This is a little story I wrote after reading the Allegory of the Cave in my Theory of Knowledge class.


Solitary thinking (The allegory of the Subway station)
You’re there every day in that subway station,
a Plexiglas wall stopping you from falling on the
train tracks. There is a light that never appears
as if to go out or dim. The light hangs, lonely,
in the center of the station, casting shadows
across the wall. There are no doors or exits,
and any free light that isn’t from the bulb comes
along the tracks at predetermined times, attached
to a subway car. The people in the car always
look out at you, but the windows are tinted
which makes it difficult to see them and so no
face is ever seen. One always stands at the
subway car door, nothing but a large tinted
pane of glass. This shape always speaks and
is always different, but you always believe them.
They are your hope, your truth, and your holy
book. You who know no better than to believe
a story of disaster or a story of joy and you see
no difference between the stories you’ve been
told. You see realities that could and never will
happen. You know every brick upon the wall
and that there are no cracks. You look and have
counted every brick… there are 5000 along your
three walls. You know no one and ask no
questions about it, because as far as you
remember you have lived in this hell for a long
time, but you don’t call it hell do you? No…
you call the station home and it shall always be
home; for you alone forever. You don’t long
for a companion or a friend, because you have
never had one… just the people in the subway
car who stop and look. You’ve made attempts
to walk into the car, to follow their lights as
they drive away, but everything is too solid
and you can’t leave. What if however one of
the shapes in the subway car were to break
the wall? What if the subway car crashes and
allows you a way out? What happens if you
escape… what if as soon as you get to the
surface you die? Would you rather stay in
safety or go to a new world? You’ll be changed
forever, but you don’t know what change is.
You don’t know what risk is. Will you take it
though, that thing you don’t know? I’d like
to see you try. I’d like to see your
transformation. Let me be that person who
destroys that solid wall and brings you into reality.