Extra Credit Unit 4: Allegory of the Cave

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Allegory of the Cave
Plato’s piece of work is an allegorical writing whose context revolves around the cave occupied by chained prisoners. According to Sheehan, the shadows of the puppeteers are cast on the wall by the little light entering the cave, and the prisoners use the shadows in constructing reality (2). When one prisoner escaped the cave, the sun blinded him, and he became anxious about the newfangled environment and the new world different from the cave. While in the cave, the shadows appeared real, but after spending time in the new world, the prisoner realized his entire life has been under the control of others. The prisoners existed in the cave where reality was a construction of other people (Sheehan 3).
Allegory and its Importance
The numerous symbolism in Plato’s work imprints allegorical meaning. For instance, the dark cave is used as a symbol of the present-day ignorance about the world while the chained individuals represent the ignorant people in the world. The other allegory appears in the form of the raised wall which is used to symbolize the limited abilities of the chained individuals’ thinking while the use of the shadow symbolizes the limited sensory percept...