Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
A prison house.  The fire is the sun to them as the prisoners are chained to a wall and have never seen the light of day.
2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The key elements are the shadows.  All the prisoners ever see are shadows from objects and people in front of the flame.  The shadows are the prisoners' reality.
3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
We are taught what we need to know and nothing else.  It is like we don't have our own opinion.  We must learn what is decided and we can't branch of from that.
4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The prisoners can't see anything but the wall and shadows in front of them; their reality.  The cave dwellers are gods to the prisoners in theory.  They can make anything a reality through shadows.  The prisoners can't see anything so everything is a reality if it is a shadow in front of them.
5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
A lot of things shackle our mind, in fact, everything shackles our mind.  There is always something inhibiting our mind, whether it is the internet, a higher authority, or something as simple as a piece of paper.  Our minds can't see everything and never will.
6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
Freed prisoners get the whole picture.  They know what reality actually is, not just a bunch of shadows.  The freed prisoners know what actually creates the shadows and why they are created.  It is a whole new world to them.
7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
Confusion is when the freed prisoner comes up and tries to explain the reality that is real to the still tied up prisoners.  This puts doubt in their mind of what to believe, the new guy or the reality they had faced their whole life.
8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
There are two possible ways to escape.  The prisoners can either have good fortune to help themselves somehow free themselves of their chains or tune into the already freed prisoners explain the world around them.  The "actual" reality.  All the prisoners can do is imagine what the world actually looks like.
9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
There is a gargantuan gap between reality and appearances.  What you appear as can be as different from reality as you can make it.
10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
I feel that Socrates is correct with his assumptions.  There is a distinction between the two.