Allegory of the Cave: The Class System of America
03-17-08 22:40
Plato’s “Allegory of the Caves” is a discussion on the nature of human enlightenment. In his commentary, Plato shows the importance of working for the people thru wisdom, rather than ruling over them thru power and money. His discussion uses a hypothetical situation in order to illustrate his point.
The allegory begins with prisoners who are chained in a cave. These chains prevent the prisoners from not only leaving, but from moving entirely; they must sit facing a dark wall forever. Behind the prisoners is a ledge on which is fire is lit. Marionettes and other objects move in front of this fire, creating shadows that reflect on the back wall for the prisoners. These shadows are the only thing the prisoners ever see.
If a prisoner leaves the cave, he will instantly be blinded by the light of day. He would only be able to see the shadows of the world. Eventually, he will be able to make out objects, reflections, and finally the sun itself.
Plato explains that the allegory is the process through which humans attain wisdom. At first, humans only see representations of the world, but eventually if he tries, man will be able to build on these images with knowledge. The more knowledge man has, the closer he is to understanding the true nature of reality and society.
Once humans have seen the sun (or achieved the world’s wisdom), they cannot be allowed to stay there. In order to avoid the selfishness (or entitlement to power and wealth that the educated believe they deserve) man must be thrust back into the cave or the darkness of the world. By doing this, he is able to understand the entire pantheon of human existence. He will know how to function not for his own self (with power and money), but for the whole world with the use of wisdom.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is still explored in the today’s world because it is such a relevant text on the nature of society and reality, and it matches many of the problems the world sees today. One such problem is the socioeconomic structure of America. Within the class structure, some individuals are repressed (prisoners in the cave) while others are living for themselves through wealth and power (the enlightened who are have not descended). Often the problems of class (as well as other problems that are applicable to the “Allegory”) are depicted through art, because art is something that is easily understood by all people, not just the upper or lower classes. Through literary works, films, and social commentaries, one may see how America’s distribution of wealth and class structure matches the “Allegory”.
The lower socioeconomic classes are those who live in poverty or paycheck to paycheck; these are the individuals who are stuck in the cave. These individuals fit one of two categories: They are either content to live in their ignorance, even though they complain about the upper classes; or they are the individuals who cannot help themselves because they don’t know where to begin.
Suzan Lori Park’s play In the Blood is primarily an example of the second situation: Those who want to be set free from the material chains and be elevated into the sunlight and wealth of the world, but they do not know how to do so. In the Blood is the story of an unmarried, black woman named Hester and her five children living below the poverty line. She does not have a job, cannot read, and her family lives under a bridge. Throughout the play, we learn how people of the higher classes try to help Hester, but in all reality are just (to put it in layman’s terms) fucking her over. Three of the characters– The Doctor, Reverend D, and The Welfare– are representative of three popular aids of the lower socioeconomic classes –medical, the church, and Welfare. Each of the above has tried to help Hester rise up from her place in poverty, but instead created more trouble by impregnating her, causing her to have more children and less hope for the accent into sunlight. These three characters, in place of taking responsibility for their actions, blame Hester and continue to push her further into the cave.
The Doctor gives Hester free medical assistance, but after years of trying to help decides that Hester must be “spayed”, in order to prevent her from having more children– even though he himself fathered one of the five, (Parks 41). He uses the word spay instead of a more politically correct and humane term like hysterectomy because to him, Hester is an uneducated animal, “Yr [sic] intelligent. Attractive enough. You could of made something of yrself [sic]….The Higher Ups say yr [sic] a skid. I agree,” (Parks 41). He pushes her into the cave because if she is there, the Doctor is able to bask in the sunlight of the world. He can blame the problems of the world on her ignorance, rather than his inability to see why she suffers.
Hester visits Reverend D for help. She brings with her a picture of the child that the Reverend fathered. He does not recognize her and so tries to get her to confront the father about his responsibility, “If he don’t [sic] respond to that then hes [sic] a good-for-nothing dead-beat, and you should report him to the authorities. Theyll [sic] garnish his wages so at least you all wont [sic] starve,” (Parks 48). But as soon Reverend D realizes that it is Hester, he tries to get her to leave and promises her false hopes of collection money and food. Because the church is a respected establishment in the sunlight of the world, the Reverend does want to degrade himself to the ignorance of the caves. He shows her false truths in order to keep her ignorant.
