Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1) The allegory of the cave according to Socrates represents a person/prisoner's journey to discovery. Discovery beyond the little that he knows, the shadows, to something greater.
2) The key elements in the imagery are the shadows, the cave itself, the prisoners, and the world that waits outside of this cave. The shadows represents the little bit that the prisoners know about reality and the prisoners represent anyone in this situation of naivety. The cave represents the prison they are withheld in and the outside world of sunlight is reality that they have yet to be enlightened with.
3) The allegory suggests that in order to be enlightened, there might be some pain involved. Realizing that your previous reality was only a small fragment of what's out there can hurt, but through this pain you gain knowledge and understanding, furthering your education and leading you to teach others.
4) The imagery of shackles suggest that the cave dwellers/prisoners are being chained down, or in other words, are not free to their own will. The cave suggests that the prisoners are somewhat ignorant of the outside world and very naive about what lies further out.
5) I feel that some figures that have much power (depending on how they use it) shackle today's society. Social media for example commonly exaggerate things or flat out lie to the public and I suppose those lies could be seen as shadow restraining us from the truth.
6) Whereas the cave prisoners are still in the cave, the freed prisoner gets to go out into the sun. Sure it's blinding at first and somewhat painful, but ultimately in the end he gets to see the beauty in it all. The freed prisoner gets the gamut of reality whereas the cave prisoners get the small fragments.
7) Lack of clarity of intellectual confusion can occur in two ways; too little information, or too much information. When constrained to such little knowledge of reality you can gain a small and confusing perception of the world, you're little world. When suddenly exposed to so much information it can be "blinding"  and the abruptness of it all can be confusing.
8) The cave prisoners must be forced out of the cave to gain intellectual freedom. This suggests that "seeing the light" isn't necessarily sought after. People tend to want to live in the comfort of the reality they have grown to know, rather than learn an entire new reality that they would then have to painfully grow accustomed to.
9) I believe there's a strong distinction between appearances and reality. An appearance can be false and it can be small. It's an appearance. It can be made out to be anything, false or true. Reality, however, well reality is reality whether we like it or not. It can not be changed or altered. It can be held back, but it's existence is still there.
10) This would mean that appearances are always true, and thus everyone should accept the reality they are given.