Comparison of the Voice You Hear When You Read Silently by Thomas Lux, “the Allegory of the Cave” by Plato

The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently by Thomas Lux, “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, and the poem marked #632 by Emily Dickinson all used symbolism to represent a consciousness that is capable of retaining an amazing amount of knowledge. All of these written works focused on the mind, and its abilities; which is intriguing because they all differed in perspectives.

Reading through The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently by Thomas Lux, it makes one immediately begin to overthink the voice that speaks inside their head. What is the sound of it? Is it the same voice heard when one speaks? What kind of effect does it have on one’s reading? All of these questions and more were answered when the poem brought up that the voice inside your head is shaped by personal experiences and personal opinions. Every reader approaches the written word - in this case a poem by Thomas Lux - carrying around their previous life knowledge and experience with them. This poem particularly emphasizes the capabilities of the mind because it shows that it is able to influence mental voice using personal perspective/outlook and emotion. There is no other object in the universe besides the mind that can do this. Additionally, the poem states, “The voice you hear when you read to yourself is the clearest voice: you speak it speaking to you.” It is the truest voice a person will ever know; to find out who you really are, just simply take out a book and read, the inner voice (controlled by your mind) will show you how you truly feel about things based on different negative and positive connotations of words. Even more, the poem emphasizes the power of the mind by using the symbol of a cathedral. A cathedral is a temple, which is considered to be a holy and spiritual place. Comparing the mind to a cathedral signifies that is also a holy place; powerful and important.

In “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, the entire story concerns human perception. This is