The Allegory of the Cave

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“The Allegory of the Cave” Meaning Symbols “The Allegory of the Cave” is the beginning of book seven of “The Republic” by Plato who is a Greek philosopher. Plato in this analogy represents an extended metaphor to clarify the process of education, the soul’s journey from ignorance to knowledge. Also, behind this allegory there is a basis opinion that all we perceive are imperfect reflections of the ultimate forms which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato represents several of important symbols that have larger meaning within the story such as the cave, the sun and the shadows. Initially, Plato is filled his story with symbols that are nearly represent an idea that he wants to explore. First, a metaphor that is represented throughout the story is the cave which symbolizes the human mind. In the story, there are people in the cave who are enclosed in a world where shadows are the meaning of everything and there is no other explanation behind things. Plato states “human being living in an underground den, which has a mouth open toward the light and reaching all along the den…”(1235). Also in the story, it takes a man to get out of the cave for him to realize that he has been taught the wrong things and that the truth was being kept behind the shadows. “… he will suffer sharp pain; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion,…”(Plato 1236) . Themessage that Plato wants to send to his readers is that when people open their minds to new things, their perspectives change and instead of believing everything said by other people they start to justify their thoughts and question explanations. So, in this case the cave represents our naïve mind and our disclosure to the real world. We

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