Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

1109 Words5 Pages
Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” is used to describe the disconnect between the things we perceive as real and the actual reality. Plato’s allegory serves to prove how people come to be trapped in this cave where they are not able to recognize and distinguish between the truth because they can only see the shadows of what they have come to believe in. Many are chained up which prohibits them from finding out what the truth actually is. Plato seeks to convince his audience in getting his point across by using rhetorical devices such as logos, ethos, and the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon. The rhetorical devices and dialogue Plato uses reinforces the point Plato is making from this perception of reality and how society is a contribution…show more content…
In the cave Plato describes three prisoners who have been there since childbirth and are held chained from their legs and necks as they are forced to look at the wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners there is a fire and a walkway on which people can walk. The prisoners can only see the shadows as they are not able to move their heads, therefore they presume the shadows to be real. One of the prisoners is freed and is able to go out of the cave as he is able to see the reality and what the outside actually looks like. This prisoner is confused by what he is seeing, but comes to understand that the shadows he saw inside the cave was just an allusion compared to the reality found outside of that cave. Once the prisoner returns to the cave he must adjust his eyes from the sunlight to the darkness he now sees. This transition was not easy for the prisoner as he was now seeing the illusion when he just witnessed the reality as Plato says “he will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world” (pg. 868) because he was been trapped in that cave ever since childbirth. It was the distinction between darkness to light that the prisoner had to face and understand, but once he did he recognized there was much more to just the shadows he had seen his whole

More about Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

Open Document