Inside the cave there are three prisoners who cannot turn their heads and have their arms and legs tied. The only thing the prisoners can see is the cave wall in front of them. The prisoners have been imprisoned in the cave since birth and have never seen the outside of the cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire that gives off light and between them is an elevated walkway. The prisoners cannot see the puppeteers. Puppeteers hold puppets that cast a shadow on the wall, and various objects are transported back and forth, thus creating shadows on the wall. Prisoners can only see shadows and hear only echoes; thrown from an object they cannot see. One day a prisoner frees himself and sees what is behind the three prisoners who create shadows. Now he has more knowledge of his reality. Eventually the prisoner comes out of the cave and sees sunlight and objects. As he gets used to his new environment; he realizes that life is not what he thought it was, but his reality is wrong. He returns to the cave to tell the truth to the other prisoners. They don't believe him and threaten to kill him; they don't want to be freed. The allegory of the cave refers to his abandonment of the material, impermanent world for the permanent intelligible world. The cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the environment