Dalia Hernandez ENGL 102 Project 1 Platos Cave Analogy

Plato was an Ancient Greek philosopher who had a strong belief in a good educational background due to his deep interest for many subjects. Plato is amongst the philosophers that not only changed the Greek life, but the world today as well. By leaving Attica and moving to Italy and Egypt, Plato gained knowledge in geometry, geology, astronomy and religion. Due to his passion for these subjects he founded the school of learning soon becoming the Academy. Through Platos school, the opportunities and knowledge amongst the Greek community increased and made Greeks very acknowledgeable of the material. Plato gave us a new world filled with numbers and equations to which many things can be done today at a much simpler way. In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato created a written dialogue between Glaucon, his brother and Socrates, his friend and mentor. It describes dirty prisoners facing a cave wall, to which they are chained to. The only objects their eyes are to see are the shadows projected onto the wall from the people walking behind them from a fire that permits the shadows to be created. When one of the prisoners leaves the cave and sees the reality of the world he comes back to the cave to tell the others about his surprising discovery, but they only see him as a shadow and do not recognize him. Due to Platos strong belief in a good education his message behind the allegory depicts our education system as being limited and not using it to our full advantage because we are being restricted from learning different ways.

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato utilizes the image of the prisoners to be visualized as dirty. By doing so Plato is insinuating our education to be poor lacking knowledge that we should know. Platos belief in true education is strongly reflected by the dirty men, showing how he valued a poor educated living person and how they feel restricted and usually have no hope to become educated. Today most students can relate that our education has significantly decreased from past generations due to many issues today like our government always allowing budget cuts on already low budgeted school districts. Not having enough teachers, which limits the attention of each student of the teacher and desks to which are being over crowded and don't give the enough space for each student. Or just not having the motivation from students themselves due to their family issues or the friends they hang out with. Our generation is deeply involved with technology that we become oblivious to our learning habits and are more involved in the moment rather than caring about our future. I believe Plato is trying to express that in his era people didnt see having an education as a priority to which few people did have, but to him it was because of the many opportunities it opens up for someone. The men are chained to the wall to represent the limited education one has that isnt permitting them to grow and be free. By illustrating the chained men Plato wanted the reader to realize that others have a better opportunity to education than some and should take advantage of it. Many people today that live in other countries outside the United States are not as fortunate to obtain an education as we are. Many also dont have the money to attend schools and become part of the educated world restricting them from those who do. Plato is also emphasizing on how many students have the option of getting an education, while others are required to maintain a tradition amongst their family like taking care of the family or doing field work. He wants the message to get across that while many have freedom in

gaining an education many can not due to their up holdings which is why they are restricted and obligated into being uneducated. The wall in which the prisoners see the shadows pass them defines the restriction on education. Education can be very misleading by the way it is taught to you. In our educational world today many teachers and professors teach their students only one perspective of the subject their showing, while they should be teaching us a variety so we can create our views on our own. Platos reasoning to put the wall in front of the prisoners was to show how restrictions in people lives can make them believe a certain belief until they realize its all been lies because theyve learned the truth. Education in many peoples lives today has in someway altered their views on something and Plato is revealing the truth about education in how it can be limited and how easy it is to be deceived through it. Throughout The Allegory of the Cave, Plato hinted about his views on education and how it can be seen as poor by representing that throughout the dirty prisoners. He also had them chained to the wall to depict the limitedness our education system has on us these days. He also used a wall to mean the restriction of our education in life can have an impact of us by having created an image in our head into believing in one thing by having us only taught one way rather than several of ways. Plato believed in having an educated background, but in a way he also understood that some people are restricted from learning in many factors and thats the main reason our educated systems are being affected. "Education and Plato's Parable of the Cave." Education and Plato's Parable of the Cave. Journal of Education, 1996. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. "Allegory of the Cave." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. "Plato." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.