Plato vs Sartre Practice Essay

How you respond to an event says a lot about your character. In "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato a prisoner leaves the cave and is exposed to a different environment than he has known. Plato explores the idea of a true reality when the prisoner takes his life into his own hands and does something different.

Sartre takes the same idea of doin something different but how in the opposite of what the allegory showed. The prisoner was enlightened by gathering more information than what he prewiosuly knew. In Sartre's "No Exit" Estelle, for example, didn't try anything new and didn't learn anything or become enlightened. Estelle is trapped in her world just like the prisoners who remain in the cave. The prisoner who escaped represents people who are enlightened and want to share their experience with others. When the enlightened ex-prisoner tries to talk and share his new discoveries with the prisoners in the cave, they don't understand because they are still trapped in their own thoughts of the world. 

Plato used his philosophical thoughts to create the prisoners and display how sticking to te normal, ordinary ideas will not help you develop. "No Exit" is based off the same theme but the opposite effect. "Allegory of the Cave" and "No Exit" go hand in hand explaining to people that exploring the mind and questioning what is out there can enlighten you into finding a true reality.