The Welfare comes to Hester to check up on her, “I care because it is my job to care. I am paid to stretch out these hands, Hester. Stretch out these hands. To you,” (Parks 55). She tries to help Hester by giving her odd jobs and asking the names of the fathers of her children so the Welfare can track them down and tax them (even though The Welfare is the father of one of the children).
The welfare of the world weighs on these shoulders, Hester. We at the Welfare are at the end of our rope with you. We put you in a job and you quit. We put you in a shelter and you walk. We put you in school and you drop out. Yr [sic] children are also truant. Word is they steal. Stealing is a gateway crime, Hester. Perhaps your young daughter is pregnant. Who knows. We build bridges you burn them. We sew safety nets…good strong safety nets and you slip through the weave. (Parks 54)
The Welfare was created to help the lower classes get a leg up in society. However, the system has been corrupted and the Welfare blames the lower classes inability to become educated and branch out into the sunlight on the lower class themselves. If The Welfare is wrong, then the system is wrong and the system cannot be wrong because it is what holds our society together. Therefore, Hester is wrong and ignorant, and the educated Welfare, who are only paid to help Hester, are correct.
Each of the three upper class institutions that could help are instead pushing the lower classes back into the cave so that they, the upper classes, can live in the sunlight. They do not wish to transcend back into the filth of the world. While they think they understand what the lower-class goes thru they cannot fully do so until they have returned, and therefore they can never fully help others to reach the sunlight.
Hester is not only being imprisoned by the upper classes, she is also being held back by other prisoners around her. The characters Amiga Gringa and Chilli represent those from the cave who refuse to believe what the outside world has to offer and are instead content to live in their ignorance. (These two characters are also responsible for two of Hester’s children.) Amiga Gringa uses Hester by taking items from her and promising money in return for them. In both instances of this, Amiga returns with little to no money. Chilli is Hester’s first love, but after he finds out she is pregnant with his child, he leaves in order to avoid responsibility. In the play, he returns with the intent of marrying Hester because he feels that by leaving her, he lost of piece of himself. When he realizes that Hester now has five children however, he leaves. Chilli wants to have no further responsibilities. Both Amiga Gringa and Chilli inhabit the cave, they want to retain their ignorance and live in the shadowy society. Neither want help from others nor to give help to others, least of all Hester, whom they believe belongs in the cave with them.
Barry Wellman and Barry Leighton’s “Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of Community Question” may help one to further analyze In the Blood and how it relates to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and to the problems of the American socioeconomic structure at large. In their commentary, Wellman and Leighton discuss the ideas of Community Lost, Saved, and Liberated. In essence, Community Lost is when a community has little to no connection to each other and people are instead dependent on a system that has put in place for them, (Wellman 368). Community Saved is when a community has strong ties with the people that live around them, however they do not connect with others outside their neighborhood. This allows for little information to pass in and out causing the community to suffer by remaining in a place of consistency, (Wellman 373). Community Liberated is when a community is connected with many groups around them, whether it is neighbors, church groups, clubs, etc. This allows for information to pass freely in and out of community and neighborhoods, allowing its members to become more educated, experienced and wise, (Wellman 377).
The character of Hester in Park’s In the Blood is a victim of the Community Lost argument “that contends the transformation of Western societies to centralized, industrial bureaucratic structures has gravely weakened primary ties and communities, making the individual more dependent on formal organizational resources for sustenance,” (Wellman 368). Because Hester is forced into the cave where she must work as an industrialized slave to the bureaucratic system, she is unable to help herself and must rely charities like medical assistance, the church, and Welfare. These charities were “designed to end alienation and to grow urban roots,” (Wellman 370). However, many programs were unable to serve the masses that needed help, as one can see with Hester. The programs turned from their original charitable ideals “to elaborate social control policies, designed to keep in check the supposedly alienated, irrational, violence-prone masses. When even the achievement of social control has not seemed feasible, policies of neglect benign or otherwise—have developed,” (Wellman 371).
