The full book shelves near the door, the blank white boards, the music disk and graffiti covered wall frightened the prisoner. He had no idea what he had gotten into. No other classroom looked the way this one did. In fact no other classroom was mentioned and talked about so much as this one was. As the prisoner walked into the intimidating looking place he sat down not to far from the front, but not to close to the back, about the middle to be more accurate. The man near the desk spoke about some big question the prisoner was supposed to come up with. To be quite honest the prisoner was astonished. He had never been asked what he was curious about at school. He was told that the answer for most things would be a yes rather than a no. He was told that he was in control of the classroom and that he would have to take advantage of his learning. The prisoner could not understand anything that was being thrown at him. He went home confused and intimidated. He wondered if he was in the right class. He had never in the history of his schooling been told that he was in control of his thinking and learning. He had never been in an English course like this one.
This prisoner stuck to the course. He was the prisoner that was strong enough to leave the cave that captured him. Even though in other classes the cave was still present, in English there were no boundaries. The escaping prisoner was dumfounded that he could even think in so many different ways and learn so much in so little time. He told the cave students about it, but they did not understand. They nodded their heads the other way and apologized. They felt sorry for the escaping prisoner and all of the hard work and effort he was putting into that class. They did not understand that whom they should really feel sorry for was themselves. The prisoner had escaped the routine of thinking. He has escaped the cave.
In the “Allegory of the Cave” the tone is dark and bitter. The theme can easily be argued, but I found it to be the fear of the unknown and what is already known. The escaped prisoner decided to take the opportunity to enlighten himself through an English class. When he tried to tell his peers about thinking and viewing things from different perspectives they did not really accept him. The prisoner in my story is much like the prisoner in the allegory, because he is rejected when he tries to guide the other prisoners to the light. He is seen as the crazy one.
The prisoner in my story compared to the Estella in “ No Exit” is very well aware of his surroundings unlike Estella. They are both alike in the fact that they initially thought they did nothing wrong. They did not want to recognize that something in their life was off. The prisoner being his way of thinking, his ignorance and Estella being her desire for men. If Estella was stuck in the situation that my prisoner was stuck in she would probably drop out of the English course and continue to deny any of her wrong doings. She would go on living day in and day out doing as she pleased and not taking in to consideration what the world has to offer.
