Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

In this post, I write a comparison essay outlining differences in "cave allegory" imagery in Plato's Republic and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.

Two Books in Conversation

In an ancient conversation two-thousand five hundred years ago between friends, now called The Republic, recorded by the Greek philosopher Plato, Socrates discusses the problem of whether human beings are capable of educating true lovers of wisdom and the possibility of living within a just society. In the course of the dialogue, there is a section in the seventh part, after a discussion on the degrees of knowledge, when Socrates and his friend Glaucon speak analogously of life is like a cave, a dark shadow of the real world. Socrates imagines the cave as “an underground cave-like dwelling place” (514 A).

“The Allegory of the Cave”

As Socrates discusses the cave-dwelling to his friend, He conceives of people living in a cave, with their “legs and necks fettered from childhood,” so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only, and prevented by the fetters from turning their heads” (514 B). They do not realize that behind them is a fire. Between them and the fire are fake animals and statues, reproductions in stone or wood carried by men that are cast in shadow form on the wall by the fire “like a screen at a puppet show in front of the performers who show their puppets above it” (514 B). They imagine one prisoner being freed from this cave-like existence and finding light in the real world. When the one prisoner adjusts to the light in “the real world” and sees that it is beautiful he retreats back into the cave to free his friends, to enlighten them. But they rebel against him, comfortable in their lethargy and the convenient darkness, so they kill him. This story is popularly known as “Plato’s Cave” or the “Allegory of the Cave.” It has become a hallmark image of Western Philosophy and the ineluctable pursuit for the quest for truth.

Invisible Man

In 1952, a story was written about an unnamed, young, naive black man. The imagery of shadow and invisibility, imprisonment and freedom also mark this story as it did the ancient Greek allegory. After receiving a prize for a speech he gave to his high school somewhere in the South, the unnamed protagonist and a group of black students are invited to an underground meeting with the prominent white men of the town. After witnessing a shameful striptease by a young white girl with a tattoo of the American flag on her belly, the black boys are crowded into an open rink and forced to box in a battle royal. Afterward, the white men beckon the story’s protagonist to the crowded, bloody center to deliver his prize speech. When he proceeds to mention “social equality,” a forbidden phrase, the tension in the room is tightened, as if they would kill him if he advanced any further notion of racial equality. Thus the story of the Invisible Man begins. He goes to college up North. He joins a group of communist sympathizers called the Brotherhood. He is duped and used by both. After he has been jerked by the educational and political systems -- systems in general -- he retreats into the cave, for enlightenment. He finds shelter in a basement of an all-white apartment building in New York City, his cave. He goes into the cave, as he says, “The point now is that I found a home -- or a home in the ground, as you will” (5).

It is a cave of light, for he has strung the walls and floor with bright filament light bulbs. It is an act of passive aggression, though. It is his punch in the face to the outside, hegemonic white order. The protagonist imagines the above landlords wondering how so much electricity is being expended. And while the light is being sucked from Monopolated Power and Light, our hero listens to Louis Armstrong and rhapsodies into a metaphysical reverie to match the best of philosophical discourses.

Thinking Both Stories Together

Both stories, while obviously different, are parallel stories that think together issues of justice, education and as well gesture toward some answer to the question of what is truth and justice. It is not presumed that either story somehow miraculously interprets the other in some kind of fantastical hermeneutical wonderworld. But rather, the reason to think “Plato’s Cave” with Invisible Man is to ponder a bit about the central question(s) each text poses. So, what I will attempt to do in this paper is to discuss parallels of thought and imagery in both texts and the ways they both play and collide and converge images with going down into a “cave” and coming back into the “light.” In this way, hopefully, the exploration will provide a lens to discover plenteous fruits in both stories. We will look at the battle royal scene in Chapter One (which can be seen as an entire piece in of itself, separate from the novel, especially since it is highly anthologized and taught as a “short story” and also we will look at the sections in the novel that describe the narrator beneath a high tower residential apartment building in New York City.

Quote: Cheever on Marriage

 “Liza sent us a wheel of Brie.” “That’s nice,” she said, “but you know what? Brie gives me terribly loose bowels.” He hitched up his genitals and crossed his legs. “That’s funny,” he said. “It constipates me.” That was their marriage then - not the highest paving of the stair, the clatter of Italian fountains, the wind in the alien olive trees, but this: a jay-naked male and female discussing their bowels.

John Cheever, The Falconer

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photo credit: canarygirl

Quote of the Day for a Viper

Why Madame Rawdon “was no better than a vipère”:

She became a perfect Bohemian ere long, herding with people whom it would make your  hair stand on end to meet.