The upper classes, or those in the sunlight, begin to lose sight of where they came from, the cave of ignorance. They decided to control the masses with money and power, rather than rule them with wisdom. The idea of the lower classes begins to change in the eyes of the more privileged. “Running through many lost analyses has been the implicit assumption that human beings are fundamentally evil (or easily capable of being driven to evil by industrialism, bureaucraticism [sic], or capitalism), and that where restraining communal structures have been destroyed by the Industrial Revolution, riot, robbery, and rape have swept the city,” (Wellman 371). The lower classes become evil and corrupt in the eyes of the privileged. They commit crimes and pollute society. This idea of pollution is visible In the Blood when the Welfare woman explains how Hester and her children steal, that no matter how many “bridges they build”, Hester will continue to “burn them”, (Parks 54).
Even ties with the people that inhabit the cave with Hester– Amiga Gringa and Chilli– fit into the notion of Community Lost. “Ties tend to be fragmented into isolated two-person relationships rather than being pars of extensive networks,” (Wellman 370). She may have relationships with people in her situation, but these relationships are fragmented and are not real examples of help, friendship, or community.
Because of the way Hester is perceived, the world around her refuses to help. Hester a “modern urbanite”, is an “alienated isolate who bears the brunt of transformed society on [her] own,” (Wellman 369).
I am writing this section right now......
1. The Enlightened: Rich who are born with money. They have everything, and yet complain about taxes, only donate for public approval.
a. The Cherry Orchard
i. Social Commentary of the upper class
ii. People loose money, but not mentality
b. Community Saved.
Our America: Life and Death of the South Side of Chicago by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman shows the struggle of the lower class or cave dwelling citizens of America who are able to ascend into the sunlight. Jones and Newman were given the opportunity to write an autobiographical radio program, and from that, the two boys wrote a novel. The story is in two parts: it starts in their eighth grade year, takes a break and revisits the boys at Jones’ graduation. The boys live in the Ida B. Well’s projects on the south side of Chicago, where they witness ten-year-old kids selling crack on the corner, gang violence, shootings, and death (Jones 33). The most prominent event of the novel is the death of Eric Morse— a five year old that is pushed out a fourteen-story window by a ten and eleven year old (Jones 89). The event marks the travesty of the Ida B. Well’s projects where the boys live. They interview many people about the conditions of the projects and about what the government and people of the projects need to do to fix their lives. These interviews include family members, teachers, kids that live in the Wells projects, lawyers on the Morse case, and even the chairmen of the Chicago Housing Authority.
A constant theme and question that the both Jones and Newman ask is why are the projects in the state they are in, and why can’t the people and government figure out a fix for the problems? The boys try and help their society by questioning and interviewing people, as well as getting their message out to the world through the radio program and the novel. They are very much like Plato in the regard of questioning everything and trying to find answers to the world’s problems. The boys believe what Plato said about not continuing to live in ignorance but instead being elevated through knowledge. Because of this, Jones is able to elevate himself. He graduated high school and attended Florida State for journalism. Through education and hard work, as well as questioning the world around him, he was able to become wise and live in the sunlight.
Jones’ advancement to wisdom moves him in the realm of Community Liberated. In this new environment, Jones is able to transcend the class system and speak to people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. He is able to understand the pantheon of all human existence, and speak thoughtfully with others regardless of where they stand in the world. He is also able to help elevate others, as he does with Newman, who fell behind in school and did not graduate on time.
LeAlan: But you should be graduating with us, man,
Lloyd: I know—I just start crying sometimes thinking about that. But I’m going to make it.
LeAlan: Got to make it, man. Got to.
Lloyd: I just can’t see myself staying here. I can’t see it.
LeAlan: We got to make it.
Lloyd: I just can’t fall. I went up too high. All these things that we’ve accomplished—I just can’t fall down.
LeAlan: It ain’t easy, but we’re going to make it. I’ll be out of this place in a heartbeat—literally a heartbeat. (Jones PAGE NUMBER)
Jones is able to leave the cave after he questions. He becomes committed to education and committed to change, and through that is able to venture to the world outside and bask in the sunlight. Jones does not forget where he comes from either, and is able to transcend all the levels of the socioeconomic system, helping to guide those in need of assistance.
