Comparing the Search in Platos Allegory of the Cave and Anderson’s Win

The Search for Truth in Platos Allegory of the Cave and Andersons Winesburg, Ohio The novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson has many themes that present themselves throughout the book. One such recurring theme is a attempt for truth. The characters in the book do non fully realize that they atomic number 18 searching for truth, but they do feel a vague, indescribable thing that pushes and prods their minds to actualize a higher categoric of thought. This search for a higher plane by the characters of Winesburg nearly parallels another literary work of ancient Greek origin- Platos Allegory of the Cave, which is a portion of his famous theme The Republic. I contend that the town of Winesburg is the equivalent of the Cave in Platos writing. The Allegory of the Cave is an attempt by Plato to relate his thoughts and philosophy on human elaboration into common terms. He believed that there are two planes of existence the material world of the senses, and a higher world of thoug hts and ideals. Platos Allegory made it possible for tidy sum to more firmly grasp a somewhat abstract concept. The Allegory depicts a number of people who are imprisoned in a cave, arrange by the legs and neck so that they cannot move, nor can they turn their heads they see only towards the back wall opposite the cave opening. These people have been chained in this manner their entire lives. Sometimes objects and people pass in front of the cave opening, and shadows play upon the back wall. Since the people have only seen the shadows, they assume that the shadows are the real objects and beings of the world. They watch the shadows, measuring them, trying to understand them, and soon honors are bestowed upon those persons who can see the... ...ld (the cave) leads to qualities which are the antithesis of goodness, namely hatred. I believe that drawing parallels amongst Winesburg, Ohio and the Allegory of the Cave helps provide insight into how the human race has wrestled with t he problem of finding ways to act upon the higher ideals that reside in the character of mankind. maybe realizing that Man has contemplated this problem for thousands upon thousands of years, from the time of the ancient Greeks through the early twentieth century to the present, can assist human civilization to see the higher plane of existence, which Plato says is the author of all things beautiful and right. Works CitedAnderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio. New York, NY Penguin Books Ltd.,1993.Plato. Allegory of the Cave. in The Norton Reader. Linda H. Peterson et al., eds. New York W. W. Norton, 2000.