Muhammed Cannon
Allegory of A Cave
 By: Plato

10-15-99

Restate in your own words the physical situation in which the prisoners exist.  Remembering that this selection in an allegory, can you suggest other caves in modern life in which people might be imprisoned or feel imprisoned?

 Since birth the prisoners spoken about were placed in chains which was held tightly around  their neck’s making it very difficult, almost impossible to turn around.  Behind them was the mouth of the cave, which was on an upward inclination.  The inclination allowed the small amounts sunlight to seep into the cave.  Also in the distance inside the cave and behind the prisoners there is a fire that was constantly burning.  Directly in front of the prisoners is a smooth wall which would act as a screen.  When there was light outside, figures that would walk above the cave cast a shadow against the wall.  The prisoners not knowing any better mistook these shadows as actual objects.  For instance if a deer where to walk across the mouth of the cave and cast a shadow on the wall, the prisoners would see that and think they were seeing an actual deer.  They will not think they were seeing a shadow but the actual thing.

 Taking into consideration the stated facts, combined with my present knowledge and understanding of things the only possible way of putting Plato’s allegory into context to a modern situation is comparing the prisoners to junior high school students.

 Consider this, when a child is on the sixth through eighth grade they feel that they know just about all they need to know.  They feel that hey are mature enough as is and the next level will just “add the finishing touches to their development”.  This situation is relative to the situation of the prisoner, who already feels they know all they need to know.  Once a child is graduated to high school, which in this case is symbolic to the above world they are exposed to many different things they never knew.  For instance, in J.H.S.  kids may feel they can read very well.  It isn’t until they reach high school that they realize that there are many different types of literature, that would prove difficult for even the best junior high school students.  The scenarios also parallel in the point that both the student and the prisoner reach a point of enlightenment which kills all previous misconceptions and bring the person to a new level of understanding.