As opposed to In the Blood and Our America, which shows the immense poverty that our own society faces, or the Cherry Orchard which shows the obscene wealth during the 1800’s, Arthur (a 1981 film starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli) shows the crass assumptions of the upper-class with their wealth, and also that by giving up that wealth, we are able to see the full range of human pathos. Arthur Bach (played by Dudley Moore) is a young, spoiled, rich brat that spends money on alcohol, train sets, prostitutes, and basically anything he wants, because money is not an issue for him. When a prostitute that he has hired asks what he does for a living, Arthur responds “I race cars, I play tennis, I fondle women—but! I have weekends off and I am my own boss,” (Arthur). His family is well-off and seen as high society, and as soon as Arthur marries, he will given his inheritance so that he can continue his lifestyle of never working and always playing. Arthur is somewhat of a joke where he lives, as he is constantly an object for the press to exploit. He exploits his wealth by doing objectionable things that bring down the aristocratic stature of his family, like picking up prostitutes and bringing them to five star restaurants. He is always drunk and very much a grown up child.
Arthur is representative of the extraordinarily rich present in our society today, the Paris Hiltons’ and Waltons’ of the world. These people have all the money they could ever need, and yet they give hardly anything back to their society. Instead they live thrive in the limelight and controversy, all the while growing richer. Like Paris Hilton, Arthur has never worked a day in his life, nor does he intend to. They believe the lower classes have created their own problems and function with false assumptions about the poor. Even Arthur’s butler, Hobson, who instructs Arthur on how to be a good person, tells Arthur that, “Poor drunks do not find love, Arthur. Poor drunks have very few teeth, they urinate outdoors, they freeze to death in the summer,” (Arthur).
Arthur is promised inheritance if he marries a well-to-do, young woman, Susan. Arthur does not love Susan, but agrees to marry her to please his parents. Susan is a rather pathetic character, who loves Arthur despite his many faults including, “drink, throwing up, and forgetting to call her for months,” (Arthur). Arthur is ready to go through life as a miserable, rich drunk until he meets Linda. Linda is a young working class woman that Arthur finds trying to steal a tie for her father’s birthday. She is very poor, works a dead end job, and lives at home with her father. Despite their socioeconomic boundaries, Arthur falls in love with Linda. The rest of the movie is a witty comedy where Arthur goes back and forth between Susan and Linda and Hobson, the butler, tries to instruct Arthur on what should be important in his life.
On the day of Arthur and Susan’s wedding, Arthur shows up drunk and calmly tells Susan that he cannot marry her because he doesn’t love her. Susan’s father almost kills Arthur, but luckily Linda comes and saves him. Arthur is able to escape into the chapel full of his friends and family to make the announcement that the wedding off. Arthur makes the decision to marry Linda, despite the fact that they will be poor for the rest of their lives, because he loves her. He allows himself to transcend the class system and rich out those in need—in this case, those in need of love.
Arthur follows the idea of Community Liberated presented in the social commentary by Wellman and Leighton. Arthur is able to branch out beyond his rich, aristocratic community and connect with individuals from the lower classes. He is able to have strong relationships with these people because of commonalties between them, not just wealth or class. Arthur’s ability to transcend the pantheon of the class system and make his own decisions based on those efforts makes him a wise person.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” illustrates the world as a place where some people are blinded by ignorance like Hester from In the Blood, or a world where the wealthy remain elite and do not change or help those around them like the characters in The Cherry Orchard. Plato’s “Allegory”, however, do point us in the direction that we must head. As a people, we cannot let ourselves be limited by the society around us, and if we are ever going to change, then we must do it ourselves through education as is the case in Our America; or for the betterment of ourselves and those around us like in Arthur. We must stray away from the notion of Community Lost or Community Saved that Wellman and Leighton talk about, where we rely on a government to create change for us, or else stay contented in a society where nothing new is brought in. We instead must strive for the notion of Community Liberated where we can help others and ourselves through a constant change.
