The prisoners cannot see any of what is happening behind them, they are only able to see the shadows cast upon the cave wall in front of them. The people walk behind the wall so their bodies do not cast shadows for the prisoners to see, but the objects they carry do ("just as puppet showmen have screens in front of them at which they work their puppets" (514a). Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway with a low wall, behind which people walk carrying objects or puppets "of men and other living things" (514b). These prisoners are chained so that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing them to gaze at the wall in front of them and not to look around at the cave, each other, or themselves (514a–b). Plato begins by having Socrates ask Glaucon to imagine a cave where people have been imprisoned from childhood, but not from birth.
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