March 31, 2014
AP Lang 2nd Hour
Analysis of “Allegory of the Cave” Knowledge is the one “thing” that cannot be taken away from a person. In prisons and concentration camps, men are often striped down until they have nothing; yet what they do possess is whatever is in their minds. Thus, for leaders, it is important to control their subjects’ minds from the beginning, as this is the only to ensure that they can sustain their power. For even if the authority starves and beats their people, the people will still have the knowledge in their mind. To prevent this, leaders realize that to control their people, they must control knowledge. Plato, witnessing this very attempt to control knowledge in his own society, writes of the issue