The Allegory in the Cave

The Allegory in the Cave explains education and its role in society. The story begins with prisoners in a dark cave who are forced to face one wall of the cave. Their bodies and heads are bound so that they cannot turn around or look anywhere else but that one cave wall. The prisoners have been in this position all their lives. Behind the prisoners is a wall of fire that provides some light to the cave. In between the prisoners and this wall of fire is a shorter wall that men, carrying various objects, are walking on. All that the prisoners have seen for their whole lives are the shadows that are cast by the men. And all they can hear are the echoes made from the voices of the men on the walkway. Socrates explains that since these shadows and echoes are what the prisoners have experienced their whole lives, they interpret them as real objects and real sounds.

The story then transitions to a point in which one of the prisoners is freed and able to move around. He is able to see the fire and the objects that cast a shadow on the wall that he stared at for his whole life. However, he does not recognize them as real objects and continues to believe that the shadows are more real. The prisoner is then dragged out to the surface of the cave where he is able to see the sun and the rest of the world. Again, he believe that the shadows to be more real than what is outside of the cave. Over time he becomes more acclimated to the outside world and he would understand that these things are real.

Socrates then discusses what it would be like if the freed prisoner were to go back to the cave and teach what he has learned to the other prisoners. When he tries to explain the outside world to the other prisoners they do not understand because they have yet to be exposed to it. They are ignorant to anything that is not right in front of them. The freed prisoner is mocked for claiming that the shadows and echoes are not real things and that other, more real things exist behind...