Interpreting Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a group of prisoners are chained inside a cave. The only thing the prisoners can see are shadows from events happening outside displayed on the wall. One of the prisoners is finally set free and leaves the cave. After seeing everything there is to see outside, he returns to the cave to inform the other prisoners of what awaits them. Instead of the other prisoners listening to him, they refuse to believe what he is saying. The focus of this story is not about what the prisoners do, or do not do, the main focus is why.
A way to interpret the story and help understand the meaning is to think of the main prisoner as a teacher. The prisoners inside the cave are like students on their first day of school. Teachers