Chapter 7
The Cave Club
“I’m just giving them a little entertainment,” said the Demon defensively. “It’s an extremely popular show. It runs all day, every day and the crowd never think of anything else. In fact, they can’t even remember anything else now!” It giggled rather unpleasantly and made the wolf puppet turn a backflip. There was a small gasp from the crowd below them.
“They can’t… remember anything else?” Delphi asked, a deep horror settling in her stomach. “All they can remember is being in this cave?”
“Watching my show.” The Demon shot her a look, his yellow eyes twinkling. “The show’s called ‘Reality’. It’s a good title, I think. The people down there certainly wouldn’t disagree with it.”
Delphi’s dad is missing. But even worse than that, the city of Athens has become… strange. An odd creature that might be a rabbit (or might be a duck), hops (or waddles) through the streets and many of Athens’ citizens have taken to sitting in an underground cave, watching a shadow puppet show on the cave wall. The show’s name is Reality – and Delphi is going to need all her philosophical knowhow to show them the truth. In this dramatic retelling of Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave, Delphi must find a way to rescue her friends and father, and help them face the truth, no matter how difficult it is.
Big Questions:
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Can you explain the duck/rabbit?
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If the crowd could only remember the shadows, would they think they were real?
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What do we mean by ‘real’?
Skills focus:
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asking questions about meaning
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presenting an idea to an audience
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anticipating potential responses
Lesson Overview
In this dramatic retelling of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the children consider what we mean by reality. The lesson builds up to a presentation opportunity, where children roleplay trying to persuade the crowd what is real. This allows for a broad range of skills to be developed, including presenting to an audience, asking questions and anticipating responses. The chapter also explores ideas around meaning, introducing the next sentence stem. The famous image of the duck/rabbit is also used as a way to consider the relationship between perception and reality. This lesson allows for a lot of philosophical depth if that is your focus, or you can focus on the presentation aspect – or simply the exciting story!
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