Anyone that wants to take a look can email me back at jennerussell@gmail.com
I LOVE YOU ALL. Really. Oh, I need to put in the edits from my teacher still, but......it's pretty okay right now.
The allegory begins with prisoners who are chained in a cave. These chains prevent the prisoners from not only leaving, but from moving entirely; they must sit facing a dark wall forever. Behind the prisoners is a ledge on which is fire is lit. Marionettes and other objects move in front of this fire, creating shadows that reflect on the back wall for the prisoners. These shadows are the only thing the prisoners ever see.
If a prisoner leaves the cave, he will instantly be blinded by the light of day. He would only be able to see the shadows of the world. Eventually, he will be able to make out objects, reflections, and finally the sun itself.
Plato explains that the allegory is the process through which humans attain wisdom. At first, humans only see representations of the world, but eventually if he tries, man will be able to build on these images with knowledge. The more knowledge man has, the closer he is to understanding the true nature of reality and society.
Once humans have seen the sun (or achieved the world’s wisdom), they cannot be allowed to stay there. In order to avoid the selfishness (or entitlement to power and wealth that the educated believe they deserve) man must be thrust back into the cave or the darkness of the world. By doing this, he is able to understand the entire pantheon of human existence. He will know how to function not for his own self (with power and money), but for the whole world with the use of wisdom.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is still explored in the today’s world because it is such a relevant text on the nature of society and reality, and it matches many of the problems the world sees today. One such problem is the socioeconomic structure of America. Within the class structure, some individuals are repressed (prisoners in the cave) while others are living for themselves through wealth and power (the enlightened who are have not descended). Often the problems of class (as well as other problems that are applicable to the “Allegory”) are depicted through art, because art is something that is easily understood by all people, not just the upper or lower classes. Through literary works, films, and social commentaries, one may see how America’s distribution of wealth and class structure matches the “Allegory”.
The lower socioeconomic classes are those who live in poverty or paycheck to paycheck; these are the individuals who are stuck in the cave. These individuals fit one of two categories: They are either content to live in their ignorance, even though they complain about the upper classes; or they are the individuals who cannot help themselves because they don’t know where to begin.
Suzan Lori Park’s play In the Blood is primarily an example of the second situation: Those who want to be set free from the material chains and be elevated into the sunlight and wealth of the world, but they do not know how to do so. In the Blood is the story of an unmarried, black woman named Hester and her five children living below the poverty line. She does not have a job, cannot read, and her family lives under a bridge. Throughout the play, we learn how people of the higher classes try to help Hester, but in all reality are just (to put it in layman’s terms) fucking her over. Three of the characters– The Doctor, Reverend D, and The Welfare– are representative of three popular aids of the lower socioeconomic classes –medical, the church, and Welfare. Each of the above has tried to help Hester rise up from her place in poverty, but instead created more trouble by impregnating her, causing her to have more children and less hope for the accent into sunlight. These three characters, in place of taking responsibility for their actions, blame Hester and continue to push her further into the cave.
The Doctor gives Hester free medical assistance, but after years of trying to help decides that Hester must be “spayed”, in order to prevent her from having more children– even though he himself fathered one of the five, (Parks 41). He uses the word spay instead of a more politically correct and humane term like hysterectomy because to him, Hester is an uneducated animal, “Yr [sic] intelligent. Attractive enough. You could of made something of yrself [sic]….The Higher Ups say yr [sic] a skid. I agree,” (Parks 41). He pushes her into the cave because if she is there, the Doctor is able to bask in the sunlight of the world. He can blame the problems of the world on her ignorance, rather than his inability to see why she suffers.
Hester visits Reverend D for help. She brings with her a picture of the child that the Reverend fathered. He does not recognize her and so tries to get her to confront the father about his responsibility, “If he don’t [sic] respond to that then hes [sic] a good-for-nothing dead-beat, and you should report him to the authorities. Theyll [sic] garnish his wages so at least you all wont [sic] starve,” (Parks 48). But as soon Reverend D realizes that it is Hester, he tries to get her to leave and promises her false hopes of collection money and food. Because the church is a respected establishment in the sunlight of the world, the Reverend does want to degrade himself to the ignorance of the caves. He shows her false truths in order to keep her ignorant.
