...impact the message conveyed. Plato took the liberty to separate his story into stages as the prisoner starts to come to the realization that he has been living an illusion all along. As the illusion turns into a realization, one becomes familiar with the interpretation Plato intended for one to understand the importance of education. Plato had the assertion that man was born ignorant yet had the capacity to fulfill his own personal knowledge. Socrates begins to set up a scenario where there are human beings who have been living in a cave since birth. The prisoners are “chained so that they cannot move” and only able to view a low wall that was places in front of them (Plato 66). A fire is their only source of light and with that they are able to see their shadows. In this part of the story, the prisoners are unaware that there is more to offer in the world than the fire and their shadows. They are ignorant yet unaware of this because to them it was natural to only see such few things. The cave was the only thing they were aware of and this prevented them from building personal knowledge and fully becoming enlightened. The cave symbolized a barrier that the prisoners were unable to cross. It was what they were used to and they didn’t have the knowledge to realize the right way to live vs. the wrong way. The feeling of change is something they had yet to experience. As a prisoners is released, the light causes him to “suffer sharp pains” and he begins to contemplate what he...
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...home money. I wanted to experience having a job myself and see how it was. After I had a taste of having a job and having responsibilities I saw how difficult it was. My experience is related to Plato’s, “Allegory of the Cave” because like the prisoner’s I too was blinded by the truth. When I was a kid I remember going out every Friday and eating out with my family. I do not remember a time when we did not do that. I believed it was really easy to go to work every day and make money. My dad was an executive general manager at a trucking company named JB Hunt. My dad often told me that to have a good job you must have a good college degree. I did not believe him, I believed that to have a job you just have to go look for one. Like the prisoners in the allegory of the cave, the shadows to me were seeing what I could and that was my parents bringing home money. I did not see how they did it or how difficult it was to have a job. When I finally turned sixteen I was old enough to have a job. I finally got to the point where I could experience it myself and determine how difficult it was to have a job. At the beginning it was a little hard but not as bad as I had expected and I always told myself, “see this is not that bad,” I could do anything I wanted without an education. After I graduated from high school, I got a job as a kayak assembler, making $14 dollars an hour. I thought to myself this is the life being eighteen and having a great job. I decided to move out on my own and...
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...Studies Basic Human Rights Taken In the concentration camps prisoners had everything and every right taken away. First when they arrived they were stripped of their personal belongings. No one should have their personal stuff taken from them and be humiliated and stripped down naked in front of everyone. The prisoners were then treated as if they were a piece of garbage that could be disposed of as if they meant nothing. The prisoner destiny was in the hand of someone who had no right to choose if the prisoner lived or died, but somehow managed to get the privilege of making this choice as if they were God. The prisoners were not feed properly at all. They were rationed out bread and soup. They were never given enough so they were slowly dwindling away of starvation. The prisoners poor nutrition left them open to many diseases their bodies were not able to fight off in its unhealthy state. Food is a right everyone has should have food to eat! Especially these prisoners they worked hard day in and out. It is one thing if someone sits around does not work or try to provide for themselves and has no food. They then have no one but themselves to blame. That wasn’t the case with these prisoners if any one deserved to eat it was them! The prisoners were stripped of any dignity they may have had. They were beating and talked down to. They were required to use the restroom in a bucket in front of others. You had prisoners that were well respected doctors and people of importance but...
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...which in due course brings him to the Form of the Good. He tells the Allegory of the Cave as a conversation between his teacher Socrates who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories and Glaucon. In the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave, in which prisoners have been kept since their childhood, and each of them is held where they are all chained so that their legs and necks are unable to turn or allow them to move. This leaves them in a predicament where they’re forced to look at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is a fire and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway (bridge), on which people can walk. These people are shadow play, and they are carrying objects, in the shape of human and animal figures, as well as everyday items. The prisoners could only see these flickering images on the wall, since they could not move their heads; and so, naturally enough, they assumed the images to be real, rather than just shadowy representations of what is actually real. They believe the shadows are true, as well as the echoed voices they hear; they also believe to be true. Then one day one prisoner is released. This prisoner walks up into the sunlight, which...
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...humans are all ignorant to the truth. It’s a story in which prisoners, representing the human race, are all chained to chairs. The chains represent our ignorance to the true forms and the chairs are our tendency to stay with what we find familiar and comfortable. The people are chained facing a wall so that they can only look ahead of them. There is a light in the cave which comes from a fire. The fire is what is used to create fake “form” shadows which the people believe are real. The shadows represent the politics, human culture and superstitious beliefs. One of the prisoners is freed, this one prisoner is seen as a potential philosopher however they have to be dragged away from the shadows as they still believe the shadows are reality and they don’t want to leave what’s comfortable to them and venture into the unknown. The person who frees the prisoner is a representation of a true philosopher, possibly Plato himself. This person recognises the illusion of the cave and wants to educate those who are still trapped in the illusion. This idea could come from Plato’s belief that philosophers should govern society as they are completely motivated by their wisdom and selflessness. After the prisoner is freed he is dragged up through the cave past the people who are making the shadows. The prisoner is then taken up and out of the cave to the outside world which in Plato’s vision is the realm of the forms. The prisoner initially doesn’t understand what he is seeing but learns to...
