Plato_And_Black_Elk

Plato And Black Elk Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Black Elk’s “The Great Vision” each make a case for a particular way of knowing through a vision or higher realm. Black Elk describes a far more detailed version of his own vision as a young child. His experience provides a way of knowing the spiritual world. Plato describes a man imprisoned in a cave who finds a way of knowing and understanding the world through an enlightening experience. Both authors share similar ideas of gaining knowledge at a higher level, but smaller details of their writings show the differences in their positions. In “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato created a metaphoric story beginning at the far end of a cave, a long way from the outside world where men had lived since childhood with their legs and necks tied up in a way that kept them in one place and only allowed them to look straight ahead. Further up the cave, a fire was burning which allowed minimal lighting. There was a wall between the fire and the men, behind which people carried all sorts of artifacts. The men were only able to see shadows of these artifacts. They did not have any black, people, realm, elk, higher, knowledge, vision, plato, cave, world, power, men, way, believed, understanding, understand, share, shall, saw, one, man, grandfathers, through, spiritual, plato’s, light, lead, great, elk’s, earth, both, back, sun, story, source, should