The Welfare comes to Hester to check up on her, “I care because it is my job to care. I am paid to stretch out these hands, Hester. Stretch out these hands. To you,” (Parks 55). She tries to help Hester by giving her odd jobs and asking the names of the fathers of her children so the Welfare can track them down and tax them (even though The Welfare is the father of one of the children).
The welfare of the world weighs on these shoulders, Hester. We at the Welfare are at the end of our rope with you. We put you in a job and you quit. We put you in a shelter and you walk. We put you in school and you drop out. Yr [sic] children are also truant. Word is they steal. Stealing is a gateway crime, Hester. Perhaps your young daughter is pregnant. Who knows. We build bridges you burn them. We sew safety nets…good strong safety nets and you slip through the weave. (Parks 54)
The Welfare was created to help the lower classes get a leg up in society. However, the system has been corrupted and the Welfare blames the lower classes inability to become educated and branch out into the sunlight on the lower class themselves. If The Welfare is wrong, then the system is wrong and the system cannot be wrong because it is what holds our society together. Therefore, Hester is wrong and ignorant, and the educated Welfare, who are only paid to help Hester, are correct.
Each of the three upper class institutions that could help are instead pushing the lower classes back into the cave so that they, the upper classes, can live in the sunlight. They do not wish to transcend back into the filth of the world. While they think they understand what the lower-class goes thru they cannot fully do so until they have returned, and therefore they can never fully help others to reach the sunlight.
Hester is not only being imprisoned by the upper classes, she is also being held back by other prisoners around her. The characters Amiga Gringa and Chilli represent those from the cave who refuse to believe what the outside world has to offer and are instead content to live in their ignorance. (These two characters are also responsible for two of Hester’s children.) Amiga Gringa uses Hester by taking items from her and promising money in return for them. In both instances of this, Amiga returns with little to no money. Chilli is Hester’s first love, but after he finds out she is pregnant with his child, he leaves in order to avoid responsibility. In the play, he returns with the intent of marrying Hester because he feels that by leaving her, he lost of piece of himself. When he realizes that Hester now has five children however, he leaves. Chilli wants to have no further responsibilities. Both Amiga Gringa and Chilli inhabit the cave, they want to retain their ignorance and live in the shadowy society. Neither want help from others nor to give help to others, least of all Hester, whom they believe belongs in the cave with them.
Barry Wellman and Barry Leighton’s “Networks, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Approaches to the Study of Community Question” may help one to further analyze In the Blood and how it relates to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and to the problems of the American socioeconomic structure at large. In their commentary, Wellman and Leighton discuss the ideas of Community Lost, Saved, and Liberated. In essence, Community Lost is when a community has little to no connection to each other and people are instead dependent on a system that has put in place for them, (Wellman 368). Community Saved is when a community has strong ties with the people that live around them, however they do not connect with others outside their neighborhood. This allows for little information to pass in and out causing the community to suffer by remaining in a place of consistency, (Wellman 373). Community Liberated is when a community is connected with many groups around them, whether it is neighbors, church groups, clubs, etc. This allows for information to pass freely in and out of community and neighborhoods, allowing its members to become more educated, experienced and wise, (Wellman 377).
The character of Hester in Park’s In the Blood is a victim of the Community Lost argument “that contends the transformation of Western societies to centralized, industrial bureaucratic structures has gravely weakened primary ties and communities, making the individual more dependent on formal organizational resources for sustenance,” (Wellman 368). Because Hester is forced into the cave where she must work as an industrialized slave to the bureaucratic system, she is unable to help herself and must rely charities like medical assistance, the church, and Welfare. These charities were “designed to end alienation and to grow urban roots,” (Wellman 370). However, many programs were unable to serve the masses that needed help, as one can see with Hester. The programs turned from their original charitable ideals “to elaborate social control policies, designed to keep in check the supposedly alienated, irrational, violence-prone masses. When even the achievement of social control has not seemed feasible, policies of neglect benign or otherwise—have developed,” (Wellman 371).
