In “The Allegory of the Cave,” there are these men that have been bound by a chain, in a cave for as long as they can remember. They are faced to where their backs are towards the only source of light there is, a simple fire in the center. They can’t look either side but straight ahead. Behind the fire is wall, where statues stand, and are moved by people. And because of this, it cast shadows across the wall and the prisoners see that. They see stories being told from the shadows and since they have never been anywhere else but the cave, they believe and define the shadows as reality. When they talk about life and humans they refer to the shadows as these things. Then one day, a prisoner is freed from his bond and forced to look at the fire and statues in the cave, and after some confusion he realizes that what he is seeing is more real than the shadows he always saw. And sees how the statue and fire caused the shadows he saw all this time. Next the prisoner is then again forced to go out of cave and into the world. While out of the cave he is blinded by the sun’s light and looks at the shadows at first, then reflections and final the real objects like the flowers, trees, clouds. He then takes in that the statues’ shadows were only copies of the real things out in the world. When he finally adjusts to the light he looks up at the sun, and finally understands that the sun is the cause of everything around him that he sees.

After reading this it made me second think about how I saw the world. I wondered if, we as humans faced in any shape or form, the struggle that these prisoners faced in their lives. The fact that we could easily be chained into a cave and be facing our backs to the only source of light, makes me be thankful for not being placed in that situation. I could only imagine what it would feel like to only see shadows for the rest of my life and it makes me cherish the fact I get to experience all these wonderful things in life that the world