William Makepeace Thackeray, - Vanity Fair

photo credit: ceillac

Ten Everyday Words and Phrases that Originate from Greek Mythology

We Use Phrases from Greek Mythology in the English Language and We Often Do Not Realize it

We use the following phrases, "Achilles Heel," "Between a rock and a hard place," "To have a Midas touch," "To rise from the ashes," "He's a mentor to me," quite commonly in written and in spoken language. But, where do these phrases come from? Did you know that they have a common origin in mythology? Read and find out about ten phrases we use today that owe their origins to the Greeks: 

10 Popular Words and Phrases in English that Originate from Greek Myths

1. Achilles's Heel

Achilles, an ancient warrior, a child of Zeus and protected by the waters of the river Styx, fell to his death by an arrow struck at his heel, his only weak spot.

The phrase has come to mean any weak spot of an organization, a person, etc., who is generally deemed to be strong.

Marvin's brother was the only one who knew that his Achilles's heel was his weakness for gambling the $100 slots at the casino.

Here is an example from an article on cooking apps for the iPad for the New York Times:
“BigOven’s community involvement may be its biggest asset, but it is also its Achilles’ heel.”

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Cassandra warns Priam

2. To Be A Cassandra 

Cassandra was a priestess to Athena in ancient Troy. She warned King Priam that the Trojans should not take in the large wooden horse standing at their door (see, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts") but no one would listen to her.

"To be a cassandra," in present day language has come to mean someone who proclaims truth, or spreads a message, but no one wants to believe it despite its authenticity.

Another example of environmental Cassandras is a small coastal town that did not listen to the reports from a scientific recommendation to begin creating a buffer zone of trees to protect its estuary from the encroaching ocean waters.

Politicsdaily.com ran a story asking if Kathleen Parker was a Cassandra when she spoke out against the nomination of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008.

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3. Caught Between a Rock and Hard Place

Odysseus learns from the blind seer Tiresias that he must journey through a strait where the path breaks into two; no matter what path he and his crew choose, Tiresias forebodes, the outcome will be equally perilous. For on one side is the Scylla monster who gobbles up his men like chickens and on the other side is a gaping whirlpool with teeth called the Charybdis, which swallows his men alive. The Charybdis' cousin is the sand whirlpool in Return of the Jedi.

We say we are caught between a Scylla and a Charybdis, or between a rock and a hard place, when whichever decision is made, the outcome is hardly good.

A news article from The New Hampshire Keene Sentinel refers to refereeing teen bullying online, as caught between a rock and hard place because the school must choose between peer mediation, which seldom works because the bullying is not happening in school but at home online:
"We’re caught between a rock and hard place, disciplining them for what happens outside the school...”

It was easy to see Simone was caught between a rock and a hard place. If she chose Zack, tall and handsome, she would not have someone to discuss poetry, but if she chose Zed, a recent Rhodes Scholar, she would have to settle for a tepid body.
Et cetera:

It is also possible to use the phrase "Scylla and Charybdis" to mean caught between a rock and hard place, as in a San Fransisco Chronicle on global warming and stopping green house gases as a Scylla and a Charybdis.

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4. Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

How is Health Care in this cartoon used as an example of "Beware ..."

The phrase originates from Virgil's Aeneid. Laocoon tells the Trojans, "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts" but they do not listen to him and allow the Trojan Horse to enter the city (see entries on Trojan Horse, Cassandra). After the Greeks sack Troy, as punishment for attempting to warn the Trojans, Laocoon and his sons are eaten alive by a sea serpent.

The phrase is heavily used in political language to describe situations where a particular political action is not as benign as it may at first appear. The expression can be used, however, in any situation where appearances are not always what they seem.

"I say beware of Greeks bearing gifts," said Troy. "Your parents pay for dinner only when they have bad news!"

Consider a recent article, "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts," from the Heritage Blog about Hilary Clinton. In the article, the expression is used to warn policy makers about a seemingly benign Central and Eastern European endorsement of the United States in regards to foreign policy.

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5. Herculean Strength

Hercules is a hero from the Greek panoply, famous for his seven labors. Hercule gave Atlas respite by taking a turn to carry the world atop his shoulders.

To say someone has “herculean strength” means they have strength that far exceeds that of a normal person. (E.g., sometimes seen as “herculean effort”)

Ned's ability to juggle three jobs, raise two twin boys alone, while at the same time serving as the Neighborhood Watch chairperson was considered by many in the community as a herculean effort.

