Thinking Outside the Box

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses the cave itself as a description as the limitation to our thinking and that it takes the journey to the surface (metaphor for education) to be able to reach enlightenment. The men shackled to the cave are the mentally narrow minded while their ability to only see the shadows before them symbolizes their inability to comprehend the ideas behind what's in front of them.

Sartre's own vision of Hell in of itself is a challenge to the way we think. His rather personal Hell was meant to challenge traditional views of Hell, presenting a radically different view of something we all thought we knew. Besides setting alone, while Plato uses an allegory to create a metaphorical vision of his concept, Sartre shows the limitations to thinking through the interactions of the three "damned", the three being unable to cope with each other if only because of the fact they serve as punishments to each other. The three's inability to stand each other could be seen as reflecting man's inability to cope with thinking outside of his own.