Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Remnant Trust: The Allegory of the Cave

      The Allegory of the Cave is a symbolism of how Plato saw the world. The story is about prisoners trapped in this cave for all of their lives. They are chained to a wall, only able to see what is in front of them. In front of them is a wall with a glowing light. The glowing light is from a fire behind them on a ledge. People walk across this ledge with objects in their hands. The fire casts shadows on the wall for the prisoners to see. To the prisoners, this is their reality world. Then a prisoner is freed, he hurries to get out of the cave. When he walks outside he is blinded by the sunlight. He takes in all the beauty and truth that is around him. He runs back to the cave to share his visions with the other prisoners, but of course they don’t believe him and call him crazy.
      This is an allegory; it uses symbolism to tell a story where something represents a bigger idea. Basically it makes you think of the point and brainstorm to but the pieces together. In this story, the cave represents the physical world it’s convinced the prisoners that there was no other means of life. The shadows represent what they experienced in the physical world of the cave. The prisoners represent the people of the physical world who were hindered from the real world. The sun represents the real world for which they were withheld from.
      The importance to western literature to us was not all the time you fit in (the in crowd) and you weren't accepted. Like today I think they call them cliques, groups of people that hang out or lifestyles, financial statues meet a certain criteria.
      When you think about it a lot of movies could be based off of this, but the one that comes to mind is the Matrix. When people enter the matrix they are put into a world that they cannot control. The Matrix is a computer generated world that is operated by one person. People inside only know what others make them see. Like the men in the cave, they could only believe what was in front of them. Also like the men in the cave, the people in the matrix didn't know what to believe when they found out that they were being told lies about their life.
      To us the central idea is that humans have limited perspective. Though we may think that what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and experience is real, it may not be true because we are chained from perceiving what’s behind us, beyond us, or beyond our five senses.  -- Written by ENGL 083-36N Group 2

15 comments:

Marissa Taylor said...

The Allegory of the Cave

I think group two did a good job when they talked about the story. I think they mentioned everything that was in the story. I like how they talked about what an allegory is for people that didn’t know what it meant. Like the prisoners, I know what it’s like to be in a world and think that is the only one out there. Before I had my child I thought I was in the real world. But there is a world beyond partying and friends. There is life and there are commitments. I was the prisoner when I went out with friends. But when I had my son I entered a new world, threw new eyes. I now stay home and hang out with my son. I love my new world. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

Haley Webber said...

Allegory of the Cave

Allegory of the cave to me is a very sad story. It has people trapped in a cave and they see shadows of the outside world and they don't get to experience the real world they just get to stare at a wall all the time. I agree with group 2s blog post because they went a lot of detail about the story and they related it to everyday things/movies. They helped me understand the story a little better.

katie pope said...

I agree with what this group has to say about the allegory of the cave. I agree with this because I think there is more to life than what meets the eye. For example I thought I knew what love was and how it felt to love somebody or something as much as possible, but then I met my son and its a whole new feeling, its a much more amazing feeling. I think this paper needs a little more details, with longer more descriptive paragraphs. I think they could also use more examples so people can visualize whats going on in the story and make them think. Other than that I deffinately agree with this groupls stand point on "The allegory of the cave".

Angela Hacker said...

I agree on every example and reference this blog makes about the Allegory, what it means, and how it fits into real life.
The key point of the blog is when the poster states how it is important in western literature and the key example, cliques. There are numerous cliques and groups in the world, even though some people are oblivious to them.
One thing I disliked about the blog in its earlier state was the reference to Neo from the Matrix. Many people have not seen the Matrix and may not actually know what the poster may mean.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this blog and learned more about what an Allegory means.

Jaymee Deckard said...

Allegory of the Cave.
In the “Allegory of the Cave” blog, group two did a great job at summarizing the story. They used great detail in explaining what was happening in the story. I agree with their symbolism with our five senses and seeing around them, and how difficult that may be. Group two did not include the movie example, they did mention the main character from a movie but not the movie title or what is was about. The group could of talked about how the movie “Matrix” is similar to “Allegory of the Cave” because they both represent how people see their surroundings differently until they are focused to see the truth. Over all group two’s blog was very well thought out and nicely put together.

Tiffani Baker said...

Allegory of the Cave


I really liked how this blog was written and I agree with everything they mentioned. This story is an allegory which uses symbolism to tell a story where something represents a bigger idea. This sentence here in my opinion is the main point of the whole paper. The whole paragragh this sentence was in, is my favorite because it really explains the whole story in detail to where you fully understand the deep meaning. Without this paragragh, their blog wouldn't explain what is really going on. I would compare this story to the movie Mean Girls, because it's about a teenage girl entering the world of High School after being home schooled. She is opened to a new world she had only seen on tv.


ZT

McKenzie Burns said...

