Allegory Of The Cave

Upon reading the Allegory of the Cave, one can see that Plato is arguing the importance of defining the theory of what is really being seen versus illusions that we see and think are reality. In this play, prisoners are chained by their feet and necks so that they can not move their bodies or their heads, forcing them to look straight ahead at a stone wall. A fire is burning behind them and people are walking with sculptures across a platform in front of the fire, creating projected images onto the wall in front of the prisoners. The captive men begin to think that the shadows on the wall are real people in the outside world. Glaucon, who is being taught this concept by Socrates, asked the question “Now if they were able to say something
Socrates responded with “they would have to”, meaning that the prisoners would begin to think that the shadows on the wall are the beings that are talking, instead of the puppeteers. This conversation between these two men is demonstrating Plato’s point that we believe everything that we see. They have only been able to see these shadows on the wall, so they think that this is everything that is reality. Once one of the prisoners is released back into “the real world”, he has to adjust not only to the painful light from the sun that he has not seen for some time, but to define what is real in the outside world and what is an illusion and or reflection. Socrates said once the prisoner was released from his chains and shown what is creating these shadows, “…what do you think he would say if someone were to inform him that what he saw before were trifles but that now he was much nearer beings…”. Confusion would strike the prisoner, being that all he has known are the illusions that he had been seeing in front of him, but now there are real beings in the world. The free prisoner now has to go out into the real world and make sense of reality
This theory can be daunting for the future generations because it does not give anyone a real chance to show who they are. Society is too quick to jump to conclusions about others and judge someone without getting to know them. Plato is surely right about people struggling to define what is reality versus what is an illusion, because as he may not be aware, technology is taking over the modern world. Everyone looks at their phones while they are walking, ignoring all of the sights that they could have seen around them, like the men being forced to look straight ahead in the cave. No one really takes the time to stop and smell the roses, like Socrates is saying, they think that everything important is right there in front of them on their electronics. The issue of defining what is real and what is an illusion comes up because what you are seeing on your phone is merely just an illusion. Younger generations are beginning to have “internet friends” who are people they have never met, or even seen, and think that that this is reality. In today’s society and in Plato’s play, we see the issue of bullying and conflict come up. Once to released prisoner returned to the cave, the other men laughed at him when he could not see what they were seeing. At this point in time, we are still struggling with this problem, and we can almost view this