What is an allegory?

Explain to the students that an allegory is a kind of story in which what happens is being compared to something else that is similar and unstated.

Activity

1. Read Plato’s Allegory of the Cave together.

Here is one adaptation of the allegory:

Plato imagines people living as prisoners in an underground cave that has a wide entrance open to the light. They have lived in the cave all of their lives, and so it is all they know. These people’s bodies are chained at the legs and neck, so that they can only look straight ahead at the back wall of the cave. They cannot see one another. Behind the prisoners is a fire burning and in front of the fire is a high wall, which acts as a kind of puppet stage. Along this wall, people carry various artificial objects, such as the figures of men and animals.

The prisoners can see only the shadows of the objects, which are cast by the firelight onto the cave wall in front of them. The cave has an echo so that when the people in back of them speak, the prisoners believe the sounds come from the shadows on the cave wall. Since the cave dwellers have been in this position since birth, they believe that these shadows are all that exists.

Imagine, Plato suggests, that one of the prisoners manages to free himself  from the chains. He turns around and is overwhelmed and distressed by the sharp light of the fire and the clarity of the figures, because until now he has seen only their shadows. Eventually, the prisoner climbs over the wall and gets past the fire to the world outside the cave. At first, he is even more distraught because of the strong light of the sun, which causes him to be unable to see. But over time he begins to make out the objects in the world more clearly, and struck by the world’s beauty – its color, form and vibrancy – he understands that what he has all his life thought was reality was just shadows.

The former cave dweller could have stayed out in the world and enjoyed the beauty he found. But he feels sorry for his former fellow prisoners, and so he goes back down and tries to convince the others still imprisoned there that the shadows on the wall are just flickering reflections of “real” things. But they don’t believe it, and they become enraged. They think he is mad.

2. Ask: What do you think the Allegory of the Cave is being compared with?

3. Break students up into small groups for a discussion of the discussion questions.  (Each group should choose a reporter to write down the group’s responses and report back to class when class comes back together.)