Plato introduces his famous allegory of the cave with the phrase "like this": thus establishing that the passage is structured as a metaphor and must therefore be read both as a figurative description and symbolic representation of a concrete state of being (VII:514). He also emphasizes that the reader must “imagine,” an order that reinforces the allegorical nature of the work: the reader enters the text both as a voyeur and as a true conceptualist of the imagined image (VII: 514). As the passage moves through its multiple spatial and metaphysical levels of creation, the reader experiences the exact procession he speaks of in the work, thus creating a replication of the same education Plato addresses in The Republic as a Whole. This experience also clarifies for the reader the role of the philosopher king and the notion of kallipolis, a construction based on this vision of truth and wisdom with its multifaceted synthesis of numerous topos within the dialogue. Thus, the allegory is not just a self-contained view of the "effects of education on our nature", but an extended metaphor whose figurative language draws both intrinsically and superficially from the larger themes at play in the work as a whole (VII: 514). ).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay After Plato's initial introduction of the passage as a metaphor, the author continues by geographically setting the scene for the reader, choosing images that directly reflect their symbolic purpose. The passage fits into a pattern of ideological introductions followed by figurative illustrations, an interaction that creates a series of linked revelations that formulate a complete world of allegorical context. The "subterranean, cave-like abode" inspires connotations of darkness and repression in the reader's imagination, and the detailed spatial layout and human habitation only heighten the sense of figurative tension (VII: 514). These humans "have been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, their necks and legs chained", thus indicating that they have fully developed inside the cave, and only know the small plane of vision, the shadows reflected on the cave, which is offered to them in their chains (VII: 514). This idea of ​​imprisonment becomes significant as the metaphor continues and the fusion of the figurative with concrete beings is translated into the text. Glaucon responds to this scene with: "It is a strange picture that you describe, and strange prisoners", providing the reader's point of view in the allegory, bringing him once again to reality as did the command “imagine” at the beginning. beginning of the metaphor (VII: 515). After the stage monologue, the passage returns to the traditional exchange of dialogue, with the surprising statement of "they are like us", drawing the reader into the world of metaphor. the allegory even more deeply - the association between the real and the allegorical now begins to take shape as the dialogue progresses, its structure mimicking the actual mental processes of the comprehension function (VII: 515). Plato continues this association with a series of suppositions, invoking Glaucon to conceptualize and legitimize the vision of the cave while Plato ventures deeper into the metaphor. The reader is then invited to consider “what [the prisoners] would naturally look like freed from their bonds and cured of their ignorance if something like this happened” (VII: 515c). The use of "naturally" here is extremely significant, becauseit not only evokes the theme of nature, but, in doing so, also reveals the deeper topos of justice: there is a natural order for a just person, independent of human decision and passion. , an idea of ​​"putting oneself in order"... not concerned with someone doing theirs externally, but with what they have within themselves", is an image analogous to the closed situation of the cave (IV: 443d). So what happens when one of the prisoners is "suddenly forced to stand up, turn his head, walk and look up" towards the light?" (VII: 515c). From a story spatially stagnant, this rapid movement prepares the reader for change and places the coming image in a prism of meaning. What follows is the basic figurative illustration of Plato's goal of education, his higher truth or Dialectic. . The free prisoner goes into the light and sees “more correctly,” pained and frightened at first, but ultimately “able to study” and see “in some way the cause of all the things he has used.” see” (516c). Thus, the intellectual journey to see the truth is illustrated in a spatially governed setting, a scene almost theatrical in its technical precision and choreography-based imagery. The ensuing struggle of this enlightened human with his ignorant prisoners both echo and illustrate Plato's ideal of the kallipolis with its golden philosophers and its silver and bronze populations. The enlightened must “make the ascension and see the good… [and therefore] must descend to live in the common abode of others… and will see much better than the people there. And because [they” If you have] seen the truth about things beautiful, righteous and good, [they] will know every image for what it is... [and] the city will be governed... by people who are awake rather than dreaming" (VII:520c-d).Plato's constant references to the adjustment of the eyes, the blinding of the sun, and the darkness of shadows all reflect the dominant metaphor of luminosity. Thus the passage moved from spatial to movement to visual, indicating the various allegorical stages of his metaphor, and also indicating a metaphysical movement from the tangible to the intangible as his allegory and subject merge more thematically as Plato goes. even so far as to explain the meaning of his whole image, saying "it must be adapted to what he said before. The visible realm must be compared to the prison, and the light of the fire within to that of. the prison the power of the sun, and if [we] interpret the upward journey and the study of things above as the upward journey of the soul towards the intelligible realm, [we will understand] what [he hopes for. ] transmit” (VII: 517b). Thus, Plato begins and ends his allegory with specific directions, creating a framed vision embedded in an interpretive text that explains and draws from his image. Plato continues this metaphor of sight by analyzing this allegory which has just been presented to us in his interpretative text. "Education is not what some say it is... imparting knowledge to souls who lack it, like giving sight to blind eyes. The power to learn is in the soul of everyone and... the instrument with which everyone learns is like an eye which cannot pass from darkness to light without turning the whole body. Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it is not there. is not facing the right way or looking where it should be looking, and she tries to redirect it appropriately (VII: 518c-d). share their labors and their honors, [thus]…spreading] happiness throughout the city by bringing the citizens into harmony with each other..