Question 1
The word allegory refers to a story, poem, or picture that is used symbolically and its interpretation usually brings about a hidden moral meaning. The word is derived from two Greek words, allos meaning ‘other’ and -agoria meaning ‘speaking’ to create allegoria which bring about the meaning to speak so as to imply something other than what is said . The etymology of the word clearly illustrates its meaning as a symbol.
Question 2
The cave is is merely a symbol of the state of being that the soul encounters prior to receiving appropriate education.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The prisoners and their chains refer to the lacking knowledge or understanding that human beings and the soul experiences such that they cannot become aware of the world around them.
The significance of being like this from childhood is a depiction that the soul is unable to understand anything else other than what it has experienced throughout its life.
The shadows on the wall and the wall itself are a figment of the imagination of the prisoners of what they believe to be real.
The objects of the physical world that cast the shadows are identified as poor copies of what is the ideal form of the object itself.
The people holding the objects are also part of the physical world and merely abstract copies of the ideal self.
The fire is the education and incessant desire to learn that helps in understanding the physical world.
The long passage and act of traversing the world is a symbol of learning and engaging in critical thought.
The world outside the cave refers to the depth of knowledge that the human soul could experience.
The sun and other sources of light are enabling factors to the understanding of all forms.
The disorientation and struggle to adjust to the light is an indicator of the significant difference from lack of knowledge to intelligence.
Disorientation upon readjusting to returning to the cave is a rejection of the knowledge and staying comfortable with what is already known.
Question 3
It is evident that the way the prisoners in the allegory of the cave develop an image of nature, so do human beings experience the world through education. In this case, the continued acquisition of knowledge helps increase knowledge distinctively and leads to high levels of understanding through a series of stages from imagination, belief, thought and finally the recognition of the form of goodness.
