Ensayo

The Allegory of the Cave



ENG1005 - College English 2



Fernando Ramos



03/20/2011































Allegory of the Cave



Knownas one of the greatest philosophers in history, Plato in his Allegory of the Cave gives an insight into the human condition. Allegory is a type of story in which the characters and events represent adeeper meaning. Using several symbols, Plato described the predicament in which mankind finds itself and then proposes a way to salvation. Unlike Socrates, his mentor, Plato wrote down his ideas.Capturing both his teacher’s learning and teaching method, Plato made use of dialogues in his writings. This is known as the Socratic Method of learning wherein two people learn by talking with each other.Allegory of the Cave is a dialogue between Socrates and his students Glaucon.

In the Allegory, Plato makes one of his major philosophical assumptions known: that the world we perceive through oursenses is not the real world but just a poor copy of it and that the real world can only perceived intellectually. The idea that education should direct the student’s mind toward what is real andimportant is also present in this work. Through rich symbolisms, extended allegories, vivid tone and imagery, Plato was able to achieve his purpose. That is to make us understand that life is a quest foreternal truth and that our mind and soul strive to understand through knowledge.

Symbols were a rich component of Plato’s writing style. And in the Allegory of the Cave, many symbolic suggestionswere used. The cave is representative of our society where everyone starts out. It represents the world we live in. What we see inside the cave is what our senses perceived and we accept them to bereal. The cave is the contemporary world of ignorance which holds the people captives. The prisoners are the people who remain ignorant of reality. The raised wall is representative of our thinking...