Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Today in class we read and discussed Plato's allegory of the cave. In this allegory, prisoners are shackled in a cave and forced to face only one direction. Behind them is a low wall and a fire behind the wall. People walk by carrying things, casting shadows on the wall the prisoners are looking at. The people also speak, causing an echo from within the cave. Because the prisoners have been here since childhood and don't know any better, they see the shadows in front of them as beings themselves, and they assume the people speaking is actually the shadows speaking.
When a prisoner is freed and dragged out of the cave, it's a painful experience for him to be able to see and eventually look at the sun. The man goes back into the cave and is mocked by the other prisoners for leaving the cave and having his eyes ruined by the light. The prisoners say that if the man who freed the first prisoner tried to free them, they'd kill him.
This allegory is meant to represent a person being enlightened and no longer being ignorant. It's painful, but once the prisoner can see, he can see everything and understand everything. Yet he's mocked by the prisoners in the cave who can only see shadows and hear echos.
Plato might have meant this as a way to defend Socrates, who was put to death for convincing others to think for themselves and no longer be ignorant to the things they weren't seeing. Socrates is the enlightened prisoner, and the people who couldn't see and didn't question the things around them were the prisoners who remained in the cave.

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