The Allegory of the Cave

Today we discussed Plato and we read and listened to his allegory about the cave. It was a little hard to understand at times and what I took away from it was definitely different than what everyone else thought of it. I believe that Plato may have been referencing the way humans view their past, present, and future. The shadows on the walls and the talking are your conscience telling you what you could have done differently in your past and you can only see your present (which is right in front of you) and your past (which is a shadow of who your are in the present). The future is the fire/the light that is burning that has the potential to be so bright, but people are too scared to venture out and explore it because they have never known anything different because they can't see anything other than what the restraints/ shackles of their past and present allows them. When you do finally go out into the light and you start your future, you are scared and that change can be very painful, just like when you see the light for the first time after you have been living in darkness all this time. The problem with the story is that it doesnt have a happy ending where everyone gets to see the real world. The prisoner who got taken up gets killed because everyone else thinks that he is now corrupt and evil. The real world is very similar. The second you have an epiphany and your point of view changes, people cast you out of their lives because they are too afraid to hear the truth. Humanity is too scared and they are cowards. It's no secret that the real world is hard and scary, but the second you step out and see the light, you realize its so much better. And when you have had enough, the second you back to being scared, you immediately regret it because you now realize that there was no going back once you step out. You now have to live with the consequences and the regret of doing something out of spite or because you got scared. You miss out in this world if you can't handle the truth, because being afraid means you miss out on everything, but being able to handle the truth makes you happier because you dont miss out, even though you have to face the facts sometimes. It may be hard, but it becomes even harder the longer you stay in the dark.


These are just my thoughts on the story and I think a lot of good things can be learned if you interpret it the way I did. Thanks for reading.


- Karlee :)