Unit 2 Plato’s “Allegory” Assignment
HU250 – Humanities and Culture
When discussing “Allegory of the Cave” it is important to know what it is all about and it why it took place. Prisoners are chained and can only see darkness. They are facing a black wall and are projected to figure out what is real in life and what is not. They are not able to turn their heads. Plato wanted the people be aware of what is going on around them. There are puppets that are behind the walls that are showing shadows. The prisoners can only see the shadows and not the real objects. The can also hear the echoes, but nothing else. The prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. What this really means is no matter what was really behind the wall
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At times, I would come accustomed that women were just supposed to be treated the way that I was. I hid behind my feelings for years instead of facing reality and getting out of the bad situation. What I suppressed as my reality did not have to be my reality. The problem was that I wouldn’t face reality and tell myself that I deserved a better life than what I had. I had to put my feelings into consideration and not just my daughters. True happiness comes from within and I wasn’t even happy with myself for staying so many years that I didn’t have to. I created a life that was easy. I wanted to take the easy way out, but not considering the truth of the situation, which was that I needed to be freed. I needed the chance to grow as my own person instead of doing what everyone else wanted me to do. My life is my life and I should be able to live life to the fullest and be fulfilled as a person.
People should not hide behind their feelings and should perceive the truth of life. Reality is important to everyone and no matter how scared, hurt, or upset we are life must be faced and it must be faced in the right way. Happiness can be conquered. In my situation, after freeing myself from an uncomfortable situation, I now have two children and a husband that treats me like a women. Too many people get treated badly and get use to and think that this is okay and it isn’t.
References
Sayre, H. M. (2013).
In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the focus is based on prisoners who are chained up in a cave and can only see the shadows of the real world. In this story one prisoner is released into the “real world” and tries to enlighten the other prisoners. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is living in a world controlled by a computer program and he does not know. He is brought into the real world by people that have been enlightened and he plans to help the other people. Even though The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave are set in different points in time and show some different points of view , they also have comparable plots, characters, and symbols.
Imagine yourself sitting inside a dark, damp, cave where the only thing you can see are moving shadows on the cave wall in front of you. You can’t move anywhere or see anything besides the shadows, and these are the only things you’ve seen for your entire life, so these moving dark images are the most real things you’ve ever known. At some point in our childhood we were mentally in this state of darkness, we didn’t know anything about the world or have any complex thoughts. How then, were we brought out of our caves of darkness and misunderstanding? The Allegory of the Cave is a well known section of Plato’s
In its most simple and basic terms, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” creates an illustration of prisoners who are being kept in a cave; their crimes are never mentioned, but their punishments are beautifully described. Each prisoner, according to Plato, is kept within a cave and is chained in such a way that not only do they face the cave wall, but they are also unable to turn their heads, making the cave wall the only thing they see. Behind them and higher up in the cave is a fire. By utilizing the fire, there are “men carrying past the wall
In Plato’s essay, “Allegory of The Cave” Plato creates a story about three prisoners in a cave, through this he further makes his point that without knowledge our view of the truth is askew. Plato explains that the three hostages have been shackled in the dark cave their whole lives unable to see the real world. The only piece of actuality they can see are shadows of people crossing in front of the opening of the cave. These figures can drive anyone insane without having any real truth to what the images could be. Without any awareness of the real world just outside of the cave they are forced to adapt and therefore accept their own reality. Plato goes on to say that, “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (122). The obscurities are significant because they are the only apprehension the prisoners have, they have nothing to compare it to. The actuality of it to the captives is something other than the truth would be outside of the cave. The forms on the wall are only just shadows, but to them that is everything they have ever known. Plato through his legend portrays
People seem to think that everything that happens to them everyday is real. The question is, though, “What is real?”. Is everything you see everyday really real or is it fake? We might see fantasies that other people or machines have created for us. Maybe we are the ones that are not enlightened yet. Numerous essays and films have been produced on this subject. One essay is “The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato in 360 B.C. Also, the movie The Matrix was filmed in 1999. Even though many differences can be drawn between “The Allegory of the Cave” and The Matrix, there are many similarities as well.
