Allegory Of The Cave

"The Allegory of the Cave"

In reading this story by Plato about the 4 stages of reality you start to see and understand why he perceived things the way he did. He made some truly believable points to the reality of life in this story.

In the story it related the 4 stages of reality to prisoners that were chained up in a den. They saw shadows of men passing along a wall. There were also comparisons made about what would happen if they saw certain things. People often wonder why it is that prisoners act the way they do when they are released from prison. It isn't easy for those people who haven't been in that situation to understand what it's like. Prisoners are stuck in certain stages for whatever length of time they are there for, and find themselves in daily routines that are extremely different than everyday life in the real world, but after spending so much time going through the same motions on a daily basis they don't know what it's like to see things other than just the shadows by the fire. They don't know how to react when they see that glimpse of sunlight. They will definitely have that pain when they see the sunlight because of the shadows they are so used to seeing. It is difficult for prisoners to try and adapt to life outside the prison walls because of things in which they have grown accustomed to in prison.