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Plato and The Allegory of the Cave

The scene is a busy urban city. Heavy traffic, billboards, construction signs all clutter the horizon as mother
and son are walking hand in hand. He, dark skinned, looks forlorn and nervous dragging his feet. She, blond
and disheveled, carefully slips through the stopped taxis and cars in order to get to the metro stop on the
other side of the street. Once across, she notices her little boys melancholy.
Whats wrong, sweetheart? Looking at his feet, the six year old mutters under his breathe, Mom, I dont
want to go to school. They all make fun of me there. Visibly upset, his mom suppresses a desire to ask more
and soothingly retorts, But, dear, you have to go to school.
Slowly stepping down into the dark and overcrowded station, mother and son silently find a place to wait.
Once stopped, the boy turns to meet his mothers eyes, Why Mom? Why do I have to go to school? Whats
the point? I dont fit in.
Taking hands they walk into the metro car. She carefully looks around before taking a seat. She stutters and
looks for something to say, Well, honey, a long time ago my mother told me a good story that I used to
think about when I didnt want to go school She touches his cheek before finishing her sentence, lets see
sweetheart, how does it begin.
Whispering so that others in the train car arent disturbed, she starts: Imagine a group of people living in an
underground cave, who have been living, doomed to stare at a wall their whole lives. Suspicious, the boy
interjects, Even when they were little like me Mama? Playfully turning up her eyes she smiles and says,
Yes, baby, there were many like you in the cave.So, now, these unfortunate souls have been chained up,
their legs and arms heavy with rusty iron and their necks are fixed so as to look at nothing besides the dusty
wall in front of them. Now behind the prisoners and far above them, light is provided by a fire. There is a
narrow path leading past the fire where another set of residents play with puppets and cast shadows on the
wall for the other poor prisoners to see.
The boy smirks understandingly, Oh like we do at bed timedo they make dogs bark like Daddy does? Yes
silly boy, these puppeteers make all sorts of noises for the prisoners to hear but guess what? Visibly excited,
the boy instinctively asks, What? The people staring at the wall think that the images on the wall are
real, the prisoners dont know there just shadows of puppets because the shadows are the only things they
have ever seenso they think that the gloomy silhouette of the dog puppet is a real dog. Wow how sad for
them the son says.
Now, here comes the exciting part. The mother begins, but before she could speak, she glances at the station
map and becomes alarmed. Wait heres are stop. Get up, its time to leave. She bustles to get out of the
subway, pulling the little boy behind her through the hoards of people waiting to get in. As they exit she
continues: Now imagine that suddenly one of those prisoners is let go and was told he had to escape the cave.
Do you think hed want to leave. Of course Keep in mind that going toward the light and climbing out of
the cave is tough. He has been living in the darkness all his life and hasnt moved very much because his body
has been fixed in one position. Also, dont you think the light would hurt his eyes? Wouldnt all the new
things he was seeing seem blurry?
Nearing the top of the staircase, the little boy rubs his eyes. Dont you think that if the person who freed
him had to keep forcing the prisoner out of the cave and helping him to look at the lightalways bothering
him with questions about the strange new things he was now seeing outside the cave and annoyingly asking
him to focus his eyeswouldnt our hero get tired, wouldnt he want to stay in the cave where it was easy,
where nothing was confusingwouldnt he start to think it was better in the Cave, where no one was asking

him so many questions and demanding so much of him? The little boy knowingly catches his mothers eye
and smiles. Now what if the person who freed him dragged him all the way out of the cave and into the
sunlight, wouldnt he be more pained and irritated with the sun stinging his eyes, like my little boy is doing
now, she playfully moves her sons hands away from rubbing his eyes, dont you think the flood of light
would make it impossible for the prisoner to see anything at first. Wouldnt everything be blurry? Sheepishly
nodding in consent, the boy looks up and begins listening attentively again. Nonetheless, kiddo, after a little
while, our heros eyes adjust and well he begins to see again but this time in the strange new world outside the
cave
Cool what does he see, Mama? She thinks for a moment, Well at first since his eyes were used to seeing
shadows, he only recognizes shadows but after a little while he finds that he can look at reflections in the
water. In the end, because our hero works so hard to focus his eyes, he begins to look at the moon and the
stars and finally the sun and the light of the sun itself. Now he begins to understand how the sun provides the
seasons, the warmth for growth, and allows everything to be seen. Our hero comes to realize how wonderful
the world is in the light of the sun.
Arriving at the edge of the school playground the boy glances at the other kids off in the playground and his
worry returns. The young mother notices and continues, Now be sure, our hero remembers the people still
locked up in the cave and recalls that down there in that murky world what all the other people thought was
real was fake, merely sad puppet shows. And, she looks over at an obviously popular kid, just so you know,
in the cave those people who were best at remembering or talking about those shadows were awarded prizes
and were often admired among the other prisoners.
Looking down at his shoes, the boy puckers his lips before his mother lifts up his chin and smiles, Wouldnt
the hero of our story after having escaped the cave realize that it was better to be out in the sun, wouldnt
he be happy that he made the struggle. A crooked smile comes over the boy just before one of his friends calls
to him. Hey Simon, come checkout my new game. Boy looks at his mom, not sure if he wants to go.
Now wouldnt it also be true that our hero would want to go back down into the cave and help others out.
Wouldnt he risk being made fun of, being misunderstood by the other prisoners those who refused to believe
that there was another world outside the cave wouldnt it still be hard for our little hero. She tilts her
head as he looks once again at his friend, and she says, Nevertheless, do you know what he doesdespite all
his fears? What mama? He is brave and goes down into the Cave everyday. Our hero helps as many of his
fellow prisoners make the difficult journey into the sun.
Thats really good of him, Mama. Yeah it is good of him, kiddo They hug each other, Well okay enough
of this, go to school my silly little boy. She messes up his hair and gives him a playful push toward the school.
thanks, Mom! He kisses her on the check and runs down the steps toward the entrance of the school
yelling to his friend that he has the weirdest story to tell him.
Source: https://alextritten143.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/61/

Go back and look for objects that were mentioned frequently or things that were important to our main characters

Directions: For each of the objects/ideas you wrote down, write two sentences that describes how the characters in
our story interacts/feels about them.
The Cave
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
The Sun
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
The Shadows
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
The puppet masters
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
The climb out of the cave
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
The prisoners
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
Fire
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
One of your own___________________________
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Suggested answer key

The Cave
1. The hero feels trapped by the cave.
2. The cave is a prison to our hero.
The Cave= superficial world

The Sun
1. The sun brings the world of shadows to life for our hero.
2. The hero feels that the sun is the first real thing he has ever encountered.
The Sun =Truth

The Shadows
1. The prisons do not know that the shadows are fake.
2. The prisoners think that these shadows are all there is to life.
The Shadows= illusions

The climb out of the cave

1. The climb out of the cave is difficult for our hero.
2. The climb from the cave was worth the effort and risk for our hero.
The climb out of the cave= gaining of knowledge

The shackles
1. The shackles are holding the prisoners back from the outside world.
2. Once the shackles break, our hero is free to escape to the read world
The Shackles=any superficial item holding a person back from knowledge

The prisoners
1. The hero is taunted by the prisoners.
2. The hero learns that the prisoners are unable to comprehend him.
The prisoners = people without knowledge

Fire
1. The prisoners rely on the fire for entertainment.
2. The fire brings the shadows for our prisoners
The Fire= anything the brings fake knowledge (these days it could be considered the media)