My View Of Characters In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

Lee A. Jacobus describes Plato’s allegory of the cave as “a story in which the characters and situations actually represent people and situations in another context (448).” Plato’s work is written as a conversation between himself and Socrates. The story describes prisoners in a cave, who have only seen what their captors let them. These captors, or “people with gear,” cast shadows on the walls, which the prisoners interpret as reality. Later, they set one of the prisoners free. After leaving, he discovers that the world is not as he expected. When the prisoner returns to the cave, he tells the others of the world above. I had a similar experience when a transgender woman married into my homophobic family. My view of the world changed entirely and I was a different person from then on. Like the characters in Plato’s allegory, I was once a prisoner in a cave. As children, my mother sheltered my siblings and I as much as she could. We spent nearly all of our time at home and we weren’t allowed to go anywhere that could influence us negatively. At the time, my life seemed normal and I was happy to live in ignorance. I accepted everything my mother said as fact and never gave it a second thought. It was frightening to think of what would happen if I were to …show more content…
I’ve always had a knack for learning and this made me a superior child. I was also extremely neat. My siblings often found me cleaning up and I kept my room tidy. My mother praised me for being responsible and always appreciated my helping around the house. It was similar to the prisoner’s honor from the allegory of the cave. Even though I was the neat one, my family viewed me as inferior in other ways. They would often ignore me and when I’d try to join the conversation, they’d tell me that I talk too much. It was difficult to receive any attention when there were seven other children begging for it. My house was always loud and full of