The Beauty and the Allegory of the Cave2The Beauty and the Allegory of the Cave: A Christian PerspectiveIn Plato's Allegory of the Cave, he describes a world where prisoners they exist chained in a cave. The puppeteers cast shadows on the wall and these shadows construct reality for the prisoners. One of the prisoners escapes and goes off to find out what life is like outside the cave. At first he is blinded by the sun and afraid of this undiscovered world. The shadows in the cave had become a reality for him. After spending some time in this new world, he realizes that his entire existence has been controlled by others and is now on a journey to find the truth. The allegory of the cave is a symbol of the contrast between ideas and what we perceive as reality. Allegories are little stories that deal with giant ideas. These stories help people reach the state of free thinking. They help people free themselves from the illusion that what they see (shadows) is not necessarily reality. For example, truth is the relationship between knowledge and appearance, and beauty is the relationship between appearance and the real image. The idea of ​​beauty is everywhere around us. It is what we seek in all aspects of life. It is attractive, sexual, desired, but at the same time untouchable and unattained. Society has an unrealistic view of what beauty is and how it can be achieved. We are the people who live in the cave. We are chained and cannot move our heads. There is a fire burning behind us and casting shadows on the wall in front of us. These puppeteers place limits on what we perceive as reality because it is the only thing we have ever known. Once we escape the blinding fire and learn to live outside the cave, then we can... middle of paper... believe that there is a certain standard I should hold myself to as a wife. I always want to maintain the beauty that was there when I first met my husband, inside and out. I want to be his trophy; I want to be physically fit and presentable. I want him to be proud to be my husband. The lesson in the Allegory of the Cave was that you must be enlightened to understand foreign perceptions. You can choose to believe what you have learned or use the knowledge you have gained and develop it. We can fall in love, which Plato equates with love for the soul of another, and realize that beauty extends far beyond the physical, or be content with the puppeteer's shadows on the wall. It is up to us to remove the chains of ignorance and travel out of the darkness and into the light of certainty and truth; God is the "sun" and the form of every good that allows us to see true beauty.