Blog 2: The Allegory of the Cave

The truth can be appalling in various ways. This is probably the most common reason by which people avoid it or refuse to accept it. Some of them even live in an illusion pretending that everything is well but the reality is the total opposite. Several families nowadays pretend to be entirely great when in real life they are in situations that involve unsolved issues. Probably they do this because what people would say concern them, mostly towards parents that are famous or publicly involved. This stated, Plato’s allegory of the cave from the Excerpt of the Republic comes to mind.

Allegory is the representation of something else utilizing symbolic figures. In the passage’s case, Plato uses the cave as a symbol that represents when people refuse to acknowledge or face the truth in different situations. In human history, there can be numerous events involving the fact that people preferred to evade reality or pretend like nothing was going on. This is why the Montgomery Bus Boycott occurrence in which Rosa Parks was drawn in is a clever example to consider.

Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist who was later known as “the mother of the freedom movement”. The Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred in 1955 when Parks boarded the Cleveland bus after a day at work at the Montgomery Fair department store. The front seats were reserved for the white passengers and the back seats were reserved for the blacks. She already paid her fare when she sat in an empty seat in the “colored” section next to three African American passengers. Several white customers later boarded and so all of the reserved white passenger seats were already taken. This is when the bus driver ordered Mrs. Parks and the other three African American passengers to vacate their seats for the white passengers that boarded. The three passengers moved, but Parks refused to do so and stated she wasn’t in a seat reserved for whites. This is when the bus driver called the police and had her arrested.

The racial laws of Montgomery, Alabama were definitely unfair for the African American people living there. The illusion in this case was the fact that even though some African Americans thought or believed this was unfair; they preferred to just evade it. For instance, the passengers sitting next to Mrs. Parks clearly represent this idea, as when the driver asked them to move they simply did so, knowing the situation was unjust. They were practically living in the cave, until Parks decided to face reality and fight for justice even though it cost her getting arrested. Parks proved immense courage throughout this situation. Her act of denial transformed into an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and she became an international idol of resistance to racial segregation.   

Reality is a powerful factor that society avoids in order to remain safe and comfortable in their illusion. People prefer to evade certainty so that they don’t have to deal with confronting complex situations. However, Rosa Parks proved to do the opposite and faced the truth and even fought it during the Montgomery Bus Boycott without assuming the consequences. Parks was an inspiration later due to her actions; and was honored even after her death being known as one of the women “who helped make the nation as a whole great.”

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/rosa-parks/