The upper classes, or those in the sunlight, begin to lose sight of where they came from, the cave of ignorance. They decided to control the masses with money and power, rather than rule them with wisdom. The idea of the lower classes begins to change in the eyes of the more privileged. “Running through many lost analyses has been the implicit assumption that human beings are fundamentally evil (or easily capable of being driven to evil by industrialism, bureaucraticism [sic], or capitalism), and that where restraining communal structures have been destroyed by the Industrial Revolution, riot, robbery, and rape have swept the city,” (Wellman 371). The lower classes become evil and corrupt in the eyes of the privileged. They commit crimes and pollute society. This idea of pollution is visible In the Blood when the Welfare woman explains how Hester and her children steal, that no matter how many “bridges they build”, Hester will continue to “burn them”, (Parks 54).
Even ties with the people that inhabit the cave with Hester– Amiga Gringa and Chilli– fit into the notion of Community Lost. “Ties tend to be fragmented into isolated two-person relationships rather than being pars of extensive networks,” (Wellman 370). She may have relationships with people in her situation, but these relationships are fragmented and are not real examples of help, friendship, or community.
Because of the way Hester is perceived, the world around her refuses to help. Hester a “modern urbanite”, is an “alienated isolate who bears the brunt of transformed society on [her] own,” (Wellman 369).
I am writing this section right now......
1. The Enlightened: Rich who are born with money. They have everything, and yet complain about taxes, only donate for public approval.
a. The Cherry Orchard
i. Social Commentary of the upper class
ii. People loose money, but not mentality
b. Community Saved.
Our America: Life and Death of the South Side of Chicago by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman shows the struggle of the lower class or cave dwelling citizens of America who are able to ascend into the sunlight. Jones and Newman were given the opportunity to write an autobiographical radio program, and from that, the two boys wrote a novel. The story is in two parts: it starts in their eighth grade year, takes a break and revisits the boys at Jones’ graduation. The boys live in the Ida B. Well’s projects on the south side of Chicago, where they witness ten-year-old kids selling crack on the corner, gang violence, shootings, and death (Jones 33). The most prominent event of the novel is the death of Eric Morse— a five year old that is pushed out a fourteen-story window by a ten and eleven year old (Jones 89). The event marks the travesty of the Ida B. Well’s projects where the boys live. They interview many people about the conditions of the projects and about what the government and people of the projects need to do to fix their lives. These interviews include family members, teachers, kids that live in the Wells projects, lawyers on the Morse case, and even the chairmen of the Chicago Housing Authority.
A constant theme and question that the both Jones and Newman ask is why are the projects in the state they are in, and why can’t the people and government figure out a fix for the problems? The boys try and help their society by questioning and interviewing people, as well as getting their message out to the world through the radio program and the novel. They are very much like Plato in the regard of questioning everything and trying to find answers to the world’s problems. The boys believe what Plato said about not continuing to live in ignorance but instead being elevated through knowledge. Because of this, Jones is able to elevate himself. He graduated high school and attended Florida State for journalism. Through education and hard work, as well as questioning the world around him, he was able to become wise and live in the sunlight.
Jones’ advancement to wisdom moves him in the realm of Community Liberated. In this new environment, Jones is able to transcend the class system and speak to people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. He is able to understand the pantheon of all human existence, and speak thoughtfully with others regardless of where they stand in the world. He is also able to help elevate others, as he does with Newman, who fell behind in school and did not graduate on time.
LeAlan: But you should be graduating with us, man,
Lloyd: I know—I just start crying sometimes thinking about that. But I’m going to make it.
LeAlan: Got to make it, man. Got to.
Lloyd: I just can’t see myself staying here. I can’t see it.
LeAlan: We got to make it.
Lloyd: I just can’t fall. I went up too high. All these things that we’ve accomplished—I just can’t fall down.
LeAlan: It ain’t easy, but we’re going to make it. I’ll be out of this place in a heartbeat—literally a heartbeat. (Jones PAGE NUMBER)
Jones is able to leave the cave after he questions. He becomes committed to education and committed to change, and through that is able to venture to the world outside and bask in the sunlight. Jones does not forget where he comes from either, and is able to transcend all the levels of the socioeconomic system, helping to guide those in need of assistance.
