Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Compared To Douglass' My Bondage And Freedom

Achieving Freedom Through Knowledge Throughout their lifetime, a person’s perspective on a certain topic is what they believe is the truth. Although it can be difficult to shift someone’s perspective on a certain topic, the same person will eventually be exposed to the broader version of the truth and will seek knowledge outside their inner circle. Many times, the truth can be twisted out of shape by societal norms, which leads to the people of society believing whatever they are told as the truth. This certain concept of truth can be seen in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Fredrick Douglass’ My Bondage and My Freedom. In the Allegory, the truth is being withheld from the cave dwellers and once one of them is set free, they finally see the real truth and the falseness of the information they’ve been forced to believe. A similar idea is presented in the autobiography of Fredrick Douglass as he states the unfairness of the slave system and how cruel the slaves were treated to try and show the audience that society had manipulated the truth of the slave system. Fredrick Douglass retells the story of his life as a slave in his narrative My Bondage and Freedom to display no man should be kept without the knowledge of freedom, comparing to the ideas of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, as both authors distinguish the difference between truth and reality and display how one’s ideas and beliefs can easily be manipulated by society and the access to real freedom and truth can only be obtained when the person keeps an open mind and broadens their view of what they believe.

Both the prisoners and the slaves in Douglass’ text can be connected and compared as it is believed that knowledge is a key factor in reaching the potential of freedom, as freedom can only be obtained when another person learns the truth about a certain situation. Plato describes his situation as “…they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance…” to display the fact that the prisoners of the cave have never been able to see anything outside the cave. This is similar to Douglass’ text as he takes on the fact that many slaves are still imprisoned due to the public being misinformed of the true cruelty of slavery. This is shown as according to Douglass, public opinion doesn’t do anything positive for the slaves: “Public opinion in such a quarter, the reader will see is not likely to be very efficient in protecting the slaves from cruelty” (Douglass 3). Essentially, both authors are trying to provide the readers with the fact that the men they show in their stories have never been able to see truly into the outside world, due to many people not perceiving the right truth about the situation. Accordingly, Douglass can also relate to the prisoner that got freed as they both went on a venture to find the true meaning of the outside world. Douglass states “[slavery] was not [about] color, but crime, not [forced by] god, but by men”, (Douglass 6) to enforce that both he and the prisoner were born into this way and had limited power on the truth they could perceive. This can be seen as Douglass compares his life to the prisoner that was freed as they were both kept from the truth and seen as foolish people. However once they were exposed to the truth, they took on the real truth and tried enforcing it on the people around them. Ultimately, both authors’ stories could be compared to note the fact that freedom can only be obtained when a person learns the real truth of a certain situation.

Along with this, both Plato and Douglass emphasize the actual difference of truth and reality which relates to society as many people only believe what they see as the truth, rather than seeing the full reality and trying to enlighten themselves. Plato begins by introducing the difference between illusions and reality. Plato states, “To them, I said, the truth would be nothing but the shadows of the images” (Plato 1) to display the fact that the prisoners only had one truth from the cave until one escaped and changed his mind about the viewpoint of the general world. Plato is trying to enforce the fact the prisoners had to just assume the truth of how they live and in comparison, Douglass does the same. Douglass states “…-where slavery, wrapt in its own congenial, midnight darkness, can, and does, develop all its malign and shocking characteristics; where it can be indecent without shame, cruel without shuddering, and murderous without apprehension or fear of exposure,” to show the audience that since society hadn’t been enlightened of the horrific incidents of slavery during this time, many people didn’t realize what slaves go through. Ultimately, both authors try to display to the audience that society almost certainly doesn’t know what real-world life is, as they are delusional and don’t understand the complete image of the world at large.

To get more in-depth of the difference between truth and reality, both Plato and Douglass describe the specific differences between their story’s truth and reality to show the ignorance of society. Right away, it can be visualized that the plantation and cave influence the negativity of the prisoners and slaves due to it being such a dark and closed environment. Plato mentions the shelter of the prisoners as he states, “figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! human beings living in a underground den….” (Plato 1) to show that the prisoners have been stuck in a certain place for such a long time, which fuels their delusional truth as they have never seen anything outside the cave. To correlate, Douglass describes the plantations as a “secluded, dark, out of the way place” (Douglass 1) to show that they both the cave and plantation had secluded living conditions that altered the minds of the community. As said before, the darkness in both shelters caused denial to both the slaves and the prisoners. Ultimately, due to the darkness, the slaves and prisoners suffered the most, as they were affected by the false and delusional image which forced everyone to have a one-sided and closed-minded truth about certain things.

Ultimately, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Douglass’ My Bondage and My Freedom showcase the difference between truth and reality as both authors propose the fact that a person’s ideas and beliefs can easily be manipulated by others around them. Fredrick Douglass stuck to himself and didn’t let anyone beside him manipulate his beliefs. Because of this, Douglass always had a free and open mind which eventually allowed him to be a free man as he educated himself about society and the slave system. Additionally, Plato supports enlightening others and keeping an open mind to get the broader truth, which is achieved by the prisoner that got freed in his allegory. This correlates to a real-world situation as it can be difficult to shift someone’s perspective on a certain topic, however, the same person will eventually be exposed to the broader version of the truth and will seek knowledge outside their inner circle. It is the guidance of life that humans must step out of caves and plantations and try and experience new things while always keeping an open mind.