Here is an example from an article about Facebook from Mashable, the social media online guide:
... [the] Social web has become increasingly complex — relating the full implications to a broad audience is a Herculean feat.

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6. Mentor

Mentor is the form the ancient Greek goddess Athena takes to counsel the young Telemachus, son of Odysseus. Athena becomes a friendly, man who encourages Telemachus to go find news of his missing father who has been lost at sea after the sack of Troy.

The word mentor has come to mean a professional relationship where a more experienced person gives the necessary skills to a novice. Or it can mean simply an older person who guides a younger one.
In college I had a writing mentor who helped me to write a thesis statement.

The Associated Press uses the word to describe the relationship between the president and his former Harvard professor:

The Rev. Al Sharpton is a "lightning rod" for President Barack Obama on inner city streets, Obama's former Harvard mentor and friend said Saturday at a forum in Harlem.

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7. To Have the Midas touch

In legend, King Midas turned everything he touched to gold. In the legend Midas’ wish is granted: his food turns to gold, even his own daughter. Horrified by his new found skill, he rushes to the river to wash his hands of his gift/curse, which is why gold is to be found in river beds! The original legend was meant to illustrate the folly of the rich man and teach a lesson to rich fools.

But, if someone has the Midas touch today, it means they are skilled at becoming rich, or, just seem to be really lucky. A synonym for the Midas touch could be a “lucrative entrepreneur”. The phrase can also mean someone or something which brings luck or success.

It seemed that Mike had the Midas touch: he had a stunning wife, three handsome children, and a 401k that paid steady dividends. The block was green with envy.

A headline reads “Britain's Got Talent Betting: Simon Cowell's Midas Touch.” Betters hope Cowell’s success on American Idol will bleed over to the British counterpart.

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8. To Open a Pandora's Box

Poor Pandora lives with her family in a state of preternatural bliss but she opens the box she is explicitly told not to touch (similar to Eve eating of the fruit in the garden in Genesis). When she opens the box, corruption enters the world: death, decay, entropy, murder, war - but Pandora closes the box before everything that is horrible escapes and the one thing that is not stolen by is Hope.

Little did the popular girls at Ridgemont High know, uncovering secrets about the new kid in school was to open a pandora's box that neither of them had been able to anticipate.

We use the expression “Pandora’s box” to express an action, an event, an object, or a person that has been unleashed from its shackles and gotten out of hand.

The Huffington post ran an article about the crude oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as opening a Pandora’s box.

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9. Trojan Horse

In the Aeneid, Virgil recounts how the Greeks were finally able to conquer the Trojans after ten years of brutal fighting. Odysseus, the wily entrepreneur, devises a hollow wooden horse to place Greek soldiers inside of and place it as a “gift” at the walls of Troy. The Trojans. thinking it is a peace offering, take the horse in their gates, celebrate their victory and go to sleep. The Greeks come out of the horse, murder the men and boys and make slaves of the women and children.

To call something a Trojan horse The phrase has been used to describe computer viruses that enter “the back door” of a closed system, veiled as a normal-looking file, but are actually malware hackers use to gain information, delete files, and basically wreak havoc on civilized humankind.

Equipped with walkie talkies, Blake and his buddies decided to inject Lane into the birthday party as their trojan horse to signal to them when it was time to launch the water balloons en masse.

Federal News Radio reports on malware hackers have lured computer users to download onto their PCs from their iPads:

The link in the message leads to a Trojan horse that injects code into Windows' explorer.exe and opens a backdoor for hackers.

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10. To Rise From the Ashes

As this detail from the Aberdeen Bestiary illustrates, the Phoenix is a mythic bird who every one thousand years immolates itself and is then born again from its own ashes. In everyday speech, we use this phrase to indicate a major life change or total makeover in a person's life. One could say Bill Clinton rose from the ashes to become a post-presidential celebrity despite the scandal of Whitewater and Monicagate.

Tip: Don't try this at home, kids.

After thirty years in the working world, Hannah decided to rise from the ashes and return to school to get a nursing degree.

A post on the Consumerist claims that the once defunct electronics chain will rise from the ashes:
Circuit City to Rise from the Ashes!

And another article from a life coach promises readers to learn how to change their lives and start anew:
Et cetera: How To Rise From The Ashes Like A Phoenix

Go to my Teacher's store to buy a ready-to-go educational resource on words and phrases from Greek Mythology.

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Note: I will add to this post as I begin to compile more examples.

Find a supercharged lesson plan on allusions to  Greek myths here 

Repost: The Shortest Story Ever Told

Never worn. For sale. Baby shoes.

