Compare and Contrast
Plato’s “Analogy of the Cave” and Frederick Douglass’s “Learning to Read and Write”
Introduction
The Analogy of the Cave (also known as Analogy of the Cave, Parable of the Cave, or Plato’s Cave) is an allegory or metaphor employed by Greek philosopher Plato in his writing The Republic to depict his perspective of human nature and truth. The analogy is written in form of a dialogue between Plato’s teacher and mentor Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon, narrated by the former. Plato’s Socrates illustrates a group of prisoners who have remained chained to wall of their cave as long as they have been alive, facing a blank wall. The prisoners watch shadows cast on the wall by puppeteers passing in front a fire at their back. The prisoners give names to the shadows (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010). From Plato’s point of view, the shadows are the closest the prisoners have gotten to experiencing reality. When one of the prisoners is freed from the cave, he comes to learn that the shadows they had seen on the wall all along do not represent reality at all though they always appeared so real to him and the others. His experience of the new world makes him understand that his notion of reality and truth has been always manipulated by others.
Similarities
Both Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Fredrick Douglass’ Learning to Read and Write address the theme of reality and truth. Platos’ philosophical illustrates the difference between the real world and illusion through the story of the prisoners in the cave who live starring at shadows on the wall and know nothing regarding the outside world (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010). The prisoner in Platos’ text is confronted with reality he leaves confinement and darkness in the cave and come into free world. He is able to realize that his idea of reality that he had developed from the shadows cast in the cave’s wall was an illusion and not the truth. The escaped prisoner is able to adjust his eyes to the reality of the outside sunlight world and begins to manage to his personal biases, assess the evidence from a variety of viewpoints and bask in the glory of life present in the outside world. However, he returns and tells the others about the real outside world with its bright sunlight and tangible objects, they reject his perspective of truth.
Douglass recounts a similar story from the time he had limited rights due to his status as slave in prison. He is able to learn of the truth of the outside world when he escapes the darkness and learn to write and read. He talks of himself as being “shut…up in mental darkness (Douglass 100). Upon knowing how to read, Douglas is confronted with the reality of the lack of slaves in the North and the fact that not everybody supports the attitudes of the Southern slave owners. Further reading and thought about slavery and abolition gradually makes him optimistic to the extent of stating that “the light broke in upon me by degrees” (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010)
Generally, the two philosophical texts are highly similar in their progression which begins with men in a state of bondage and ignorance, to escaping from the bondage to getting enlightened to going back to their former positions and colleagues still in captivity and ignorance for the sake of enlightening them. As such, both tales are about a journey from bondage and ignorance to freedom and knowledge. The each begin with an implied idea of imprisonment in which both the chained cave prisoners and the enslaved African-Americans lack the freedom to interact with their immediate environment or realistic elements, leading them to take the illusion they knew as truth (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010). Despite their initial difficulties and fears, realization and observation of another reality resulted in an eye-opening moment for both characters. Both texts inspire the same philosophical reasoning in the end: that our perception of reality is gained through our observations and exposure. While the texts are by authors from different times in history, they both communicate to their respective audiences how the concept of ignorance and education shapes our perception of reality and truth, and the responsibility of the enlightened to educate the ignorant.
Differences
By virtue of coming from different time periods in history, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Douglass’ Learning to Read and Write embody different styles of text. While Plato presented his work philosophically and allegorically or metaphorically, Douglass presented his tale in a non-fictional and historical context given that it was an autobiography (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010). Second, the very state of the prisoners in Plato’s and Douglass’ philosophical texts also differs considerably: the prisoners in the cave were chained facing to the wall and deprived to see the light; Douglass was a slave but less constrained compared to the captives in Plato’s allegory.
Another striking contrast between the two texts relates to the ways enlightenment is gained by those in darkness. While the prisoner in Platos allegory is given knowledge forcefully which he receives hesitantly after coming out of the cave, Douglas exhibits a lust or hunger for knowledge to which he takes strategic actions to learn to read and write (Association for Core Texts and Courses & Flynn, 2010). The cave prisoner is able to naturally learn of outside light and beautiful creatures of the earth by virtue of being dragged from the familiar cave into a different outside world. On the contrast, Douglass sets himself to a mission to gain knowledge of the outside world and his state of slavery. Douglass’ guest to become literate and knowledgeable is full of constraints as evidenced by his writing: “For this time I was narrowly watched. If was in a separate room at considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give account to myself.”
Conclusion
I regard Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as an useful insight into Socrates’ thoughts and teachings, who expressed most of his fundamental ideas given that Socrates himself never wrote anything down. The philosophical text address a relatable human reality i.e. in our human existence, we are chained in cave facing the darkness while the real world behind us goes about its business in light. Our perspective of the truth is dictated by those with power and means as well as the media depiction of different simulated realities. We therefore develop a hazy picture distinct from reality and truth, which we use to make sense of the world we live in. However, as outstanding as it is, I must admit that Plato’s writing is difficult to comprehend and relatively hard to follow compared to Douglass’ text. It is also my fear that in using allegory to give his views on human nature, his audience at his time found it problematic to understand as his words are a cluster of analytical gibberish not helped by translation into the English language. It is even more challenging to the modern audience which favors straightforward facts, statistics and other proofs in explaining one’s point of view. That said, Plato tackled significant subjects in his philosophical texts which are still relevant at present time.
Douglass’ Learning to Read and Write speaks volume of the horror of slavery, going beyond the “physical bondage” to the slaveholder’s efforts to “control” the minds of their slaves. As Mr. Auld rebukes his wife for volunteer to teach Douglass his ABC’s, “If you teach [a] nigger how to read, there would be now keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable and of no value to his master” (1196). Douglass underscores how learning to reading to write can be liberating to humanity due to its power to free us from “mental bondage” into a people conscious of the reality around us.
References:
Association for Core Texts and Courses., & Flynn, P. T. (2010). Substance, judgment, and evaluation: Seeking the worth of a liberal arts, core text education : selected papers from the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, Chicago, Illinois, April 6-9, 2006. Lanham: University Press of America.
