Allegory Of The Cave, By Dick Gregory s Shame And...

When discussing reality, several questions emerge regarding what reality is. A reality, the real situation that exist, (Merriam-Webster.com) consists of two forms-perceived reality and actual reality. One spends his or her entire life trying to decipher the difference between the two forms; yet to truly understand reality, it is essential that you comprehend both. Plato s Allegory of the Cave, Dick Gregory s Shame and Frederick Douglass Learning to Read and Write illustrate examples of both perceptions. Furthermore, how conceptualization of reality helps establish who one will become. Perceived reality is one s interpretation of what is genuine and false, wrong and right, what is real and what is not. Because of this, one s surroundings and associates can also influence one s perception of what is authentic; consequently, one s belief in perceived truth can be distorted. The depiction of a physical world filled with misrepresented and inadequate images of existence, in Allegory of the Cave, confirms this assertion. Shadows symbolize fact and those who were chained consider nothing besides the artifacts as the unhidden (Plato). Similarly to Plato, Gregory s Shame, portrays his teacher s assumptions that he was stupid, couldn t spell, couldn t read, and couldn t do arithmetic (Shame 5). She regarded him as ignorant, based solely on his inability to concentrate in class or sit still. Gregory also describes his obliviousness of shames existence.