The Republic
By Plato
Written 360 B.C.E
“And now, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.” Through the allegory of the cave, Socrates explains how all human beings are educated. Describing a dark scene and envisioning all of mankind in a deep, enormous cave with one extensive tunnel that leads out towards the light is how the story takes place. Never seeing the light of day, in that cave is a group of individuals that have lived deep within the cave since birth. Chained so that they cannot look to either side or behind them but only straight ahead is how they have been from their childhood. Located above and behind them is a blazing fire, and between the fire and the prisoners rest a raised way. Various statues are located on top of the wall, which are operated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the wall. Shadows are casted across the wall the the prisoners are facing as a result of the blazing fire. “ And they see only their own shadows or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?” meaning that they know nothing about how they look or anyone around them, all they can see is what it is that is directly in front of them. The prisoners watched the stories that these shadows performed. Being restricted from looking around and only in from of them, the shadow-puppet show was performed in front of them. The show consisted of all kinds of different objects and shapes. Since these shadows were all they ever got to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world and that the truth consisted of what the shadows projected on the wall.
Later on a prisoner was freed. He was able to look around for the first time. Because he was surrounded by darkness for the majority of his life, he was slightly blinded by all the foreign light he was introduced to. He also wouldn't know what to make of the truth that surrounds him all over. Being in the den for a period of time, he has accepted what his reality is made out of and for him to see this whole new reality outside of the den it’s hard for him to accept it for what it is. In my opinion I feel that it would be hard for anyone to accept something new into their life after being brought up in a whole new surrounding. Being told one thing and accepting it is one story but to be taken out of your comfort zone to experience a whole another light is where it gets complicated. On top of that seeing something as major as the prisoner saw, he would have a hard time trying to tell his other roommates otherwise because this is a situation where you would have to see in order to believe.
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