It aims to teach us the effects that education has on a person's soul. Prisoners go through a series of different stages. He begins the story by explaining a dark cave where people are bound. They cannot stand or turn their heads; they can only look straight ahead. The book's illustration shows a fire behind the people, with a partial wall behind it. Prisoners see shadows that are taken as reality. Everything the prisoners talk about is based on the shadows they observe. This stage is considered imagination