-Ernest Hemingway
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Haiku in Honor of National Poetry Month

Trees staring upward
Like tops spinning in circles
Empties our love out

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Notes on "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire"

Walter Benjamin on Marcel Proust on the Madeleine
I remember Walter Benjamin's writings on Marcel Proust's madeleine, the moment, in Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time, when an avatar of Proust bites into the pastry, memories of his childhood flood into his brain, what Proust calls a memoire involuntaire; but, I never noticed before this statement Benjamin (writing about Proust) makes about the search for an object related to a lost memory:

"As for that object, it depends entirely on chance whether we come upon it before we die or whether we never encounter it" (Benjamin Illuminations 158).

Lacan's Objet Petit A
This comment reminds me of Lacan's objet petit a.

It's Lacan's psychological concept for the lost object. The object of desire responsible for obsession and deranged fantasy. It is that object of desire that drives the desirer mad in search of it.

The object of desire, in the symbol of the madeleine, is a marker for that object that we may chance upon, involuntarily, or may never have at all. I think about myself, here, and my desires. If there is a "madeleine" for me, I may taste it, or I may not; the memoire involuntaire is totally necessitated by chance; I happen upon the object, the memory comes flooding in like an impressionistic painting. But, I may never come upon this memory, locked forever in some lost object of desire.

Is the Job of the Poet to Hearken Back to Lost Memories?
If it is the poet's job to unlock these memories, then I applaud the poet. If it is a poet who can open up a madeleine of lost memories, let's laud him with a crown of laurel.

I am sure there is a poem hidden in a taste yet to be eaten.

Am I hedonistic to wish for such a bite?

Proust entrances his reader with the opportunity to invoke memories through the senses. It is the poet who puts these sense impressions into language. Cognitive science confirms Proust's intimation that the senses (e.g., smell and taste) trigger a memory. Proust is right.

Proust Via Benjamin Via Lacan Are Onto Something
The memory Proust, and I think Benjamin is onto something, is alluding to is not a factual memory stuck at a particular moment in time. The memory is much broader than a recollection. Baudelaire (via Benjamin) uses the term shock - an expression meant to suggest a memory linked to trauma. The shock is a sense impression outside of some romantic notion of memory, and instead of a memory of the crowd.

I put away silly notions of private memory. The artist does not pull from something deep inside of him to produce art. It is not a private string of emotions the artist must articulate so others can understand. The memory the artist exposes is already there, involuntary.

Works Cited: 

Benjamin, Walter. Eiland, Howard, et al. Gesammelte Schriften. United Kingdom, Belknap Press, 1996.

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. United States, Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.

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Video Repost: Is this the End of Publishing?

I  thought this video was thought-provoking. I presented the video to my classroom with mixed results.

Some comments from ninth grade students:

• "I get distracted when I read. It's not ideas I don't like, it's reading."

• "I think it's ironic they posted it on Youtube."

• I get it but it's hard to explain." 

• "Well, I don't read but I'm still smart."

• "I read in magazines what Lady Gaga's wearing, does that count?"

• "Oh, it reverses!"

• "They say 'Lady Gaga" with an "R" sound." 

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Handout: Invocations Inspired by the Odyssey of Homer

A little handout of made up invocations for the Odyssey (with apologies)

credits: odysseus, penelope, telemachus, athena   text: greig roselli © 2010 with apologies to the muses and to homer.

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Book Review: The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts

