There are men living underground in a chamber that have been there since they were born. There is a door with a light at the end and a hall way that leads down the cave. All the men are chained up on in their necks so they can’t turn and legs so they can’t walk. In the back towards the middle there is a flame and has a look to it like someone is going to host a puppet show.
On a projector above where the fire is, there are people are carrying around with then figures of men and animals that are made up of wood and rocks. There are some people that are talking to each other and there are other people that are just keeping to themselves and not talking. The prisoners are so confined that they don’t know anyone besides each other and they haven’t seen anything besides the cave walls and fire they all grew up with.
The prisoners would talk but since they can’t turn their heads they just face the walls and it is like if they are talking to shadows. If their voices echoed then the prisoners would think that the shadows were talking back to them. If one of the prisoners magically became free from the chains they would be in a great amount of pain from trying to turn their heads to look at the lights and from trying to stand up for the first time.
They would be hypnotized by all the different shapes that they didn’t know what it was. He would walk around the cave and not believe what his eyes as he see the different objects, shapes and shadows that he could only imagine. They try and look into the flame that they have been used to showing its light but the light was too bright for their eyes to handle. If they were to go outside of the cave the sun will be so blinding that they couldn’t see the objects they only dream of.
When finally their eyes have adjusted then they could look at the sun for all its beauty. They would start stating fact about the sun and how it is the reason for everything to be visible on earth. He would feel sorry for all his prison buddies because they are unable to see what he sees. He would be made fun of if he went back to the cave because his eyes would need to adjust from being in the sun the complete darkness again.
This shows that the sun really does add color to other objects and make them exist. The souls of all the men want to live on the top ground where the sun is shining. They can be tricked on how the lighting it shown when it is dark to bright and bright to dark. Everyone have the erg to learn they just have to find it. The soul will point you in the right direction toward the Good.