Brian Miller Eng. 105 Allegory of the Cave 2/14/08 In Socrates' Allegory of the Cave, he talks about what it is like to be prisoner trapped and sheltered from the world. He uses the idea of prisoners who have been held captive since their birth. They are chained to a wall and are taught by shadows of real images being projected up on a wall by fire light. The prisoners think that the shadows the real world and the real actual objects. They do not know that they are being shrouded in illusion and lies. What they don't know is that the light of the sun is just behind them, and that there is a wall blocking the puppeteers who are keeping them in darkness. This wall also blocks the sun light of truth and the process of free thinking. But one day, one of the prisoners breaks their chains and is able to walk out of the cave. He gets up and walks passed the wall that shields the puppeteers, passed the fire light the illuminates and illustrates the shadows of the objects being projected on the wall, and sees the true light and the real world for the first time. This is a very accurate representation of what happens when people find out the truth about their corrupt government, when a person finds out that they have been lied to, when an truth is discovered that alters a person's way of thinking or opinion. When people actually break the chains that they didn't know they were bound by, they have this awe stricken feeling of betrayal. To come to the realization that they were being fooled, tricked, manipulated, taken advantage of, or used is very demoralizing. It give a person a feeling of mistrust towards whatever institution or person had done that to them. In my own experience, I have had that sudden realization of the real truth. I have been in a situation in which I had found out that not everything that you hear is true. When I learned that Santa Clause wasn't real. When I was eight years old, on Christmas Eve, my parents had their bedroom door locked and I could hear the sound of crinkling paper. I asked what was going in, and they said that they were busy. The next morning I compared the writing on the two presents, one was from Santa and the other was from my mom. I looked at the two in comparisson and found that they were strickingly similar. They both had the same basic form and look. I kept this to myself and didn't mention a word to either of my parents until the following year.

It was the next Christmas season, almost a whole year since me realization that Santa wasn't exactly who I thought he was, and my parents told me about how Santa wasn't real. I already made that discovery so I didn't take it as hard, but I still wanted to know why they did it. They didn't give a straight answer then so I was left to ponder the thought of why my parents would lie about something like that. I drew many conclusions about it and have reached several answers. I also applied these answers to the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and all other holiday chatacters that seemed to serve no purpose or seemed to have a skewed view of the holidays.

Through these observations and conclusions, I was able to break the chains of gullibilty and was able to critically think about what information I hear and decide if it is valid or a fictional story that has some other purpose in the background that can't be seen unless the chains are broken and you are able to get up and walk out of the cave.