2395 years ago Plato said, “Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light” (The Allegory of the Cave). Ever since, whether it be 2023 years ago or 9 years ago, Plato’s wise words still ring true. Enter Iron Age Greece, the Trojan war has finally come to an end and the victorious are more than ready to return home to their families with fame and fortune. Ready to see his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, the meritorious warrior Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s The Odyssey, sets out for Ithaca. Yet, his victorious adventure goes awry on his journey home and he must conquer 20 years of the gods’ wrath, vicious creatures, oddly hospitable hosts, and conniving suitors before he can finally have his peace. Flash forward and enter modern-day New York City, the home of Andrea “Andy” Sachs, Northwestern graduate, aspiring journalist, and a girl in much need of some fashion advice. Until, she gets a job at the most prestigious, couture magazine in New York, Runway. With the job comes Miranda Priestly, the Editor in Chief of Runway, and the creator of the impossible tasks and crazy requests, that require unwavering dedication from Andy. But, before she can achieve her dream, her life turns upside down and backwards, in the sinfully funny movie, The Devil Wears Prada. Although these two stories seem different, at the heart of both lies a
As I describe the condition I found myself in, you must realize that on the outside I actually appeared to be doing very well. I wasn’t black and blue like the battered women off of the public awareness commercials. I was physically healthy and so was my young son. I had a full-time job and appeared to be handling the single mom life fairly well. So when I walked into the counselor’s office that first day I appeared to be a fairly healthy individual. Without any emotion that day, I told the counselor that there had been some abuse in my past marriage. I had no idea then that my life had took a turn.
For the first two years i was filled with anger but didn’t realize it, my junior year was probably the most emotionally draining because that’s when everything came out and i had to talk about my feelings when I really didn’t want to just because I don’t want pity from people, I didn’t want people to take advantage of me and essentially just because I was embarrassed. I had to witness my mom cry, I had to sit there while my sister asked “where’s daddy?” every day. My days were filled with court dates and therapy dates. So I was forced to think about what happened. It caused me to not be able to sleep because I was wishing that i circled “no” instead of “yes”, why I was taking things out on people, I would get scared every time the bell rang, and I would even wait for everyone to fall asleep just so I could cry myself to sleep. No one knows this but I resented my mom a little for bringing this man into the house because this is not the first time a boyfriend has caused chaos into our home. I felt like she could have at least realized what was going on. Before everything came out no one knew what was going and I had no one to talk to and I felt alone and if my mom would have noticed then I wouldn’t have gone through that. I don’t like to use the word depressed because that’s nothing to play around with but that’s how I
The "Allegory of the Cave" is Plato's attempt to explain the relationship between knowledge and ignorance. Starting with the image of men in fetters that limit their movement and force them to look only ahead, this is the idea that all men and women are bound by the limits of their ignorance. Men and women are restricted by the limits of the education of their parents and the small amounts that can be culled from their environment. Images and shadows are representations of those things surrounding us that we see but do not understand because of our limited knowledge. As we obtain the ability to see things more clearly in the cave that is our ignorance, we start to then
I became aware of the problems of intimacy and trust that plagued my relationships and friendships, resulting from the years of abuse I had endured. I reflected on my past history of racial alienation from my peers as a first-generation citizen. I shared my devastation when I fell prey to the cruel reality of rape culture after coming forward about my abuse. My therapist introduced me to group therapy, where others shared similar experiences of grief and loss. I observed the personal growth of those who have struggled with chemical dependency and have sought help.
“Choosing a Map for Life,” by M. Scott Peck, “The Allegory of the Cave,” by Plato, “The Truman Show” and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes describe the views and perspective of the reality in our world. We have to get out, discover the world around and revise it. By setting up a map or goal and revising it in the world, will make us to control our perceptions and draw close to the reality.
In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).
The basic premise of Plato’s allegory of the cave is to depict the nature of the human being, where true reality is hidden, false images and information are perceive as reality. In the allegory Plato tells a story of a man who is put on a Gnostics path. Prisoners seating in a cave with their legs and necks chained down since childhood. They are chained in such a way that they cannot move or see each other, only look into the shadows on the wall in front of them; not realizing they have three dimensional bodies. These images are of men and animals, carried by an unseen men on the background. Now imagine one of the prisoners is liberated into the light, the Gnostic path will become painful and difficult, but slowly his eyes will begin to
The Allegory of the Cave or also known as, Myth of the Cave, is a good example of explaining the feature of the way people think. It is a concept that demonstrates how humans are fearful of change and what they don’t know. Plato says that men are living in an underground cave and it is a situation. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. Plato talks about being free, everyday life, knowledge, and essentially what he wrote to be true. I think that he was very unique with his writings because there are so many ways to look at the world and his way was just one. He was educated highly and is recognized as a philosopher to this day.
“Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is story that contrasts the differences between what is real and what is perceived. He opens with Glaucon talking to Socrates. He has Glaucon imagine what it would be like to be chained down in a cave, not able to see anything other than what is in front of him. He tells a story of men that were trapped in a cave and were prisoners to the truth. These prisoners have only seen shadows. But because of their ignorance, these slaves to the cave believe that the shadows are real. The story goes on to say that one of the men has been dragged out of the cave. He is not happy to see the real world, yet upset because he is being taken