Plato's+Allegory+of+the+Cave,+Oblivion+and+Guidance+in+The+Road

Background** · One of Plato’s most famous philosophical theories · Published in __The Republic__ · A cave reading helps understand the intense relationship between the Man and the Boy and their quest south on a path from innocence and ignorance to experience and knowledge
 * Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Guidence and Oblivion in The Road

· The Republic is dialogue between Socrates and his followers · The cave is Plato’s most famous image · “When the eyes are directed towards objects on which the sun shines, they see clearly and there is sight in them.” · The sun is the link between sight and understanding
 * 1. ****Wandering in a cave: from __The Republic__ to the __The Road__**

· Allegory presents prisoners (a metaphor for humans) untouched by philosophy and shackled to stare at a cave wall · Behind them is a fire, puppet shapes are projected onto the wall · They are unaware of their condition, once liberated must walk out of e cave to real light, a painful process both the and physical and metaphysical sense as unused to light or reality · Tempted to go back to shackled state
 * 2. ****The cave explained**

· “In the dream from which he’d wakened he had wandered in a cave where the child led him by the hand. Their light playing over the wet flowstone walls. Like pilgrims in fable swallowed up and lost among the inward parts of some gigantic beast.” · In a cave, freed of shackles, seen the fire, shadows projected on a wall, must exit the cave
 * 3. ****Section 1 of __The Road__**

<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Freud and Jung’s belief that dreams were evidence from the wakeful state <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Dreams have strong negative symbolism in __The Road__ <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Always painful, the father dreams of the “uncanny taste of a peach” <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Takes him away from a doomed reality, a past struggling to let go <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· “He could remember everything of her save her scent.” <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Allusion to __Hamlet__ – “for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,” <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Dreams keep the Father in a world long gone, away from reality <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The Mother says she won’t dream before committing suicide
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">4. ****Dreams and Oblivion**

<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Theme of guidance in __The Road__ not seen in other work <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Narrative bond between father and son <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Fathers usual fail, e.g. John Grady’s broken down war veteran in __The Crossing__ <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Link between the allegory of the cave for Plato and also in __The Road__ is the necessity for guidance and philosophy to shape a society of humanity and order, a society that aims for happiness and truth <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Survival the first step, remove the shackles <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The son can read, how to commit suicide, told bedtime stories, “ancient’ Coca Cola can <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Paradoxically the son confronts the father near the end of the novel over the loss of their possessions by the thief <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The boy understands it is necessary to be freed of the shackles and not fall into line behind the “bad guys” by causing someone’s death <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The son grows up too fast and stops the father’s stories, “Those storied are not true,” overruled by the stronger voice of the wiser son
 * <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">5. ****Guidance**

<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· McCarthy is both a father and a storyteller <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Understands importance of guidance, the search for truth <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· In __The Road__ the father fails to lead the son completely out of the cave, but takes him towards enlightenment <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The son is older and wiser by the end of the novel <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· The child has “to carry the fire...It’s inside you. It was always there.” <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Telling him he is able to philosophically search for light, exit the cave and live a truthful and more fulfilled life <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Turning the post apocalyptic winter of their discontent into a new summer
 * Conclusion**