“Allegory of the Cave”
April Daniels’s Version
Spoiler Alert: This story is told in the epilogue of “Paperdolls & Cowboy Boots” in much greater detail to another1 who valiantly tries to save others from the shadows of the cave.
As a reminder, picture a time about 400 BC. Imagine a few prisoners held in a dark, dingy cave.
The prisoners are bound so that they can’t see anything except the cave wall in front of them. There’s a large fire behind the prisoners. Occasionally, an object is held in front of the fire, the light of the fire projects a shadow on the wall. The only thing the prisoners ever see are shadows.
Think about these poor souls back in 400 BC, living in a cave their entire lives, only seeing those shadows. Eventually, the prisoners started playing a game guessing the names of the shadows.
Socrates2 offers some hope. One day, for some reason, one prisoner is released from bondage.
Imagine her3 moving her limbs from their confined position. The blood flowing through her legs and arms. Maybe it hurts. Picture her turning her head and seeing the fire for the first time and cowering in fear from the brightness. Socrates tells of her crawling on her hands and knees up the stairs and falling outside the cave. The light is too much. Too bright. Too painful. She crawls out of the cave and collapses.
A long time later, she can squint her eyes to see. Eventually she can fully open her eyes in the daylight.
She sees a flower, with dimension and color and smell. She explores and sees so many wonderful things. She is no longer afraid. She is euphoric. Everywhere she looks or walks, or runs is stunningly beautiful.
One day, she hears a songbird singing in a tree. She looks at the tree. She looks down at her path. She sees the shadow of the tree on the rock in her pathway. She realizes that when she was imprisoned in the cave, she saw shadows of these multidimensional, colorful trees. She saw the shadow of a bird and never heard the songs, or saw the colors, or witnessed the miracle of a bird in flight.
It dawns on her that her entire life, up to the time she was released, she thought the shadows were real.
She remembers there are still prisoners in the cave.
She feels such love for them. She must go back to tell them. To free them. She must tell them that there are colors, singing and flying birds, scent filled flowers, and a blue sky that frequently has gorgeous white clouds floating above us. She must tell them that there are things she can touch and feel, see, smell, even taste.
She must tell them about dancing in the light.
She skips back to the cave and exuberantly exclaims to those still imprisoned.
“These are shadows! Wait ‘til you see and touch and feel the real flowers! Flowers have an amazing scent that I can’t describe.” She tries to explain all the marvels outside the cave.
She tries to stand in front of them so they can see her. They flinch and close their eyes. She tries to touch a woman’s arm. The prisoner shrieks.
She doesn’t want to hurt them. They don’t understand.
She can’t explain something they’ve never experienced. She finally pleads for them to simply believe her. To follow her up the stairs and out of the cave.
No one moves. One of the prisoners exclaims that she is crazy. The prisoners’ shudder in fear. If anyone leaves the cave, they will go crazy. They tell her to sit down, come to her senses, and join in their guessing game.
She can’t. After seeing color and dimension and light, she can’t pretend that gray shadows are real.
She begins to leave, and one brave prisoner asks to join her. She gently helps this one out. Explaining that it takes time to adjust to the light and to not be afraid. They wait. Slowly the other prisoner realizes what has been said about light and color and dimension is true.
This new friend is free and dances with glee.
Sometime later, she tries to bring another prisoner to freedom. This time, this prisoner can’t adjust to the light. It’s too painful and runs back into the cave telling everyone that indeed, anyone who leaves the cave is crazy.
Occasionally, simply because she loves this colorful world so much, she courageously goes back into the cave. the prisoners cruelly spit hateful words to her. She simply states that she’s telling the truth. There’s a magnificent world outside the cave. She offers to help. She tells them they don’t even need to go with her. They just need courage to leave and realize it takes time to adjust. They’ll find their own glorious reality and life in the light.
Sometimes, some follow. Sometimes some leave on their own. They wait to adjust. Outside the cave is glorious. Words cannot even describe how different it is than staring at shadows on a wall.
Of course, sometimes being outside has challenges. Even pain. One can get stung by a bee or stub their toes, but overall, it’s a heavenly existence outside of the cave.
I did go on camera, and showed my face, in an interview with Elizabeth Smart. I told this story to her, and you can read more of what we chatted about in the epilogue of Paperdolls & Cowboy Boots.
The Allegory of the Cave was told by Socrates and recorded by Plato. Hence it is referred to as “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave”
Plato recorded this with a masculine pronoun. I realize that many men are sexually abused—who never become perpetrators. My change is not a negative reflection on my opinion of their struggles and pain. However I deliberately chose to change this gender to female because most survivors I encounter are women. And, I’m a woman. I view myself metaphorically speaking as the first “she” in this allegory.