Short Story Link: Plato’s Valley
I wrote this short story in the Fall of 2019. I submitted it for publication in the VMI Cadence Literary Journal, and won an award.
This story is intended to be an extension of Plato’s allegory of the cave. I exchange the cave for a valley, and instead of making an ascent to the peak of the mountain (the allegorical peak of understanding), the young protagonist makes his descent into the valley out of disinterest in the mountaintop and longing for the pleasures that he believes exist in the valley. He intends to go to the valley to find his friend, Scratch, a plain illusion to an old nickname for Satan.
By using religious imagery and scriptural illusion, I seek to show the connection between the descent into ignorance from Plato’s mountaintop and the descent into sin. To descend into sin and purposely walk away from the peak of understanding and proximity to God is also to sacrifice your understanding. I also seek to show this from the lyrical writing style on the mountaintop and the more fractured, confusing writing upon descent into the valley.
Ultimately, this is a story of redemption.
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