In the Allegory of the Cave there are four main stages of enlightenment. The four steps cover all aspects of enlightenment, from knowing absolutely nothing and perceiving reality only through your sense organs to achieving full knowledge and the ability to understand “the good.” Just like someone seeing sunlight for the first time, it accurately portrays the experience of enlightenment. He wrote The Simile of the Sun and The Allegory of the Cave to clarify his perception of the world and to explain the world as he saw it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Plato's literature, good is represented as the sun. He chooses this particular symbol for its illuminating qualities and its vague incomprehensibility. For someone who has never seen sunlight and has lived his entire life observing only shadows, even a simple explanation of this natural phenomenon would be baffling. In the Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners are bound so that the shadows on the wall in front of them are the only reality they perceive. When they are freed from the chains and introduced to the objects that create the shadows, they are initially baffled by this as it is in direct conflict with the only reality they have known for many years. This bewilderment and pain continues as he is shown the light of the sun, the light that blinds him because he has lived in the darkness for so long. Plato uses the sun to explain the good by showing that philosophical enlightenment, much like a person who has lived in darkness all his life seeing the sun for the first time, is an essential but difficult process. He chose the sun as a representation of good because of the way it illuminates life. If we saw a bright red scarf at night and were asked to describe it, we would all say that it was a tasteless gray or purple object. We wouldn't be wrong, but we wouldn't be telling the whole truth either. The sun changes the way we see the world and allows us to understand the totality of facts, just as good allows the existence of reality and truth. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In conclusion, Plato explains the good by comparing it to the sun, an equally enlightening idea. For a child, the idea of ​​the sun is magnificent and even painful. For a prisoner the concept of good is the same. Just as human life on earth could not exist without the sun, so truth and reality could not exist without good.