Man Thinking

Justin Niccolo San Diego

Professor Comeau

English 101

22 October 2014

Man Thinking

A man once told me that success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success; if you love what you are doing, you will be successful. This man is my uncle; he is a successful pastry chef and this is his motto in life. This man proved his motto to me as I witnessed how passionate he is with his job. Since I was a kid I’ve always looked up to this person, as he inspire me to find what I love doing and be successful doing it. He traveled around the world to do what he loves, won competitions and be a pastry chef and a culinary school teacher that he is today. But behind all his success, what is something he has or he is that brought him to a person that he is now?; I believe the word that i’m looking for is enlightened. To be enlightened is to know the truth, and he believes that the key to success is to simply be happy and love what you are doing and he considers this as the truth as he proved it to himself and the people he inspires around him including me.

Just like every success story there is, some people started with nothing, until they find enlightenment. In Plato’s Allegory of the cave the man found enlightenment by breaking away from his chains and escaping his situation (the cave). It is a very interesting text as it holds a story that has a deep meaning. The Allegory of the cave is about prisoners that have been trapped in a cave all their lives facing a wall, shackled and had their head restricted to move into any directions. Behind them is a fire which produces light which enables them to see shadows; in front of the fire is a balcony where people walk carrying different kinds of things which casts a shadow unto the wall. These prisoners have never seen anything in their lives but shadows, so whatever the shadow shows them , they believe is real. Plato suggests a game where the prisoners would guess what shadow is being casted and when a prisoner gets it right the other prisoners would praise him and consider him a master of nature. One of the prisoners escaped the cave and was shocked on what he sees outside, he couldn't believe the things he is seeing is real, as he adapt to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view on what is real was completely false. He then begins to understand his new world and sees the sun as the source of all life; his journey lead him to discover reality, meaning and beauty. He came into a conclusion that his previous life and the guessing game they used to play was rather meaningless. When he returned to the cave to report about his findings to the prisoners, they couldn't believe what he is saying and thought that he’s just crazy, then they threatened his life with death if he tries to free them from their shackles.

This story has a very deep meaning into it where each of us can have our own interpretation of the text. The cave represented limits that humans put themselves into; to seek for more knowledge, to think outside of the box and to the idea that all knowledge comes from what we see and hear in this world. The prisoners symbolizes humans, the fact that we can be molded like a clay, to be trained and be developed based on what we are taught is real or what we experienced makes us who we are; just like the prisoners who lived inside that cave their whole life without having the knowledge of the outside world, was molded by the scenarios inside the cave to believe what they see is real. The shadows represent an information that can be absorb inside our brain, the knowledge the prisoners believed in all there is, comes from a shadow. The game suggests that people can be a master of someone if they have more knowledge over the others. The escape of the prisoner symbolized hope, that behind all our weaknesses as a human being, by having a vulnerable brain; we could still be better and more powerful by knowing the truth and setting ourselves free from all what we believe our limits are. The prisoner’s return and the reaction of the other prisoners symbolizes the fear that we all have, to