Allegory Of The Cave And Learning To Read

Whether we like it or not education has play a significant role in individual’s life. “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X, both articles talk about a man who got enlightened, while he was in prison. In Plato’s article “The Allegory of the Cave,” one of the former prisoners have the privilege to go out from the cave to experiment new things as actual objects and the light. At the beginning, would be hard to the prisoner to get use to the journey since he haven’t seen anything else besides shadows. Through the time, he will get use to the habit outside the cave and share his experience to his fellow prisoners. Otherwise, in the Malcolm X’s article “Learning to Read,” the author argues about finding his interest in books at prison. Furthermore, he believes that reading has helped him to be mentally alive. …show more content…
Not only confronting fear, but also helping individuals to be stronger. Besides, fear is one of the reasons that make individuals to be afraid to gain knowledge because they are afraid to be judge by others. To illustrate, a girl that is always judge because she doesn’t speak well, then she would try not to talk frequently in order to avoid negative comments from others. According to Plato, “when one of them was untied, and compelled suddenly to stand up, turn his head, start walking, and looks towards the light, he’d find all these things painful” (1). In others words, the prisoner is not used to light because he has been in the cave for a while. For this reason, he need to deal with the new world outside the cave by facing any fear or obstacles. Therefore, the journey toward enlightenment helps to confront individuals fear.
In conclusion, the path of enlightenment is painful because individuals through this journey would be depressed, regretting, and fearless. Furthermore, not everyone is capable to face all this battle in order to gain