The complex portrait of the cave and the subsequent narrative of the person escaping the cave are intended to explain the text in great detail, while remaining metaphorical. These components can be seen as the interconnected examples of the text, which explains why Plato's allegory is a logical representation of the human condition. Socrates writes of prisoners: "such men would hold that truth is nothing but the shadows of artificial things." This applies to the people in the cave, as they believe that shadows are reality, but also to humans. The metaphor in this case is that shadows are what we see, distorted and controlled by the powers that govern them