allegory of the cave

an allegory by definition is a story in which people, things, and events have a symbolic meaning ; often instructive.the allegory of the cave was created by the greek philospher Plato in his book "The Republic". the allegory of the cave has many other alias'such as "mataphor of the sun", "analogy of the dividing line", "myth of the cave", "metaphor of the cave", and also " the parable of the cave". this story has many names because it is interpreted in many diffrent ways. the allegory of the cave is about people that are prisnors since birth and they are chained doen so the only thing in sight is a wall. behind the prisnors is a blazing fire and in the middle of that fire and prisnors is a walkway. on the walkway is moving plants and animals that make shadows on the wallso the prisnors see the shadows only.a puppet speaks and is echoed on the wall ans the prisnors are persuaded that the words are spoken from the shadows. the prisnors make a game out of naming the shadows and the prisnors that play badly are judged and disliked from the other prisnors. tired of imprisonment a prisnor turns around and is blinded ny the sun escaping into the cave and he finds that the shapes are not real. he notices the sun causes all of the shadow and how it also causes many other things that happen on the land.now a freed prisnor he wishes to not turn back to the cave and the other prisnors do not want to be freed becuase the only thing they ever knew is the cave and they dont want something new and foreign to them. the freed prisnor does not return becuase he would have to adjust to the darkness becuase he is used to the light of the sun and the other prisnors would think that the sun is bad becuase it made him blind. the allegory of the cave is similar to " the matrix" because in the moviethe human world was living in a lie and are compared to the prisnors forced to only see the shadows of the world outside of the cave. and the freed prisnor lives in a free world of sulight where the truth lies and there is no darkness.

paraphrased from www.wikipedia.org