Plato's allegory of the cave

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave World History Honors In reading the philosophical works of Allegory of the Cave by Plato, I have come to the conclusion that he is trying to inform about education. In the writing, to me, the cave symbolizes that they basically have a daily routine with no variables. Another way of putting that is they live in the dark. The chains represent that they are bound by their own beliefs. The shadows represent a state of paranoia because they always feel like someone is watching them. The echoes that one hears in the cave are their own reoccurring thoughts. When released from the chains the person’s initial feeling is to change his ways and see things in a new light because he is scared into a new way of thinking. The light represents a clearer version of the way things should be. The “ bewilderment of the eyes” shows that there is always at least two ways of thinking. The Allegory shows Plato’s view on a few different things like, education wisdom, and our willingness to reject true thinking and live in darkness. Here, I will talk about some of his thoughts. Plato’s view on education is to open your eyes because there is a lot to be learned. Plato believes that a wise man is a person using both sides of his brain. A person’s willingness to reject true thinking and live in darkness means that it’s always easier to do less but it pays off more in the end if you are willing to apply yourself because you tend to get more out of things. Basically, more effort will make you wiser in the end. Going into depth on Plato’s view of education, I find that he is showing that open minds typically learn more. Those who are willing to learn will get a lot better education than someone who sits in front of a tv or computer screen playing video games all day. He wants people to understand that you have to try and get an education, for it will prepare you for the rest of your life. The answers are not just going to come to you. You actually have to try and succeed rather than sit and wait for your future to come around, while expecting it to be fulfilled with happiness. People who are educated are the people who will make a difference in our generations’ future. We could become lawyers, doctors, scientists, mathematicians, someone might even just come up with a cure for cancer. You just never know. That is the beauty of having an education, you never know what could come out of it. If you don’t have an education then you probably won’t make it very far in life. In my eyes you would live in a struggle your entire life. You would be living on a day-to-day basis, never knowing if you are going to have enough to make it. I’m not convinced that anyone can live off of a one income from Mcdonald’s their entire life unless they are lazy and still live with their parents, but that is just my opinion. People who refuse to learn will never make it anywhere in life. There really is not a good paying job today that I know of, that does not require any type of education. People like this are often held back in life by their lack of effort. In doing this, they hurt themselves and their loved ones. More often than not, children that don’t want to learn, learn it from their parents. Which is why everyone should have an education. Senior citizens should not have to pay their own bills while paying for their children to live as well, just because they couldn’t get their education together when they were in school. I think that there are too many people in this world today, that just don’t care. As far as education goes, I think everyone should just do it. It will all pay off in the end.