In "The Myth of the Cave" Plato describes a scene with people living in a cave. These people are chained up by their feet and neck so that they are unable move or turn their heads: all they know and see in their life is displayed as shadows on the cave wall in front of them. Plato uses a form of Horatian satire, "[] a gentler, more good humored and sympathetic kind of satire, somewhat tolerant of human folly even while laughing at it [] Horatian satire tends to ridicule human folly in general or by type rather than attack specific persons" (Harris), in his essay to bring this point across to his readers. Although "The Myth of the Cave" was written hundreds of years ago, the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon can still bring into the present the way most men and women in today's society live and think. Plato also tries to prove how the life of political ambition would benefit if one came to know true knowledge as in the life of philosophy. .
In his essay, Plato uses Socrates as his persona, or his character, to get the point across to his readers. Socrates says in the first paragraph, "And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened Behold human beings living in an underground den, []" ( 564). His tone is somewhat sarcastic in the way he refers to our society as being unenlightened [or in darkness]. only use brackets within a quote When Socrates gets to the part (in paragraph 15) where the prisoners are released, he describes their experience in finally being able to see the world around them as being a painful experience. He says, "[]At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look toward the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him []" 565). He tends to come across, to some extent, condescending or almost arrogant in the way he describes how painful it is for people who are in so much darkness to start making their way towards the light.