Thinking Outside the Box

                Plato, in his work "Allegory of the Cave", and Sartre, in his play "No Exit" both took a deep look at how are minds work and what it is that really controls or limits the power of our minds and will.I feel that Plato and Sartre differed in what they thought limited the mind, at least what they wrote in their respective pieces  In Plato' "Allegory of the Cave" the thing limiting people was the cave and their chains. These symbolized two things, the cave was their unusual environment that limited their minds by diminishing what they saw, as did their chains, which represented things that would also prevent them from thinking about things other than what was right in front of them because it hurts to move against the chain and see something else. This is how Plato saw the mind limited. Sartre, in his work, "No Exit", saw it differently. The major factor that was limiting the characters thinking was their deeper desires. They could not pursue any course of thought without satisfy their inner needs first. There are many examples. Estelle cannot remain quiet when she needs to because she is so concerned with her appearance and must find a way to see herself. Inez can't remain quiet either because she has some odd desire to bask in Estelle's beauty, and feels moved to stare at her. Garcin cannot proceed to make love to Estelle because he is to concerned with the people who think he is a coward and feels the need to find a way to change that thought in their heads, so that he is not a coward. These are a few examples of desire limiting peoples thoughts in the play.
               Plato's solution to his limits was that it required someone of strong will to fight against and break the chains, and only then could they see the reality of things and free their minds. Sartre solution was a bit more subtle, but it also required strong will.If either of the characters could have accepted that their desires would not be meet or fulfilled, they could have been able to stop tormenting themselves with their impulsive need for gratification. The pusillanimity between the two solutions here is a strong will. A will to break away, or the will to  endure, both are solutions of high merit from excellent thinkers themselves.