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Christina Walling English Composition 102 8 February 2023
Enlightenment: The Truth Behind Plato’s Ponderings of Perception Renowned Greek philosopher Plato once said, "It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and share their troubles and honors, whether they are worth having or not." Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave' is a text that posited a purpose of addressing the subject of human perception and that knowledge is achieved via philosophical argumentation. His views can be psychologically tied to ever-changing knowledge as human evolution continues to present changes in adaptability. Analogously, Sojourner Truth's speech, "Ain't I A Woman," conveys multiple links to Plato's text as she enlightens biased, indoctrinated thinkers with her experiences of being enslaved as an African American woman to help them grasp her perspective. Plato's views on perception and enlightenment connect powerfully to Truth as she exemplifies those views to edify her adversaries about her claims on gender and civil rights when she utilizes religious allusion, diction, and irony in her speech. Truth effectively uses figurative speech, such as religious allusions apropos to Plato's concept of enlightenment, when arguing about the treatment of women as a means to refute sexist ideologies tied to religion. Additionally, Truth ironically addresses issues about racism and women's rights by mocking her opposers' perceptions to shed light on Truth's intellectual vision, parallel to Plato's testimony about the purpose and effectiveness of different perspectives. Furthermore, the diction Truth harnesses as she posits her arguments about gender and civil rights have a solid concordance with Plato's perception of enlightenment since she addresses issues of racism and sexism with great poignance.
When arguing over how women were treated in the nineteenth century, Truth efficiently used allegorical rhetoric, such as religious allusions, similar to how Plato's allegory of the cave exerts notions of insight related to the prominence of multiple perspectives. In her speech, Truth propounds a point of view for her opposers to consider as she alludes to the words of religious icons in Christianity and uses the messiah's existence to subdue criticisms of what women can and cannot do because of establishments in religion. She uses allusion to reference the preaching of the clergyman's beliefs about women to enlighten her audience when she states: "Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as many rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!" (Truth 1). Truth makes this claim to aid her audience in thinking outside the box rather than leaving them to think inside the box and look at one perspective of the world based on the clergyman she assumes and alludes to as a priest. She emphasizes how clergypersons hide behind a religious doctrine as an excuse to sideline and objectify women to appear self-righteous. However, little did they know, they were reluctant to see the bigger picture and notice that the root of the doctrine they hid behind was germinated by women, like the messiah's mom, Mary. Truth's scorn for those who strove to weaponize faith against women seeking equality is evident in her comment on these men's fragility. She ultimately refers to the close-mindedness of their conscience and their hypocrisy as they strive to demonize and ridicule the feminist movement. Truth's statement can be connected to Plato's views of perspective when he helps the prisoners see beyond what they have comprehended when he asserts, "If I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes." (Plato 3). In this quotation, Plato refers to how knowledge does not come naturally to the human mind and must be taught to enlighten an individual on various
Platos' Allegory of the Cave, he makes a comparison between bodily vision and intellectual vision when he declares, "Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye." (Plato 3). This relates to Truth because she addresses the different positions between the marginalized and the ignorant. The ignorant believe that the marginalized are the ones who are stuck in the cave and that they are the ones who stand amid the light. Opposingly, Truth uses irony to portray the complete opposite to disprove their reality.
Moreover, the diction Truth utilizes as she posits her arguments about gender and civil rights strongly concords with Plato's perception of enlightenment since she addresses issues of racism and sexism with great poignance. In an attempt to get her adversaries to sympathize with her grief and personal hardships, Truth's choice of diction is informal and abstract since her speech consists of repetitive phrases such as "Ain't I a woman?" to remind her audience of her natural human qualities and fundamental rights of existence. An example of Truth's diction being availed proficiently is when she voices the melancholic tragedy regarding the loss of her children, stating, "And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?" (Truth 1). Truth stresses the enormous anguish enslaved mothers were confronted with in isolation and loneliness as she evokes the perspective of thirteen children being torn away from her. Because enslaved women had been tortured, raped, and killed for expressing emotions, Truth's overall diction of her speech was a rebellious act in and of itself, set to revolutionize the feminist movement and open the eyes of many. Plato's ideas of the enlightenment continue to branch out to Truth's personal experiences with his allegory of the cave and the shadows it has
cast upon the prisoners. The bigots are the prisoners of the cave in this context, and Plato touches on their perceived reality when he questions, "How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?" (Plato 1). The prisoners believe their shadow is their actual reality, and the knowledge they have conditioned themselves with is all they could ever hope to grasp. When the light strikes upon them, Sojourner's truth, her adversaries find it difficult to turn their heads to face the light because their ignorance has fully conquered them, preventing some of them from empathizing with Truth's perspective. Truth, on the other hand, imposes her heavyhearted candor on the audience and sheds her glistening light to rhetorically and psychologically invigorate her arguments not just for abolishing slavery but for the immediate and everlasting imparting of equal rights upon women of all races.
Without a doubt, Truth's speech was resolutely insurgent because she was bold enough to address the petrifying issues of slavery, unequal treatment of women, the weaponization of religion, and the hypocrisy of conferring property and liberation of exploitation to white women rather than women of all races. Truth unapologetically touches upon these sensitive subjects by instilling rhetoric in her speech that includes religious illusion, irony, and specific diction to enlighten her opposers using varying points of view. Akin to Plato's teachings, his explanation of enlightenment and perception had been manifested through Truth's meaningful words, which have multiple interconnected ideas to the allegory of the cave. Plato enlightens the cave prisoners and teaches them to crawl into the light and face the truth rather than camouflage in the darkness of their shadows, where the prisoners would be stuck with their dynamics of the truth. Meanwhile, Sojourner spotlights her Truth and leaves her antagonists to ponder her perception while questioning their reality, just as the renowned Greek philosopher did.