Allegory of the Cave
Group two did a good job explaining the story, though I think they should have spent less time explaining what the story is about because we already know what it’s about. The third paragraph is not needed though, they talk about how the story is important because we still have cliques, but that has nothing to do with the story. The story is about how we don’t always see the universal truths in life, and how everyone’s vision is blurry. I really like the second paragraph, they put a lot of detail into it and I think that should be the theme of the whole blog. Other than the third paragraph the blog post was really good and they fixed a lot of the mistakes.

Kaysie Thompson said...

This blog helped me understand he Allegory of the cave a little more. I liked what they had to say about how it relates to life today. It tells us how it’s like our groups and lifestyle today, but Neo ends up being all alone after he is set free. No one will listen to him, or believe what he has to say about what he saw outside the cave. I agree with everything you had to say, and you summed it all up well and got the main point across. I also think neo got the short ebd or the stick after they freed him, because he free but all alone now, and in a world that he just found out was real.

Taylor Jackson said...

I think that group two explained what the Allegory of the cave symbolized and stood for very well. And I agree with the way it was written. Therefore; I do think they could add more detail and be more specific about their examples they compare to the Allegory of the cave. I do like the second paragraph a lot and believe that they could even possibly make it the introduction. It also really captures the meaning of symbolism and how Plato himself saw the real world. Over all the Allegory of the cave blog was very well thought out and grasped the overall meaning of the story.

karissah rogers said...

The allegory of the cave

They really made this story understandable by breaking it down and not using all of the complex words and things. So that it was easier to read and comprehend. All through high school I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life. I felt like I was in the dark because everyone except for e knows what they wanted to achieve in their life. Then I realized what I wanted to do, so I applied to Ivy tech to study nursing. I finally felt like I was out of the dark. This is how I compare my life to the story of the Allegory of the Cave.

Jordan Cole said...

The Allegory of the cave

Yes, I do agree with their blog post. I believe that they have made so very valid point. But they should have tied it into everyday life a little bit better. I often find myself like the people in the cave I get side tracked and get the one set mind to do one thing and only one thing and that isn’t always a good thing as I’m always very busy. For the most part the blog raised some very good points and was laid out pretty well itself

Kaitlyn Box said...

The Allegory of the Cave

The blog for "Allegory of the Cave" has a really good summary and that is the part I like the most. The reason I like the summary so much is because the story can be confusing. All though, with the summary in the blog you can understand what is happening better. Another thing I really like is how they explain what an allegory is. I think this is important because it also helps with the understanding over the blog.

douglas phillips said...

Douglas Phillips
Eleanor Moss-Eng.083
responds to the AotCB
oct. 6th, 2011

A Little Feed Back

Here are my comments on the Allegory of the cave Blog that group two wrote. i think they did a good job on describing in the first two paragraphs. But i don't know what the 3rd paragraph is all about. The part that I enjoyed and makes me think, is the last sentence in the second paragraph. It makes me think about how life seems and makes me wonder if theres more to life, then what we can, hear, smell touch, taste, and experience is real. Any ways, I think the 3rd paragraph was off, and that it jumps around. It don't tell you who they really are taxing about. But over all they did a good job on putting the first two paragraphs together.

sheila gray said...

Hello my name is Sheila Gray I am a student in Professor Elizabeth Starr's English 245 literature of the old testament. I trully want to take this time to thank Instructor Eleanor Moss and the English 083-36N group#2 and also Carol Parkinson for posting all these wonderful blogs. the students have done some excellence work. i had never heard of blog; this is totally new to me and very challenging as well as interesting. i just want to say that life is a learning process and i am very thankful that ivy tech has choose professors who care about the students and what we learn; sharing these blogs has helped me to dig deeper in my class and in life. The Allegory of the cave was one of the most interesting blogs for me; because i know very little about plato. I do know that plato is a Greek Philosopher from 427?-347? B.C., but by reading this blog i've learned that Plato saw the world as symbols. i wonder what symbol did he use for the prisoners. today they identify prisoners by a number and a uniform, and even those they are in prison they are well taking care of, and i do realize that they don't have freedom to come and go in and out, but the conditions are livable. I have not seen the movie about the matrix but when i read in this blog the matrix is a computer generated world that is operated by one person it makes me think about the world we live in today. I was taught not to take my five senses for granted and that experience is one of lifes best teachers. I would be overwhelmed to find out at this late date that my teaching was not true. thanks again for sharing

Heather Olin said...

In the Allegory of the Cave, I feel as if this story is a thriller; suspenseful. I understand how the people in the cave are almost close to being prisoners and that the cave is their reality world because that is all that they know. I wished that the story explained how the people got into the cave, and went into more detail about that. I think that it is really sad about being chained up to a wall, only looking at shadows of objects that they have no idea what they are of. When I read this story, I think about the book “The Boy called It,” because the boy is trapped from the real world and all he knows is getting tortured by his mother. The whole thing about being trapped and not knowing the real world is extremely horrible and painful to think about.