Themes And Symbolism In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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In Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave”, a prisoner has the desire to explore far beyond the cave that he has been in his whole life. He is seeking freedom and exploring what that consists of. When his chains miraculously were unhampered, he is able to leave the cave and explore the world outside. Seeing the contrast in light and stars, discovering what a reflection looks like, and seeing what the environment was like overwhelmed him dramatically. He returned to the cave and told the other prisoners what he had experienced, trying to convince them to join him, nonetheless, they thought he had gone insane. They did not comprehend what the descriptions of the outside world were, therefore they rejected it on the spot. The prisoners did not want to be freed and they decided to stay in the cave because it was the only life they knew and comprehended. An allegory is defined as a piece of writing that has a hidden …show more content…

The allegory of the cave has various symbols. The cave itself represent the lack of knowledge, this is so because the prisoners know nothing outside of this shelter. They have been chained to a wall by both their necks and feet that they are unable to move walk, or explore their surroundings. In contrast, the description of the powerful and blinding sun is a symbol of awareness, consciousness, or perception. When the prisoner left the cave he is looking straight up to the sun and finds it difficult to adjust to the brightness of the sun. He is then able to fully comprehend what the shadows in the cave actually are. He now has a clear understanding of the real world outside of the cave. He sees that what he knew to be real in the cave were simply shadows from the real objects that actually exist out in the world . In addition to the physical objects having symbolism, there are symbolic actions that also contributed to the overall theme of the

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