Plato

Question 1

Where are the prisoners in the allegory kept?

Answer 1

In a dark underground cave.

Question 2

What can the prisoners see?

Answer 2

Only the shadows on the wall in front of them.

Question 3

What causes the shadows the prisoners see?

Answer 3

Objects carried in front of a fire behind them.

Question 4

Why do the prisoners believe the shadows are real?

Answer 4

Because they have never seen anything else.

Question 5

What happens when one prisoner is freed?

Answer 5

He begins to see the real objects and eventually the outside world.

Question 6

What does the sun represent in the allegory?

Answer 6

The highest truth or ultimate knowledge.

Question 7

What do the shadows represent?

Answer 7

False beliefs, illusions, or surface-level opinions.

Question 8

Why do the other prisoners reject the freed prisoner when he returns?

Answer 8

They are afraid of the truth and are comfortable with what they already know.