Plato's analogy of the cave is a story which sees some people living in an undergroud cave. They are essentially prisoners; their hands and feet are bound in chains. Their backs face the entrance of the cave so they can only see the back wall of the cave. Behind the prisoners is a high wall, and behind that wall is a fire. Human like creatures pass behind the wall and cast dark flickering shadows onto the wall of the cave. The prisoners have been in this position all of their life and have only ever seen these shadows, Consequently, they think these shadows are real, that they are really there.
             Then one of the prisoners manages to free himself, he then asks himself where do all these shadows come from? He seeks then out and ist first dazzled by the clarity of the figures he sees before him. He has only ever seen the shadows they make before. He then sees everything for what it truly is, sees the truth. But then he asks where all the new things he had seens, where have they come from?
             The cave dweller chooses not to remain in this new world he has discovered, but instead to return to the cave to try and convince the others that what they see is not real. He tries to tell them that what they see are merely reflections of real things, the prisoners however choose not to believe what he has said. They point to the cave wall and tell him he is wrong, that what they see is all there is. Finally they kill him.
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