Plato started Book VII with an allegory, which has been known as the “allegory of the cave.” In the allegory, there is a group of men who have been confined since their childhood. They are compelled to sit still, keep their heads facing the cavern in front of them and unmoved. A bright fire is burning behind them and some people carrying statues walk by the fire occasionally. As the people walk by, shadows will be generated on the cavern and the prisoners will have their own impressions and understandings on the objectives moving around based on the shadows they have seen. The allegory goes on with one of the prisoners being released and was forced to see the outside world. His vision has changed dramatically as he got more and more exposed to the light and the sun. The allegory ends with the man who has been released was forced to go back to the cave again and the discussions about what would happen to the man after that.
As far as I am concerned, the reason why Plato would begin with the desire to “compare our natural condition, so far as education and ignorance are concerned, to a state of things like the following” is that he wanted to use the allegory as the metaphor of ourselves to persuade us to believe in the importance of education. Without education, the majority of us act just like the group of prisoners in the cave. We perceive objectives based on what we have seen and may not be able to tell the reality from the surface. However, with education, we can get closer to the reality and not only form our understanding based on what we have seen. It is of great importance since what we see is just like the shadow that is projected on the cavern, it doesn’t necessarily represent the truth at all. Using this hook, which is the allegory, Plato really gets us into thinking about the importance of education.
It reminds me of the Disney animation, Tarzon. As the main character, Tarzon who is a human but has been brought up by the gorilla troop, he basically has no understanding about human beings. Therefore, when he saw the human explorers point the guns at him, he had no idea what they are going to do because a gun is simply a gun and means nothing in his mind. It’s just like the shadows on the cavern; the prisoners would judge them based on what they have seen, but if they have not previous impression, they may not recognize it at all. Suppose Tarzan has been educated before, he may be able to tell that the gun could be harmful and he should protect himself if someone points a gun at him.
In conclusion, according to Plato and my understanding, the human society is just like the group of prisoners in the cavern, if there’s no education in human society, ignorance will occupy the whole society. The allegory emphasizes the importance of education and gets us to think about it.