When a man raises his head and stares at the moon, all he will see is the light coming straight from it. Little does he know that the bright eye catching moonshine that he, is staring at is only a reflection from the sun. Without the sun's rays, the moon would not be able to light up the night sky, nor fool the entire world of its beauty. That is, not to mention the romance it creates every night for millions of couples. If one were to go up to a group of strangers and ask where the light of the night was coming from, a majority of their answers would be the moon itself. Author Henry David Thoreau would then shake his head at the group of strangers and argue that they are seeing only the obvious and not the reality. Although it is not humanities fault that truth does not become apparent at first glance, it's their responsibility to acknowledge the fact that there are flaws in how humans were created. In Thoreau's essay "Where I Lived, and Where I Lived For," the author expresses his idea explicitly that "vision does not penetrate the surface of things"(642). In Thoreau's eyes, it is a common misconception that people think and believe what they are seeing is real. But in reality, vision is the only thing that is preventing one from seeing everything one needs to see. Thoreau argues that one should not simply rely on their vision going through life but instead, one needs to make an effort make the second look and analyze for its reality. As a result, one has to question their vision every time a brand new idea is presented in front of their eyes. Similarly, in the essay "Allegory of the Cave," Greek philosopher Plato's thoughts correlate with Thoreau but in a more pessimistic way as he portrays humans are deprived of their freedom to turn their heads and what they are seeing is limited to what is in front of them and will continue to live this way as long as humans don't see the reality of things.
