"Puppets"

Hello, puppet. The word "puppet" is defined by the less renowned
Merriam-Webster Dictionary as, "1 a: a small-scale figure (as of a person or animal) usually with a cloth body and hollow head that fits over and is moved by the hand b: marionette2: doll 13: one whose acts are controlled by an outside force or influence." The function of the word "puppet" within the context of Plato's discussion is to define the nature of the shadows cast by the ignorant campfire cavers. Yet in a more metaphorical sense, the word "puppet" also represents the arbitrariness and relative nature of human knowledge, which Plato iterates in his juxtaposition of the enlightened freed cave-dweller, who knows now that the shadows,the sole knowable entities to his former kinfolk, are in fact only creations based in relativity, depending entirely on solid objects and the position of a given light source, against his unreceptive and ignorant community.

Charles Carter