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Gautam 1

Bhupal Gautam
3408 S 300 E #B-8
Salt Lake City, Utah
bhupalgautam2009@yahoo.com
November 16, 2016

Ronald W Bohannon
Salt Lake Community College
4600 South Redwood Road
Salt Lake City Utah 84123
Dear Instructor,
My rhetorical analysis is centered in the The Allegory of the Cave from the book of
The Republic regarding the understanding of knowledge and symbolic interpretation of facts.
My focus in this analysis is on how the author has used symbols to convey the message of
reality, importance of education, and knowledge in human life. It describes the states of human
beings like a chained prisoner in an underground cave and find it difficult to accept reality and
knowledge.
Sincerely,

Bhupal Gautam

Gautam 2

Bhupal Gautam
Ronald W Bohannon
English 1010-004
Salt Lake Community College
30 October, 2016
True Understanding of Knowledge and the Difficulties Accepting Reality
In the allegory of The Platos Cave, the author represents the state of human beings.
From the prisoners exit, he wants to convey the message of true understanding, knowledge, and
truth. Most people are not only pleased with their ignorance and senselessness, but aggressive to
anyone who points it out. To ascertain these facts, the author depicts the picture of a dark
underground cave where some prisoners are kept facing towards the wall, fixed and chained
from birth. Behind them there is fire burning high above the cave which casts shadows on the
front wall. Prisoners view only flickering shadows on the wall and falsely believe that those
flickering shadows echo off sound. When a prisoner is exposed to the sunlight, he gets
temporarily blind due to the pain and dazzling brightness. Slowly, his eyes adjust to the sunlight
and gradually he regains vision. When the prisoner is brought back to the cave, he becomes blind
once more.
The author implicitly satires the existing political situation in the allegory. The Cave
myth explores the philosophers relationship to the political order by trying to explain how the
appearance of things and the reality that stands behind these appearances work within the human
condition. (Huard). The allegory reveals that our society ignores the truth and reality at the
beginning in accordance with our political setting, but throughout the course of time, reality is
accepted as an integral part no matter what the political setting is.
In history, slavery was an inevitable part of the society. Our society could not think of the
world without slaves, but later slavery was abolished and the society started to follow the way of
equity and equality. A series of events happened to achieve freedom, democracy, and so on. The
truth is difficult to accept like a prisoners experience to get accustomed to the light. It is hard to
convey the truth to others because truth could be bitter- it may challenge the existing system of
society. At the end of the allegory, prisoners who were not exposed to the light did not accept the
truth as their co-prisoner conveys to them. wouldnt it be said to him that he went up and
came back with his eyes corrupted, and that its not even worth trying to go up? - (Bloom)
In the allegory the author has skillfully used symbols and metaphors. In allegorical
writing characters, actions and setting are used as symbols and they should be interpreted to
make the allegorical meaning. (Platos The Allegory). The author has used characteristics,
actions, and setting as symbols. The darkness in the cave symbolizes the ignorance of the world.
In the outer world, there is light and everything is visible which symbolizes the importance of
knowledge. Chained people and the wall symbolizes the ignorance and the limitation of our

Gautam 3

thinking. The appearance of flickering images in the dark world is false and the reality we cannot
see and understand. Shadows and the chain symbolizes the illusion and our limitation so that we
cannot know the reality. The outer world of the light is the world of knowledge and the dazzling
eyes symbolize our difficulties to accept the truth. The author recognizes and states the
difference between appearances and reality in the allegory to manifest the real picture of the
contemporary society, and bitter reality of human beings as a symbol.

Gautam 4

Work Cited
Bloom, Ellen. (1968) Platos Cave- An interpretive essay, Basic Books Inc.
https://slcc.instructure.com/courses/374424
Howard (Apr 2015) The Rhetoric of Plato (web log) retrieved from
http://teacherweb.com/Blog/TN/CCA/Howard/1/blog.aspx?Post=b02b8a6e-722d-4ba4b963- a99861fd103f
Huard, Roger L. "Plato's Political Philosophy." Google Books. Algora Publishing, Newyork,
2007. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Plato_s_Political_Philosophy.html?id=zsL9yGYgxQC
"Plato's The Allegory of the Cave: Meaning and Interpretation. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.
http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/creationofknowledge/allegory-of-thecave.html#.WD26lXeZOLK

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