The Life’s Journey: Coming of Age: The True Myth about

the Cave
(By: Tressa Ann Thorp-Rodriguez)

Many different scholars say many different things about Plato’s Republic, Book

seven: On the Shadows and Realities in Education (ca. 428-c 347 BC), otherwise known

as Plato’s myth of the cave. It has been broken down and reviewed and re-reviewed by

thousands of philosophers, but can any one interpretation of this story be correct? Wasn’t

Plato renowned for his brilliance in sculpturing wonderful pieces of literary words? He

could be the Leonardo da Vinci of the literary world for he paints many hidden meanings

into his works, just like da Vinci did in his paintings and each is meant for an individual

to perceive what they would of the works. The majority of scholars agree that Plato’s

myth of the cave is about obtaining the knowledge to exist outside of the cave. That in

itself may be true but if it were broken down further, a more realistic and accurate

depiction would be to say that the myth of the cave is actually that long and painful

journey of life known as coming of age. After all the basic essence behind coming of age

is gaining the knowledge needed to survive in the real world. Also the coming of age

saga can be compared to Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, Sympathy (1895).

All human life begins with infancy and proceeds to toddlerhood during these two

periods of life he/she dwells within a cave, his/her parent’s home. As an infant and

toddler, one is restricted to the confines of this cave due to an immature physical state;

he/she are chained within the cave. As Plato says, “here they have been since childhood,

and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move.” The infants can see the

shadows cast onto the wall and accept them at face value, unable to form their own

opinions or thoughts about what or why the see the things they do. The shadows, of
course, are the views and opinions of their parents. So, at this point the infants have no

true knowledge and only see what their parent’s shadow cast against the cave wall. As

one recent website author says about Plato’s thought on knowledge, “knowledge must

have its object that which is genuinely real as contrasted with that which is an appearance

only” (Plato circa).

As young children break free of their chains becoming more physically capable of

moving about the cave, they take the first steps toward the mouth of the cave and the light

beyond. As the young children begin to process information for themselves, they are able

to see the light beyond the cave’s mouth their parents’ shadows no longer form their sole

belief.

As teenagers come to the mouth of the cave they are in awe of what they see

beyond, somewhat blinded by the intensity of the light outside their parents’ cave (home).

Also, as teenagers become opinionated they assume that everything they think is true, so

they jump right out of the cave into the full force of the blinding light the shadows on the

cave wall becoming an obscure memory in their minds. Recently one website scholar said

this about Plato’s thoughts of opinions, “Some of this opinion is well founded, some are

not; but none of them counts as genuine knowledge. The teenagers’ plight for freedom

from the cave can also be seen in Paul Dunbar’s prose Sympathy:

I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the

upland slopes; when the wind stirs soft through the springing grass […]

When the first bird sings and the first bud opens […] I know what the caged

bird feels! (Robert and Jacobs 1147)

Teenagers are always feeling caged not having the chance to spread their wings yet.
 As young adults their journeys up the mountain to the light being. As Plato states

in the Book Seven “On Shadows and Realities in Education”:

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in

his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision

which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things

which are now being shown to him?

Yes, the young adults will suffer many pains as their knowledge grows, as they begin to

understand and to perceive things outside the cave. Having to decide if what they see is

real or not real and having to make their own errors in judgments and withstanding the

outcomes of those judgments. As young adults see objects outside the cave that are

similar to the shadows of what their parents portrayed on the cave wall, they must choose

whether or not to accept these objects as reality or not because they now see the objects

in their true environment and in their true colors. Again, the choices of young adults can

be compared to Dunbar’s “Sympathy”:

I know why the caged bird beats his wing till its blood red on the cruel

bars; for he must fly back to his perch and cling […] and a pain still

throbs in the cold, old scars […] I know why he beats his wings. (Roberts and

Jacob 1147)

As young adults they are like this bird beating its wings on the bars, because just like the

bird, young adults are just learning the possibilities that exist outside the cage, not

wanting too, yet still relying on their parents for protection and acceptance.

As adults they have gained the knowledge of the light. They have sustained many

cuts and bruises on their journey in life but a last they have gained the true knowledge to

exist within the light. During their long and laborious journey they have learned and
developed, no longer does the glare from the true light obscure their reality. In

comparison to Dunbar's "Sympathy":

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, when his wing is bruised and his bosom

sore, when he beats his bars and would be free; it is not a carol of joy or glee, but

a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, but a plea. That upward to

heaven he flings – I know why the caged bird sings. (Roberts and Jacobs 1147)

As adults they sing and thank the heavens above for all the pain and all the great

knowledge that they have been allowed to gain and hope to someday share. As adults

they re-enter the cave attempting to bring their knowledge of the true reality to the

shadows cast upon the cave wall. But as most adults know, infants, children, and

teenagers have an extremely hard time accepting opinions from others they wish to

continue to see the shadows cast upon their cave walls, unwilling to then changed yet.

Once the adults return to the cave they fail to realize the people within have yet to

experience life and have no comprehension of its existence. They are only capable of

retelling or restating which shadows come next in the procession of shadows on the wall.

So as adults they become blind once again upon reentering the cave.

So, in conclusion one can see how Plato's myth of the cave is in fact the

assimilation of the age-old process known as coming of age in line with Dunbar's prose

"Sympathy." The bird attempts and strives and then arrives outside the cage and then

sings of the glory and knowledge gained from its flight. In closing, keep this in mind.

Simone Weil a French philosopher said this about Plato's thoughts on education:

Education, he says, is, according the generally accepted view of it,

Nothing but the forcing of thoughts into the minds of children. For,

Says Plato, each person has within himself the ability to think. I one
 Does not understand, this is because one is held by the fetters.

Whenever the soul is bound by the fetters of suffering, pleasure, etc.

It is unable to contemplate through its own intelligence the unchanging

Patterns of things (Allegory).

As children learn, teenagers gain opinions, young adults gather information, and

by the time they have become adults they have obtained the true knowledge, all through

the process of coming of age, the true myth about the cave.

Work Cited

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "Sympathy." Roberts and Jacobs 1147.

"Plato (circa 428-c 347 BC." Microsoft Encarta. >http://www.encarta.msn.com<.

(4 April 2001).

Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. New York: P.F. Collier and Son,

1901. The Colonial Press. 1995. Institute for Learning Technologies.

>http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/plato/the_republic/book07.html<. (4

April 2001).

Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E' Jacobs. Literature: An Introduction to Reading

and Writing, 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.

Weil, Simone. "Allegory of the Cave." Lectures on Philosophy. Trans. Hugh

Price, London, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978. Simone Introduction Copyright 1995, Brian

Thomas. >http://www.rivertext.com/simonescave.html<. (4 April 2001).