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...Plato’s Truth in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara Imagine a prisoner who was born in a cave and have never seen anything besides a wall is one day released. When he leaves the cave and approaches the light, his eyes hurt and “he is not able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.” This metaphoric example shows that when a person is placed in an uncomfortable situation, he is first in denial. He doesn’t want to accept things that he sees as reality, continuing to live according to his old false perceptions. As he looks longer at the sun he slowly starts to realize that his perceptions could be wrong. He now sees the light and a new world, which he never thought exists. Sylvia, the heroine of the short story “The Lesson” by...
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...A Hanging Commentry The poem A Hanging has a very odd mood for what is happening in the poem. The poem talks about people in jail and an inmate on his way to be put to death. The prisoners do not show any sign of remorse after the inmate is put to death and gone on with there everyday activities, some even laughing and having a good time. The author uses many literary elements in the story such as imagery, simile, mood, foreshadowing thought and climax. The author uses these literary elements in order to provide the reader with a better understanding of the poem and to decribe how the prisoners handle the hanging. Orwell uses a bountiful amount of imagery throughout the poem. He uses the imagery to let the reader depict a picture and get a better understanding of the poem. One example of imagery in the poem is in the eighth paragraph "At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel." This quote is giving a sample of the tremendous amout of imagery in the poem. The imagery is present in describing how his muscles move into place in every step and how his hair flows and dances in the wind. Another example of imagery is when Orwell describes the hangeman "The Hangman, a gray haired convict in the white uniform...". The hangman is described as a fellow prisioner and it gives the reader the visual of the hangman dressed in white sort of like a ghost...
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...for the absolute truth and the people who really do see the truth using rational thought. I really believe that the story can be explained in parts 4 parts, the cave, the shadows, the escape and return, and the game . These parts explain the story of humanities perceptions. In Platos main theory, he explains the dark cave represents people or who strongly believe that wisdom comes from what we see , feel ,and hear in the world . The cave shows that believers of this absolute knowledge are trapped in a cave of misleading wealth of information. Now these prisoners have been here since birth, and have never seen day light or the opening of the cave. The prisoners were bound to rocks, their arms and legs were tied and their head is tied still so that they would not be able to look at anything but the stonewall in front of them witch represents a pritive movie screen. This obviously to me is representing the prisoners accepting the fact that there in no other things in life to live for just because they have not scene anything but shadows on a wall. Some people in life to some point can say they live in a cave and see no way out, for example, dead end jobs. As the story progresses, Misterious people outside the cave walk along this pathway , where light from a fire ,...
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...ENG 202: Brandel Of Prisoners & Superheroes Shalin Patel Poem Title: Prisoner No. 786 Drama Title: Love is Bl(ow)ind Creative Non-Fiction Title: v/s The Biased Media of the 21st Century Fiction Title: Sub-Urban Superhero Reflection Essay Included Total Word Count: 5095 Prisoner No. 786 I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I watch as days, months and years turn into eons. The smell of the warm moist mud reminds me of all those carefree afternoons I spent on my mama’s porch watching the rain pass by. The scorching sun on my face reminds me of the sweetest iced tea my sister used to so carefully prepare. The unflinching rain at times takes me back to the fields where I would play soccer for hours at end with my cousins. The bitter cold within my bones reminds me of the steaming hot barbecue my father would make so passionately, never failing to impress. This man standing outside my cell tells me this is not my country, then why does it feel like I’m right at home? He says I’m not like him, then why do I feel like he’s like me? I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these iron bars. I stare towards the heavens as a white fairy descends from the village of dreams. I don’t know who she is, but she talks like she’s all mine. When I listen to her, it feels like I want to go out there and live again. When she makes all those fake promises, she makes me want to believe in myself again. I, prisoner number 786, stick my head out through these...
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...The Return of Rehabilitation Until recently, rehabilitation seemed more a forsaken aim than a likely outcome of imprisonment. Although the first rule of the Prison Rules 1964 stated, “The purpose of the training and treatment of convicted prisoners shall be to encourage and assist them to lead a good and useful life,” *the ideology of training and treatment did not last. By 1974 the American researcher Robert Martinson was denouncing rehabilitation programmes for prisoners in his paper What Works, in which he came to the conclusion that “nothing works.” Five years later the May Committee’s inquiry into the Prison Service announced that “the rhetoric of treatment and training has had its day and should be replaced.” Fast forward almost two decades to Michael Howard’s 1993 war cry, “prison works.” The emphasis was now on retribution and public protection, with no mention of rehabilitation. That prison only works while criminals are inside – and the vast majority are released as bad or worse than they were when they went in – was not an issue for discussion. But in some respects, Howard might have had a point – an increasing number of offenders are born to the criminal lifestyle and one must ask whether it is really possible for such people to be rehabilitated if they have never been “habilitated” in the first place. Whatever, the prison population rose by over 50% and a couple of headline-hitting escapes ensured that security became the over-riding consideration...
