Ki’Anna Payton

1.) The allegory in “The Allegory in the Cave” is that the perception of reality can be altered
based on environment. This allegory of the cave represents how people view the world
in a sense. Everyone has their own perspective on how they view things and that
perspective can arise from the surroundings/situation.
2.) Some of the key elements in the imagery used could include the visual descriptiveness
of the light, shadows, the cave, and the prisoners themselves. They help represent
3.) The imagery of the shackles and the cave suggest that the prisoners are not free to
interpret things as they should be. What I mean by this is that they are limited to what
the shackles allow them to perceive since they are unable to move, they are limited to
one perspective and no freedom to look at things outside of the “cave”.
4.) The prisoners only want to see what they can see, they don’t want to change what they
aren’t used to, that is their normal. The free prisoner sees the world how it is supposed
to be seen and after seeing that, the cave is disappointing. In the world we live in people
don’t feel comfortable with change, we “don’t want to fix what isn’t broken”, but
sometimes we don’t know what is broken until we see what it looks like fixed.
5.) In relation to the process of enlightenment, the allegory suggests that in order to feel
enlightened you have to be open minded to other things instead of closed off to what you
are used to. Once you are enlightened, what you are used to probably won’t look as
flattering as it was before, or it will look more flattering depending on what it is. In this
case the outside world looked more flattering than the cave.
6.) The cave we live in today is the technology we use, we look at the world through a
camera lens instead of with our own eyes. This is a problem that many people don’t see
as a problem and this is because they don’t want to give up what they are used to, which
is viewing and capturing life with a cellphone. My brother likes to watch hunting and
videos of people camped out in the wild but when i asked him if he wanted to go
camping and maybe fishing, he said not really. He was fine viewing it in his cave but he
didn’t want to get out of said cave and experience it for himself. He’s used to being in
that cave because he’s never been outside of it and has no desire to. I on the other hand
would gladly step foot outside of the cave that is technology. I’m very opened minded to
new things and exploring the world first hand is something that interests me.