Josh Morales
Mrs. Dax
American lit.
9/17/12
The Allegory of the Cave 1. The allegory of the cave is not just about a small group of people (specifically only the prisoners in the cave) but the majority of people everywhere. It’s about being stuck in something fiction since you were born and not being able to even have a thought about living differently because it’s all you’ve ever known. This allegory has a lot to do with psychological manipulation because the puppeteers have full control of the way the prisoners perceive reality. The way I perceive this allegory is that the government or advertisers are the puppeteers and we, the people are the prisoners living in there world. In The Allegory of the Cave it talks about how the prisoners are released and revealed to the shadows (an illusion) and the world outside of the cave which becomes reality (freedom). In my perspective I believe that in the time we live in now, our freedom is using the effects of drugs and alcohol to get away from our imprisonment, which we’ve been in since our childhood. *I could have elaborated on how the government and advertisers manipulate us but I figured I have two more questions to answer so… 2. The most important elements involved with this allegory are Conflict, Setting, Mood and Character. I feel that without these elements the allegory isn’t as complete and gets the entire message across. To start it off, this allegory would be absolutely nothing without the setting that Plato has come up with. What I love about it is that it isn’t anything over complicated. Anyone can connect to a cave, fire (I would hope), chains, shadows… He used simple things to
