisoner is set free and is forced to see the situation inside the cave. Initially, one does not want to give up the security of his or her familiar reality; the person has to be dragged past the fire and up the entranceway. This is a difficult and painful struggle. When individuals step into the sunshine, their eyes slowly accommodate to the light and their fundamental view of the world, of reality, is transformed. They come to see a deeper, more genuine, authentic reality: a reality marked by reason. The individual then makes the painful readjustment back into the darkness of the cave to free the prisoners. However, because he now seems mad -describing a new strange reality - they reject him to the point of threatening to kill him. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a direct representation of the human condition, the circumstances we as humans presently encounter, circumstances such as conceptual frameworks, or basic beliefs, and our typical behaviors in society. The allegory metaphorically describes our situation as human beings in the world today. In his story, Plato utilizes several key elements to portray his metaphor of the human condition. Plato’s image contains pertinent ideas about society that are relevant to my everyday life. Through his reading, I have begun to discover the ideal form, the use of reason over perception to approach, view, and judge all things.
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing, any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality are dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. The Allegory of the Cave is that we are chained to a wall. Behind us is another wall with figures walking across it, behind that wall is a pit of fire. The firelight casts shadows upon the wall in front of those chained to the wall. Because we are chained to the wall we believe the figures are what they represent. Plato says there times when one tries to break away from the wall but others encourage him to join back the wall as he experiences what the world truly is. Because we are chained to the wall we are afraid of the unknown. But breaking free could change the perception about the world and feel truly free. Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles but it’s difficult. And when we ( s...
The Cave Allegory was Plato’s attempt to compare what he called “the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature”. Plato had another Greek philosopher by the name of Socrates describe a group of people who lived
There is a ton of ignorance in the world, many people believe something is wrong because they’re not a custom that certain way and automatically become stubborn and ignorant. For example, In the United States, many women don’t get the high ranked pay or job positions they deserve because of their gender. Even with the same qualities and qualifications, a man has, more than likely women will get the high ranked pay or position against a man due to the past of America where women had very little rights. Due to the past of women having very little rights many Americans to this day feel women are not as good as men. In the story “Allegory Of The Cave” the freed prisoner who at one point only saw shadows got to explore something new the outside world with color and tried to tell the other prisoners but was labeled demented because the other trapped prisoners did not know and have not explored the outside world. There’s a connection with the story “Allegory Of The Cave” and the real world by the prisoners who remained in the cave showing their ignorance calling the freed prisoner who saw outside world demented and Americans who still show ignorance towards women not being suitable for a high paying/ranked job position all because it was a certain way back then and got comfortable in their
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” (Aristotle) In Plato’s “Allegory of the cave,” a group of men who have been held in a cave for the entirety of their lives are used a sustained metaphor tho show how society learns new things. Plato goes about this by having one man escape from the cave and experience the world while the rest of the prisoners are still in the cave. When the man who escaped returns to tell the others about the outside, the men he is held with don’t believe him. Plato uses this metaphor to show that in order to believe something a person will have to “see it to believe it.” While in “Learning by Doing” by Jonny Moye, William Dugger, and Kendall Stark-Weather, the authors
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
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a representation of the normal human behavior as well as the circumstances we presently encounter on a day-to-day basis. The Allegory of the Cave symbolically describes our circumstances as human beings in today’s world. Plato uses a number of key elements to depict the image of the human condition. Plato's images contain relatable ideas in regards to society that are related to my everyday life. By reading Plato I have personally begun to expand my though process and have learned not to rely solely on my senses. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave brings philosophy’s teachings to the forefront and makes it easy for us readers to understand what philosophy is trying to teach us.
Throughout history, women have been looked down upon, mistreated, and abused because of their sex. In the 19th century, gothic fiction novels such as Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, highlighted these issues due to their feminist nature. Today, these issues are brought up in articles like Emma Luxton’s “New Research Proves What You Already Knew: Hollywood is Sexist and Ageist.” Women’s experiences are different from men’s in that women have to face sexism in the form of social expectations and objectification.