Analysis of Plato's Simile of the Cave

A detailed Summary of Analysis of Plato's Simile of the Cave

Analysis of Plato's 'The Simile of The Cave'

Many literary works of the past have been very accurate to our view of society today. None of these works, however describes our view of today's society as closely as Plato's "Simile of the Cave". In this work, Plato describes how he believes humans of his time behaved using a simple analogy of men in a cave. Through this analogy, Plato is able to fully show his beliefs and concept of life itself. Although very old, this literary work can still be used to associate problems of today's society to those of the past. Plato describes men as being chained in a dark subterranean chamber with their eyes permanently turned to a screen before them, upon which pass the shadows of men living and working in the world of light. Since the prisoners in the underground cave have never known reality other than those shadows, they take them for all that actually is "the whole truth", an

d if voices from the world above do reach them, they believe it is the shadows speaking. In comparison of this to our government today, many similarities can be seen. Citizens of our nation today are often "blinded" from the truths that are presented before them. They live their lives from day to day just knowing and accepting what is being presented to them blindly and have no concept of the reality that lies behind what they are presented. Unless these people are freed and allowed to find the truth for themselves, this is the way that they will always live their life. Plato symbolizes this by suggesting that one of these men is freed and ventures out of the cave into the light, or the world above, and sees the sun, symbolizing "the form of the good". Plato's object in this work was not of personal enlightenment; he had the sense to understand that where communication was lacking, such as those prisoners still locke

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Approximate Word count = 621
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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