Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" has as its central image prisoners in a cave, who are chained to a wall and unable to turn their heads. While it is Plato's intention to use these prisoners as a metaphor for persons untutored in the Theory of Forms, they can also be used to apply to students coming to college. College students are the current version of Plato's untutored persons. The fire behind the chained figures can then be seen as the illuminating light of knowledge. This light, when seen only partially, is however likely to induce illusion rather than true knowledge. Thus puppeteers behind the prisoners create illusions with the combined effect of puppets and the fire. This can be seen as representing the limited knowledge gained in life before entering the illuminating environment of college. The shadows and echoes cast by the real objects are taken as real by the...
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