Guest Blogger: Omar Mohamed

In the allegory, Plato sees people as forms of prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which the guards can walk. The guards, who are behind the prisoners, hold up people shapes that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these shadows, basically the real objects that pass behind them. What the prisoners see are the shadows and castings that they cannot see. This made understand that the people who are outside and are trying to get these people out of this cave, they are like the paradigm pioneers who are thinking outside the world around them this making them outside the cave. I have notice that in our present day that many people in our society are going about doing the opposite in which they are very uncertain about showing the others the way of the light instead of going and putting them down. It like the guy who is on top of the cave is not wanting people to be with him thus making things difficult for people who are trying to make a difference and what change. In the end what I took away from this reading that Plato was saying get people out of this cave but in our present society I don’t think people are trying to get out of this cave.