In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato published in the Wake Tech English 111 Reader, presents a scene where prisoners are born into a life of chains, shadows, and darkness. The outside world is unknown to the prisoners and was never even thought of. One character in the reading came upon the outside world, this world caused a shift in his thoughts about the cave he was born into. “He will require to grow accustomed to sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves” (Plato 201).
This reading brings out the readers imagination which is digging below the surface of the story to discover a deeper meaning. In “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer, and the Poor, Poorer” by Robert B. Reich published in Wake Tech English 111 Reader, exemplifies the economic gap all around the world. He states, “We are now in different boats, one is sinking rapidly, one is sinking more slowly, and the third rising steadily” (Reich 213).
This reading clearly articulates the people working as in-person servers and routine producers are the ones sinking as new technologies take over the industries. As people, we tend to have a lack of effort to break free from limitations we create in our lives. This sets us in a comfort zone that can hold us back from exploring what could be considered an outside world.
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In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Reich’s “Why the Rich Are Getting Richer” readings, the authors deal with comfort zones and demonstrates how this has a huge effect on life. In the allegory, the prisoners comfort zone was set to be in the darkness of the cave because that was what they were used to. The prisoners were stuck in this comfort zone of the cave and not willing to explore or even wonder what is on the outside even when they were told good things about it.
The prisoners are known to be ignorant and the news they were told about the outside world did not convince them or earn their trust. “Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending” (Plato 202). Because of the comfort zone the prisoners were in, they did not think about if there was an outside world and if it is any better than the world they were already accustomed to.
However, in the Reich reading, the people that are considered in the lower-class living paycheck to paycheck are the ones sunken into their comfort zones. This group of people are used to having lower incomes because of a lack of prior education which resulted in employment with lower paying jobs. They most likely believe if they step out of that comfort zone it is considered a risk. As soon as the comfort zone is stepped out of, an outside world can be seen.
While Plato shows a lack of effort on the part of the prisoners, Reich suggests a need for effort by the lower class to gain a higher career status in a developing economy. In the Allegory, there was no effort of escaping the setting the prisoners were in because they did not even know of escaping. In the Reich reading, effort is needed to get out of the sinking boat he demonstrated. In the economy the sinking boat can rise if effort is applied to a person’s life but in some cases, the boat can have a difficult time rising.
Reich states “In-person servers in Bangladesh may spend their days performing roughly the same tasks as in-person servers in the United States but have a far lower standard of living for their efforts” (Reich 220-221). This argues that even though a person is putting in effort, their circumstances can still be different.
In the Plato’s Allegory, the chains on the prisoners as well as the barrier between the cave and the outside world represents a limitation. The prisoners in the cave have limitations in their mind which causes them to limit their life to just being inside the cave. The chains can represent a force holding the prisoners back from believing that a better world is outside.
In the Reich reading, a limitation would be a lack of education that limits a person from getting a good job and income. Reich states “If you drop out of high school or have no more than a high school diploma, do not expect a good routine production job to be awaiting you” (Reich 217). This economy has set a limitation on people making them think just because they do not have the proper education, they cannot get a proper job. This limitation can relate to the example of the sinking boat and how this limitation makes it harder for the boat to rise.
The prisoners of the cave can connect and be a version of the lower-class people in the sinking boat according to Reich. Both of these readings conclude an urge of breaking out of the chains we are used to being in and believing there is a better world outside of the world we are used to. In relation to today’s society, the people that are in the rising boat are breaking free from their limitations and stepping out of their comfort zones to become successful.
The people that are in the sinking boat are stuck in their comfort zones which results in the poor becoming poorer. The prisoners in the cave had a chance to believe in an outside world but because of their limitations and comfort zones they did not trust it. In the world we need to be willing to believe there is an outside world for us to explore new experiences which could benefit us greatly.
