actively and purposefullyread the original text of the Allegory: make notes, highlight, and use the following prompts as your guidance. Submit your answers to all four points.
1. Listed below are items from the Allegory that have symbolic meaning. Explain what each stands for or symbolizes in the story, being mindful of Plato’s belief in two different realms of knowledge — the physical and spiritual world — and the different types of truth (or Truth) that exist in each realm:
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- the cave
- the chained prisoners
- the shadows seen by the prisoners
- the firelight
- the steep (difficult) ascent out of the cave
- the upper world outside the cave
- the sun
- a freed prisoner who has become adjusted to the upper world
2. What is the reaction of the cave-dwellers to the freed prisoner when he first returns to the cave? Describe what they want to do to him, and explain why.
3. In the Allegory, the freed prisoner is literally blinded when he leaves the cave, and again when he returns to it. Tell why he is literally blinded in each case in the story, and then explain what his blindness in each case means on a deeper, symbolic level:
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- Literal blindness when he leaves the cave
- What this blindness symbolizes
- Literal blindness when he returns to the cave
- What this blindness symbolizes
4. In your own words, explain what the Allegory is about. Write about 200 words or record a voice or video recording about 2 minutes long.
