It is the same lesson in different language. Plato and Freire both addressed the issue of oppression and transformation, how it can affect humanity, and the fears associated with freedom. .
In my life I believe that I have gone through many mini-liberations. Just like a child realizing Santa Claus is not "real", I have found that many times the realities I knew were nothing more than shadows on the cave wall. Sometimes the realization was a gradual one where I made my way to the light very slowly, other times I was forcibly shoved into the light and made painfully aware of the fact that the real world was different than my perception of it.
The most profound transformation I went through was the summer before my sophomore year of high school. Until that point in my life I had believed that death was for old people and that children were allowed to, and deserved to live without reservation. To me my friends and I were all equal. We were children just beginning the great journey of adolescence. In a sense I lived in a cave where my reality was grounded in immortality. .
This reality was cruelly destroyed by the death of a friend the same age as I was. She was away at summer camp when she had a heart attack and seizure during a swim lesson and drown. At her wake I was pulled out of my cave, thrown into the light, and shown the truth. We were not immortal. There in the mercifully closed casket was another fourteen-year-old girl. There in that funeral home I overcame the illusion of immortality. The psychological impact was overwhelming. From that point one I would be forced to acknowledge the fact that we did not live forever. The cave is an excellent framework for this experience and many others I have had. In addition to finding out this new reality, when I tried to let other friends know that we were susceptible to death, they rejected the idea and did not want to listen to me.