Running Head: APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 1

Applying Platos Myth of the Cave to Spiritual and Personal Life and Literature Dr. John Yanovitch PHI 290 01 Topic: Nature and Reality December 11, 2013 Molloy College

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 2 Abstract In this paper I plan to explain Platos Myth of the Cave by applying the aspects of the myth to the three parts of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to aspects of my own personal life and to characters in the Harry Potter series. My goal is to be able to interpret Platos philosophy of finding absolute truth in three different ways that are meaningful to me and to others. With the spiritual part of this paper, I plan to focus mainly on the gospels from the New Testament and with the literary part of this paper, I plan to focus mainly on Harrys ascension from his cave and his quest to find and destroy Horcruxes, which ultimately destroy Lord Voldemort.

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 3 In Platos Myth of the Cave he sets up a scene of a person being chained in a pitch black cave from childhood with their head fixated in one place, a wall behind them with which there is a teacher who holds up puppets that create shadows on the cave wall in front of the person because of the fire behind the teacher. The person grows up with the reality of shadows and not being able to move from their spot. Everything presented by the teacher is what the person perceives to be true. Plato then suggests how one would expect the person to react if they were brought out of the cave. Would the person not be completely confused? The ones who brought the person out of the cave would have to slowly reveal a completely new reality to this person step by step. Plato goes on to define the aspects of the story as follows: the cave represents the world, the fire represents the sun, and the journey out of the cave represents the soul ascending into the intellectual world. These can be further interpreted as the cave/world being each persons own perceptions, the fire/sun being considered truth/Absolute Truth respectively, and the journey can be interpreted as a person growing in learning of new realities and truths based on experiences and teachings from authoritarian figures such as family, friends, religions, governments, teachers, etc. When we were learning about the Myth of the Cave in class, something in my mind made me interpret the aspects of the story in application to the Holy Trinity at first, and then in morphed into Jesus and his disciples if you follow through one of the Gospels in the New Testament and take it in stages. In my research, I refer specifically to the Gospel of Luke. Stage

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 4 one is in the very beginning of the Gospels, the story of the Immaculate Conception and the story of the Virgin Birth in Bethlehem. This is where my mind started to apply the concept of the Myth of the Cave. In stage one; I would interpret the cave to be Jesus reality before he truly started his ministry. This would then make Jesus the subject in the cave who is chained facing the wall. I would consider his teacher to be Mary, his mother, and the fire would be the Holy Spirit who has been guiding Mary since she agreed to conceiving Gods son. These conclusions can be reinforced by the following statement: The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. (Luke 1:35) I feel that Jesus ascent from the cave starts in Luke 2:41, The Boy Jesus in the Temple. This is the story of when Jesus, at the age of 12, in found in the temple in Jerusalem. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. (Luke 2:46) I would compare this as his ascent from the cave because he is learning of new realities. For me, stage two begins when Jesus is baptized. Baptism can be defined as a persons initiation into a particular activity or role, Jesus starting his ministry. I interpreted this definition as Jesus complete ascension out of the cave into the true reality. In stage two, the roles of the aspects of the Myth of the Cave transform. The cave continues to stay the persons reality until they begin their ministry, but in this case, the person is a group of people: Jesus twelve disciples. Their teacher is Jesus and their fire in the cave is still the Holy Spirit. However, stage two is not about the disciples being in the cave, but about their ascension out of the cave. This

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 5 starts when Jesus calls them by name and asks them to follow him. I think the most important disciples to focus on are Simon Peter, Judas, and Thomas. During their ascension from the cave, Jesus tells the disciples parables, he performs miracles, and fulfilling his ministry in the following ways: by healing the sick, whose sickness is viewed as Gods punishment for their sinfulness, by touching and curing lepers, who are separated from the rest of society, by speaking and spending time with Samaritans, who are looked down upon and rejected by the Jews, by accepting women as disciples, who are generally not accepted as equals, socially and religiously, by responding to the request of the Roman centurion, a foreigner who represents social domination, by forgiving and eating with sinners, who are put down and discriminated against by leaders of the Temple, and by liberating those possessed by demons, whom all avoid because they are believed to be under the power of Satan. In doing all of these things, Jesus is taking the reality of his disciples caves and breaking them down bit by bit and changing them to a different reality. Instead of their fire being their truth, they are slowly coming to the Sun or Absolute Truth of what reality is. Jesus says to his disciples to explain his purpose of speaking in parables, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand. (Luke 8:10) Stage two continues and Jesus tries to prepare his disciples for them to finally come to Absolute Truth, which is represented as God, when he foretells his death several times. When it finally comes time for Jesus to die, he foretells that two of his disciples will turn their backs on

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 6 the realities he has shown them and descend slightly back into the cave. The first foretelling is of Judas who betrays him with a kiss to the Roman soldiers. The second foretelling is of Simon Peters denial of knowing Jesus three times before the cock crows. The difference with these two disciples is that Judas completely descends back into the cave by hanging himself for his sin of betraying Jesus; meanwhile, Simon Peter ascends again from the cave by repenting for his sin of denying his Lord three times. Still going along with the theme of stage two, the disciples fully emerging from the cave, I want to continue after the resurrection of Jesus in where I want to reference the Gospel of John. When Jesus appeared to his disciples after he had resurrected from the dead, he said Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (John 20:19-20) In doing this, the disciples were all able to come to a new reality and ascend farther from the cave, all disciples but one, that is. Thomas was not there when Jesus appeared to his disciples and when he was told about Jesus coming to them, he said he would not believe it Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe. (John 20:25) Once Thomas was able to touch and see Jesus, then was he able to come to the same reality as the others. Finally stage three, when the disciples come to the Absolute Truth and start their true ministries. I feel like this stage truly begins on the day of Pentecost. This is the day that the Holy Spirit comes to the disciples as tongues of fire over their heads. The phenomenon is such that

