The Nature Of Reality.

After reading to paragraph 39, I said to myself... Wait, I don't know what I am reading. So I went back to the beginning and start reading again. I understood the beginning and how Plato is talking about the prisoners and not being able to move their heads and how all they see is shadows of one another and the objects that they are carrying. So, I continue to read, then I find myself again on or around paragraph 30 and thinking about if my dog is getting too hot laying in the sun by the door. So I try to read out loud, hoping then that my mind cannot wander. I find myself reading the same sentences over and over and slowing down as I am reading some because I am not understanding the words that were coming out of my mouth.

Although I am confused on what I just read, and read a few times... I did find paragraph 45 to be powerful (if I am understanding it correctly). It states: "Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good." I interpret this paragraph as saying that learning cannot be taught, it is already built into each and every one of us. And if you want to make a change in yourself, you have to use your entire mind, body, and soul to do so. If your trying to change and you are not 100% committed to it, it will not happen.

Towards the end Plato was talking about having people who are accustomed to the light and then putting them into the prison (the darkness) and how they would appreciate the shadows for what they are, as well as appreciate them much more. The whole thing, I think, means that the prisoners believe that the shadows are reality and that the shadows are the real world. Although, I am still confused on what the whole thing means, but I do like how there are some interesting and powerful messages in 'The Allegory Of The Cave".