The Allegory of the Cave

In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato explains that we humans are ignorant about the true nature of life, and we do not know the reality of this world. We think we do but what we see and perceive are only shadows of the reality which we cannot even begin to comprehend. Truth is like trout. Slippery, it becomes difficult to grasp tightly in any attempt to catch it, and is even more difficult to show to other people, in that when one holds it up for scrutiny it is often lost in the struggle to do so. In this story, the prisoners are chained up in a way that they can only see the back wall. Behind them is a fire, and in between the fire and the wall which they are staring at, there are objects being moved around. They see the shadows on the wall in front which are cast by these objects. So if they saw a shadow of a flower, they would believe that shadow is actually the reality because they haven't seen the actual flower itself, only the shadow. So they live believing that the shadow is actually the reality, when in fact, there is much more to it. Later on, the chains are broken for some of the prisoners and they get to leave the cave and experience life. Some live there life and never return to the cave, and yet some of them run back to it out of fear of the real world. Some go back to the cave to tell the prisoners who are still chained up about the life outside of the cave. But of course, they do not understand because they themselves haven't experienced the real world themselves. Plato is explaining that if we humans are not educated, then we too are like the prisoners. He is saying that we are actually living in a shadow and what we see and understand is not the reality. We must not be like the prisoners but grow up to understand life as it is.

Growing up, we watch movies and TV shows. Most of the movies show us about how happy families are and how friendship is and how they are always there for one another. We learn that love lasts and never dies out. It shows children that the world is full of happiness and bliss. That people live together in peace. We were raised believing all these stories, having all these hopes, but as we grow older we come to realize that what we are shown in movies and shows is not how this world actually is. Just like in the Allegory of the Cave, we too can be compared to the prisoners. We accept these movies as true because we as humans always want all to be well and happy but that's not how the reality of life is. In life there's happiness, yes. But just as there exists happiness, there exists pain. Just as there is trust, there is betrayal. Not everything in life is joyful. There are moments in life where we are joyful but there are also trials and hardships that we must overcome during our lifetimes. Many people choose to stay hidden inside their own hypothetical cave which they have created. They choose to stay chained because when you're chained, you don’t go out and experience all the things in life. Inside the cave, there exists peace and safety. And when you to go out of the cave, there exists pain and suffering, as well as trouble and experience.

We break out of our chains when we gain confidence and put aside our fear. Breaking the chains can e a bit painful for people because it is life changing. What we believed in before changes completely. We grow up thinking life is all rainbows and butterflies, then we come to see that life is nothing like that. As we break the chains and leave the cave we come to realize that things we’ve heard and learned before are nothing like the real world. For example; in movies we see how close friends are and how happy families are, but once we leave the cave and live our life you come to realize that what we’ve grown up seeing is in fact, not the truth. We question what was real and what wasn’t.

We break out of our chains and leave the cave when we gain some knowledge and experience in the world which we live in. Many people live a sheltered and safe life, but those who go out and experience new things, those who take risks, they end up knowing how life actually is. Along the way they come across many trials and hardships which are very painful but to them, the high, the happiness is well worth it. They sometimes come to hurt those around them because of the things they do but then again, in that moment it doesn’t really matter to them because their knowledge is so valuable to them, what they’ve experienced is everything because that becomes a part of them. We come across many ups and downs. We come across pain and sorrow. We come across joy and freedom. In the end, the pain is still worth it. It's better to be extremely happy and then go through much pain than