Here lies a book review on the non-fiction tome The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts.
     I read the Gutenberg Elegies in 2006 back when books were still being read in print (har har). The statistics were grim for the written word, but new studies indicate that the written word may be back but will reading survive in the long run? The eReader phenomenon had not yet hit critical mass even a few years ago, but we had been facing a problem at the library: students were not coming into the library. But, hits on the library web site had increased. Students had stopped coming to the library and had instead started doing all their research on the internet; they were checking the library's catalog online, using databases online (an awesome tool, by the way).
Fast-Food Restaurant Library
     Students were not using the library to come and stay: we had become more of a fast-food restaurant: come and buy and go. I was working at the time with a colleague, B., and she was telling me how she predicted back in the 90s that book would eventually be replaced by flexible devices that would allow readers to peruse books as if they were "print." I laughed at the time, even though Sony had come out with eBook readers, and so had a few other companies - but these clunkers were expensive and not amenable to a large selection. So, I read Sven Birkert's book, which is a philosophical musing on reading, words, language, and the art of the medium. At the time I was very nostalgic for books - even though books had not yet left the party. I could not imagine a life without physical books: the smell, the binding. the print, the presence of an actual book. But, then, as time went on, and Google announced its Books service, Amazon announced its Kindle, and now Apple, the iPad, I have come to realize that it is not "books" per se that we should be championing but READING. 
     Will I read my child Where the Wild Things Are from an electronic device or from a book? Maybe both? What about WRITING. Or both: reading and writing. It is one thing to elegize on the loss of the book, but as Birkerts points out, it is a sadder thing to lament the loss of reading. Will the fast production of eBooks toss out reading? Probably not. Will blogs eliminate writing? Probably not? I think the divide is not necessarily due to books versus digital media, but rather, a divide between permanence and impermanence. Books represent permanence. Working in a library you come to know this especially when a patron comes in looking for a book he or she once read: they, panic-stricken, come to the circulation desk, "Where is the book I read twenty years ago?! It is not here. I remember it was right there," they say, pointing to a space in the library that is now reserved for computer terminals. Books are supposed to be permanent; they are supposed to be dogeared, yes, but they must persist; Sometimes people are not too happy to discover their book had been relegated to the basement, replaced by a PC - and some people even lament when their favorite book has donned a new cover art. The gods must be crazy. If the book is not to be found, a worker would have to be sent to request for the book at another location, have it sent by courier, and voilá here was the book, albeit a different jacket cover than they had remembered, but so what. Or better yet: let us say the book had been discarded?! If it had been tossed to the Friends of the Library book sale? What then? What if I had said, "Well, you can read the book on our eReader? Or you can print the entire book on a printer? Or, well, we have to inter-library loan that book from Fresno." The patron would have been unhappy. Maybe furious. We want our physical books like we want our web pages: now, and at this very moment. We want permanence but we want our permanent print like want our Safari to load: instantaneously. I am frustrated that people are so nostalgic for the superficial when they should rather be proactive for the right reasons. It is one thing to lament the loss of the physical book, but I find people are not putting their money where their hearts are. Is this an elegy for the book, or is it rather, an elegy for intellectual curiosity? What scares me more is not the loss of the physical book, but something deeper and scarier: the loss of critical thinking. If the book is only meant to be a fetish for nostalgia, then, it defeats the purpose. Books will be around for a while. Sure. As long as reading = pleasure. But, there will also be Kindles, etc., right alongside of them. What I worry about is access to new and interesting stories, information, words, language, pleasure. Will there be egalitarian places where people can read? Not everyone can afford a Kindle (and for that matter, not everyone can afford a book). Will libraries be places with free access to Google Books and usage of eBook readers? Google states once they open their databases of copyright and out of print in-copyright books by subscription, public libraries will be granted a terminal with free access. 
     What if I want to read the Chronicles of Narnia at home but cannot afford the twenty bucks? In America, access to reading is taken for granted. We forget that it is a mark of a democratic society that champions unmediated, free access to knowledge. Will there continue to be places where people can write out their thoughts (like here on Blogger, which infamously deletes blogs for no apparent reason). Will proprietary devices create an elite upper class? I think impermanence is what we are scared of. We are afraid the loss of the book is the loss of civilization as we know it. What scares me more than anything is the middle-class person who says: "I don't have time to read" when there are people who really cannot afford to read. That scares me more than, "I want an iPad." Or, when I give students a list of books to read, and one of them says, "None of these stories interests me." But, then again, what am I hoping for? Have things really changed? Are people reading less in 2010 as they did in 1956? As they did in 1888? Actually, people are reading more, just not in print. But, the strange paradox is the advent of choice: I am sure today there are so many options to choose from when it comes to reading: just look at the number of books published every year; the number of news blogs, websites, etc. But, is every class of society given the opportunity to read? Who are the people reading more? The next thing to gage is writing. Are Americans writing more? Now, it may come back to permanence and impermanence. Is it the loss of something we are afraid of? If it is, what is that something? That's what I want to know. I will not sing an elegy for the book, but I may begin to sing an elegy for thought. If we are reading more, what are we reading, and if we are writing more, what are we writing. 
Start Memorizing a Book Like the Book People in Fahrenheit 451
     Should I do a Fahrenheit 451 and start memorizing my favorite book or should I go out and buy an iPad? Maybe, I should do both. But, what I think should be done is this: people need to ensure that reading is always made available to everyone in society. Budgets for information centers, books in braille, one book one city programs, writing workshops, poetry circles, lending libraries, etc., should not be cut. I lived in a posh city where citizens voted to not approve the library budget? What were they thinking? People said they just buy their books. They don't need a library. As we speed into the information age, we cannot make the mistake of denying reading to the masses just because books are like an iTunes song: 99 cents.

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