Weekly Post #1 - Classical Literary Theory - Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Blogs are not exactly my cup of tea to write, but once I get going I don't think I'll stop until the end of the semester.
Plato talks about in his 'Allegory of the Cave', that the world is perhaps not what we see in front of us, but what we see is in fact just shadows and the brief murmurs of what is occuring and not what things really sound like. I always liked this one, but didn't always delve deep into it, feeling a sense of repetition. It comes across sort of like, 'a picture is worth a thousand words', but it depends on what words you use to describe the picture. Are the people in it old or young, men or women? This idea can go into other theories as well. Plato though is talking about imitation of things around us and whether or not we really know if something is real. Imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery and it isn't always easy to tell what is the original and what is the fake. And when it comes to naming an object say an orange, what if some one else calls it a tomato? Who is wrong and who is right at calling it one of these names? The prisoners in the cave might decide on different names, rather than agreeing on one, like today how blue is blue, green is green, an apple is an apple. But in today's society, many things have a set name and can't be changed except in our own heads.
During the Emperor Qin (221 - 206 B.C.) in China, he took what was in the written language of the country, several "characters" that were for things like horse and cat, and placed single characters for each one, so that each would have one "name" rather than several. This is sort of Plato's idea in his allegory put into action, single objects that have several names, but in Qin's case, he forced upon China the idea to give several things single names rather than several, giving him more control of his people.
Plato states in Book VII of Republic: "...the eyes can become confused in two different ways, as a result of two different sets of circumstances: it can happen in the transition from light to darkness, and also in the transition from darkness to light. If he [the slave] took the same facts into consideration, when he also noticed someone's mind in such a state of confusion that it was incapable of making anything out, his reaction wouldn't be unthinking ridicule. Instead, he'd try to find out whether this person's mind was returning from a mode of existence which involves greater lucidity..." (Plato's Republic, pg. 63-64).
For many years, American military forces have attempted to push democracy on countries that do not have democratic forms of government. Those that attempt to push it on them, do not realize that those that they are pushing it on have to be open to the idea, and can't just cram it down their throats. These people who have lived in socialist, imperialist and other forms of government, are not mentally, morally or even maybe spiritually prepared to take in a new form of government. When the freed slave returns to the cave and shares his adventures with his comrades, they are unwilling to accept the fact that what he saw outside the cave is real, unable to go see it for themselves, or unwilling to accept that such things exist.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.