Education In George Orwell's The Allegory Of The Cave

Education may often be thought of as something you are simply receive, or something you give. With that being said, it may be suggested in order to learn something, all you have to do is have someone teach it to you. However, after reading Benjamin Jowett’s translation of The Allegory of the Cave, we see that this interpretation of education is quite different. Throughout The Allegory of the Cave, the author uses the cave to represent humans like us trapped in our ignorance. As the Allegory plays on we will see the use of light as a symbol of knowledge and darkness as a symbol of ignorance. These themes will all have relation to the trapped prisoners and the author's view on education.
In the beginning of the Allegory we are presented with an image of a cave. Inside the cave there seems to be individuals chained up so the only direction they can see is right before them. Meanwhile, behind the prisoners there is a fire burning casting shadows on the wall in front of them. With that we know that these shadows are they only thing these prisoners know to be reality, which is completely false because shadows are not true objects. This clearly shows complete ignorance in the prisoners. One thing that needs to be pointed out is that Socrates says that these prisoners are allot like us, …show more content…
This is suggested that one of the prisoners has decided to make the turn towards knowledge and true reality. This is interpreted when when socrates mentions if any of the prisoners are feeling “liberated” and “compelled” they may turn towards the “light”. When this prisoner turns around he is dealt very much pain because he has been looking into darkness for so long. As I mentioned before, light is used in this allegory as a symbol for knowledge. As the prisoner's eyes adjust to light he finally realizes what true reality is and that everything that he believed to be true in the cave was