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 7 each disciple is able to speak in a different language and that they stop being afraid of the Jews because Jesus has already ascended to heaven. The tongues of fire represent the Absolute Truth that they are finally able to recognize because they have come to a full knowing of the reality their teacher, Jesus, had brought them to know. In applying Platos Myth of the Cave to the Harry Potter book series written by J.K. Rowling, I can group certain parts of Harrys story in stages similar to the way I did with Jesus and his ministry. Stage one would be Harrys life before being introduced to the wizarding world. Stage two would be Harrys life when he first comes to learn of the wizarding world and his schooling at Hogwarts. And stage three would be Harrys journey in finding and destroying Horcruxes. In stage one; Harry is living with his Aunt Petunia, the sister of his mother, Lily, and his Uncle Vernon and their son Dudley, who isnt much older than Harry. For most of his life, his extended family, the Dursleys, were his teachers in the cave, the cave being the reality of the Muggle world. This stage focuses on Harrys life inside the cave. The fire, or truth, that lit the cave for Harry was fueled by the fears of the Dursleys. Harry grew up learning in negative connotations about his neighbors, his parents, and himself from the way the fire lit the cave he lived in. However, a lot of this stage can only be taken out of context from what little is written about the Dursleys in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone before Harry gets his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, which is where stage two begins.

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 8 Harrys ascension from the cave starts when he meets Hagrid, the keeper of keys and games at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid has a very important role in Harrys life because he is the one to explain to him truths that were hidden in the cave that the Dursleys had kept him in. One of these truths being that Harry is a wizard. Another of these truths being that his parents were murdered, not that they died in a car crash, as he was made out to believe. Throughout the first few Harry Potter books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, new truths are revealed to Harry that help him come closer and closer to the Absolutely True reality that he is destined to be living in. Hagrid helped Harry discover a few at the very beginning of stage two, but most of the truths he comes to know, he learns from Albus Dumbledore, who is the headmaster of Hogwarts. In the second book, Harry ends up speaking snake language, Parseltongue, during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Dumbledore explains to Harry that he can speak Parseltongue because Tom Riddle, who is Lord Voldemort, can speak Parseltongue. He explains further that connections he has with his parents murderer are because of the lightning bolt scar on his forehead which was left after the Killing Curse used on Harry by Lord Voldemort backfired, leaving Lord Voldemort as nothing left but a non-physical being. In the third book, Harrys truths are getting confused because he is learning more and more about his fathers friends. At first he is led to believe that his fathers best friend, Sirius

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 9 Black, is the reason that his parents were murdered. He then finds out that Sirius is his godfather, which is considered secondary to a parent. In the end, the truth is revealed to Harry that one of his fathers friends, Peter Pettigrew, is the real reason that his parents were murdered and that Sirius spent 12 years in prison for a crime he never committed. In the fourth book, Lord Voldemort finds a way to reclaim a physical being, since he hadnt had a body for thirteen years. With the truth revealed to Harry that Lord Voldemort has returned, Dumbledore begins to transition Harry into stage three of his ascension from the cave. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry is revealed the truth of a prophecy that says that a boy born at the end of the seventh month would be the one to defeat the Dark Lord. Because Lord Voldemort heard the prophecy, he assumed the boy would be Harry, even though Neville Longbottom (a classmate of Harrys) was also born at the end of July. Since Voldemort chose to hunt down Harry and destroy him, the prophecy becomes about Harry. This is when Harry comes to know that he is The Chosen One, the one who will defeat the Dark Lord and return the wizarding world to its previous glory. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore directs Harry to find out about Horcruxes. Horcruxes are defined in Urban Dictionary as A device created and used by the darkest of Dark witches and wizards, those seeking immortality. In a horcrux, one conceals part of the soul to prevent death. In order to do so, the soul must be torn into two pieces: one for the horcrux, and one that remains in the physical body. To create a horcrux, one must commit "the supreme act of evil" murder, which "rips the soul apart." They must then perform a special

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 10 spell (the incantation of which has not been revealed) which will harness their soul, allowing them to place it into an object at will. The act of creating a horcrux is considered to be dangerously unnatural. Finding these Horcruxes becomes one of the last few steps, if you will, of his ascension out of the cave. Once Harry and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermonie Granger, find and destroy 6 of Voldemorts Horcruxes, they come to understand that there is one more horcrux to destroy, Harry himself. This is the Absolute Truth of Harrys existence, that he is one of Voldemorts Horcruxes. The night when Voldemort used the Killing Curse on Harry and it backfired, a piece of Voldemorts soul attached to Harry. This is what also created the connection that Harry and Voldemort shared. Once Harry came to this reality, he offered himself up to be destroyed by Voldemort because he thought it would end all the war and that ultimately, him being The Chosen One only meant that he was to die for the greater good. When Voldemort does kill Harry, he only kills the Horcrux that was unintentionally attached to Harry and Harry is still alive. Harry pretends to be dead until the opportune moment came that he could reveal himself and kill Voldemort, leaving Harry to have fully ascended from the cave and be able to live in the sunlight of Absolute Truth.

APPLYING PLATOS MYTH OF THE CAVE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LITERATURE 11 References New Testament. (2005). In The catholic youth bible (pp. 1178-1265). Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press. Plato. (n.d.). The Myth of the Cave. The Myth of the Cave. Retrieved from http://people.bridgewater.edu/~jjosefso/The Myth of the Cave.htm Urban Dictionary: Horcrux. (2005, July 30). Urban Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Horcrux