Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" is an extended metaphor. Plato uses many lit techniques to get his point across. “The Allegory of the Cave” has a central message, which is “Is our reality really real?” Is our reality real or was it created by the wants and dogmas of society. People need to think for themselves. It’s important to make your own choices and make your own decisions.
Plato uses fictional characters and setting to get his point across. Everything in the work represents something. The prisoners that are stuck in the cave think they know what reality is but find out there is a greater version outside. The cave represents the ignorance and dogmas of society the keep us from seeing reality. We are the prisoners that are forced to try and understand true reality. The fire in the cave represents enlightenment and reveals the true reality.
One of the prisoners escapes into the real world. When he comes back the other prisoners don’t accept him. They whether stay in the cave than experience the outside world. New things often scare people. They don’t like being taken out of their comfort zone.
Plato is sayings we to escape our narrow mind-ness and start trying to understand each other. We need to try and understand new things and new ideas. We need to break the chains of society and narrow mind-ness.
I also read Of Mice and Men while reading the novel I really felt that George was the protagonist but the ending made me change my mind. Did the ending also effect your point of view on the novel and its characters?
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