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...is ‘sodden’ which creates a negative depiction. Orwell’s use of pathetic fallacy is evident as the rain symbolises sadness and tragedy. The reader is made aware of the prisoner’s unhealthy living conditions through Orwell’s wordchoice: “a sickly light, like yellow tinfoil.” The simile suggests that the light appears unnatural. The word ‘sickly’ implies the sense of illness and wrongness as ‘yellow tinfoil’ further the feeling of death, decay and unnaturalness of the prisoners being left to rot. The feelings of unnaturalness is continued throughout the essay as his point is that killing a life, whilst in full flow is unnatural and appears to strengthen Orwell’s feeling of being against capital punishment. The reader’s sympathy is aroused as the writer describes the grim conditions the prisoners are forced to live in: “the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages.” Immediately the reader’s sympathy is gained as the description of the jail cells dehumanises the prisoners. Orwell continues the mood as the ‘brown silent men’ wait for their inevitable...
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...of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound so that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are manipulated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the partial wall. Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. When they talk to one another about “men,” “women,” “trees,” or “horses,” they are referring to these shadows. These prisoners represent the lowest stage on the line—imagination. A prisoner is freed from his bonds, and is forced to look at the fire and at the statues themselves. After an initial period of pain and confusion because of direct exposure of his eyes to the light of the fire, the prisoner realizes that what he sees now are things more real than the shadows he has always taken to be reality. He grasps how the fire and the statues together cause the shadows, which are copies of these more real things. He accepts the statues and fire as the most real things in the world. This stage in the cave represents belief. He has made contact with real things—the statues—but he is not aware that there are things of greater reality—a...
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...Christopher Cernat Mr. Naccarato EWC 4U1 April 7th 2015 The Fall of Weston Everyone has an aura. Some shine so bright anyone can see you from a valley away. Radiance, that is what you are most likely contemplating currently. My name is Wallace of the Servitum house and I can truly see peoples aura. I work for the Velantis, the current ruling house and my position is officially throne advisor. I prefer not to lie to myself and to see it as executioner. Over the past nine years I have convicted over two thousand souls to their pitiful end, I have seen their auras gray with guilt then black, empty as their torso. My employer utilizes my skill, seeing it as a just method. Ryard Velantis is the current head, he owns me to say. After the reform of the Centis age, his house claimed all others, executing the ones they felt threatened by, and making use of the others as slaves mostly. My house, the Servitum, is rightful heir to the throne, but the oligarchy that is the Velantis house has kept the throne vacant for far too long. My birth rite is my gift, this aura, the perception is passed down my lineage. I however, am bestowed with a mutation of the gift; I can see how someone will die. It frightened me as a child, especially my mother’s glowing pink aura when she was carrying my youngest sister. I know now that is means death while in labour. My father raised us well, once part of the main council he gave us everything he could. Out of six children I was the only one sent...
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...Student’s Name Instructor Course title Date Banality of evil In life some situations and circumstances happen that force us to be what we never imagined yet these acts are normal to them and nothing is wrong. A normal person does something that cast doubts whether that person was really in a stable mind. Cases have been reported where real parents especially the father killing the child and also murdering the mother this is an onslaught murder. Cases of homicides been reported on a daily basis in the federal bureau of police. But why does this happen? These are normal people in their normal behavior but abruptly change and their behavior create an impact that affects the lives of others forever. For others, their presence only affects others and makes their lives look more disastrous this is the life we live and we have to accept the changes that occur and influence us (Adams and Balfour) The life history of great people like Adolf Hitler who just had normal life, but later on we see a change of things suddenly. Nobody had trained to be a murder and kill the Jews in the first place. No single parents teach their kid s to kill as part of learning in the early stages of life. Thus it is evident theta these are normal people who just change because of situations they are put in or may be because of the...
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...The cave is very dark because there is little light inside it and hardly seen the objects. There are some chained people on their necks as well as feet, these chained people cannot move easily. Similarly, there is also another world out of the cave world, but between these two worlds, a wall is raised. On the wall, many other people move with different things on their hands and their shadows fall in the cave world. The people inside the cave cannot raise their head completely so that they can only see the shadows like illusion, which they believe, as real but it is just their illusion. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/creationofknowledge/allegory-of-the-cave.html#.Vm1VcUp961s Plato also talks about an ideal state, which is a utopian world. In an ideal state, there is equality among the people because no one is superior or inferior in this world. There is free flow of knowledge justice and truth, everywhere in the ideal state. Plato is also known as the first communist because of his concept of equality among the people. In the ideal state, rulers are also true philosopher whose wealth is not money or gold but spiritual knowledge. Those are the best rulers to rule the ideal state because they are reluctant to rule and active to serve the people as true servants. In other words, the rulers at the ideal state are never thirsty to exercise power, they do not want to impose cruelty over the people but instead they are worried of the condition of the people and the welfare...
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