As opposed to In the Blood and Our America, which shows the immense poverty that our own society faces, or the Cherry Orchard which shows the obscene wealth during the 1800’s, Arthur (a 1981 film starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli) shows the crass assumptions of the upper-class with their wealth, and also that by giving up that wealth, we are able to see the full range of human pathos. Arthur Bach (played by Dudley Moore) is a young, spoiled, rich brat that spends money on alcohol, train sets, prostitutes, and basically anything he wants, because money is not an issue for him. When a prostitute that he has hired asks what he does for a living, Arthur responds “I race cars, I play tennis, I fondle women—but! I have weekends off and I am my own boss,” (Arthur). His family is well-off and seen as high society, and as soon as Arthur marries, he will given his inheritance so that he can continue his lifestyle of never working and always playing. Arthur is somewhat of a joke where he lives, as he is constantly an object for the press to exploit. He exploits his wealth by doing objectionable things that bring down the aristocratic stature of his family, like picking up prostitutes and bringing them to five star restaurants. He is always drunk and very much a grown up child.
Arthur is representative of the extraordinarily rich present in our society today, the Paris Hiltons’ and Waltons’ of the world. These people have all the money they could ever need, and yet they give hardly anything back to their society. Instead they live thrive in the limelight and controversy, all the while growing richer. Like Paris Hilton, Arthur has never worked a day in his life, nor does he intend to. They believe the lower classes have created their own problems and function with false assumptions about the poor. Even Arthur’s butler, Hobson, who instructs Arthur on how to be a good person, tells Arthur that, “Poor drunks do not find love, Arthur. Poor drunks have very few teeth, they urinate outdoors, they freeze to death in the summer,” (Arthur).
Arthur is promised inheritance if he marries a well-to-do, young woman, Susan. Arthur does not love Susan, but agrees to marry her to please his parents. Susan is a rather pathetic character, who loves Arthur despite his many faults including, “drink, throwing up, and forgetting to call her for months,” (Arthur). Arthur is ready to go through life as a miserable, rich drunk until he meets Linda. Linda is a young working class woman that Arthur finds trying to steal a tie for her father’s birthday. She is very poor, works a dead end job, and lives at home with her father. Despite their socioeconomic boundaries, Arthur falls in love with Linda. The rest of the movie is a witty comedy where Arthur goes back and forth between Susan and Linda and Hobson, the butler, tries to instruct Arthur on what should be important in his life.
On the day of Arthur and Susan’s wedding, Arthur shows up drunk and calmly tells Susan that he cannot marry her because he doesn’t love her. Susan’s father almost kills Arthur, but luckily Linda comes and saves him. Arthur is able to escape into the chapel full of his friends and family to make the announcement that the wedding off. Arthur makes the decision to marry Linda, despite the fact that they will be poor for the rest of their lives, because he loves her. He allows himself to transcend the class system and rich out those in need—in this case, those in need of love.
Arthur follows the idea of Community Liberated presented in the social commentary by Wellman and Leighton. Arthur is able to branch out beyond his rich, aristocratic community and connect with individuals from the lower classes. He is able to have strong relationships with these people because of commonalties between them, not just wealth or class. Arthur’s ability to transcend the pantheon of the class system and make his own decisions based on those efforts makes him a wise person.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” illustrates the world as a place where some people are blinded by ignorance like Hester from In the Blood, or a world where the wealthy remain elite and do not change or help those around them like the characters in The Cherry Orchard. Plato’s “Allegory”, however, do point us in the direction that we must head. As a people, we cannot let ourselves be limited by the society around us, and if we are ever going to change, then we must do it ourselves through education as is the case in Our America; or for the betterment of ourselves and those around us like in Arthur. We must stray away from the notion of Community Lost or Community Saved that Wellman and Leighton talk about, where we rely on a government to create change for us, or else stay contented in a society where nothing new is brought in. We instead must strive for the notion of Community Liberated where we can help others and ourselves through a constant change.
Anyone that wants to take a look can email me back at jennerussell@gmail.com
I LOVE YOU ALL. Really. Oh, I need to put in the edits from my teacher still, but......it's pretty okay right now.