Animal Farm

By: George Orwell

George Orwell• Real name: Eric Arthur Blair• Lived in India as a young boy

and began writing at a young age• His beliefs about politics were

affected by his experiences fighting in the Spanish civil War.

• Viewed socialists, communists, and fascists as repressive and self-serving.

• Always felt he was an outsider and questioned any group’s ideology.

Animal Farm

• Published in 1945

• Orwell criticized the Soviet Union

• Orwell said it was the first book in which he consciously tried to blend artistic and political goals.

• In explaining how he came to write Animal Farm, Orwell says he once saw a little boy whipping a horse:

It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength, we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the worker.

He was interested in HUMAN NATURE and in how revolutionary leaders can sometimes turn out to be worse than the people they overthrow.

• Animal Farm is more than a story about animals. It’s a commentary on the relevance of independent thought, truth, and justice.

Allegory

• Allegory – symbolic story structured with at least 2 levels of meaning.

• Dr. Seuss wrote many allegories. For example, watch this and make some notes on what Dr. Seuss is trying to say about certain kinds of leaders.

• Critics often consider Animal Farm to be an allegory of the Russian Revolution.

Parody vs. Satire

• Parody = A parody is a work done in imitation of another, usually in order to mock it, but sometimes just in fun.

• Satire = is a style of writing that uses humor—sometimes gentle and sometimes biting—to criticize people, ideas, or institutions in hopes of improving them.

• Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as failures in governmental power.

•Weird Al – Parody– What is the point?

•Coke Commercial– What is the point?

Can you tell the difference?

Parody or Satire?

Parody or Satire?

Fable

• Fable – Short story that features animals which are personified in order to teach a moral lesson.

• Many fables are attributed to Aesop of Aesop’s Fables. He was supposedly a slave in Greece around 550BC. In ancient Greek and Roman education, the fable was the first of the training exercises in prose composition and public speaking. Students learned fables, expanded upon them, invented their own, and finally used them as persuasive examples in debates.

Fables have the following elements

• Animal characters with human characteristics

• A clear setting or situation

• A problem or dilemma, usually caused by a character trait of weakness

• A resolution

• A clear moral or lesson at the end of the story

• The Ant and the Grasshopper

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. "Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?" "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant,"and recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

•What is the moral of the story?

Based on the fable we just read, make notes on the following:–The animal characters and which human qualities they display.–The setting and situation–The problem–The resolution–The moral or lesson

• Read the fable examples provided to you.

• As you read, identify the following:– The animal characters and which human

qualities they display.– The setting and situation– The problem– The resolution– The moral or lesson

So how is Animal Farm a fable?

Using the elements that we’ve been studying, discuss whether you think Animal Farm is a fable or not. Provide evidence from the text to support your reasoning.

What do you know about he Russian Revolution?

The Revolution

• Russia was ruled by Czar Nicholas (king) until 1917 when the communists under Lenin took over the government.

• Lenin and his assistant, Trotsky, followed the ideas of the communist thinker Marx.

• When Lenin died in 1924, Trotsky became the leader of the Soviet Union.

• Trotsky was a good leader, but he only ruled for a short time because he was overthrown and killed by Stalin.

• Stalin was only interested in power. He was a ruthless dictator who killed or imprisoned anyone who stood against him. Stalin killed almost twice as many people as German dictator Adolf Hitler.

• The characters in the novel have been directly compared to players in the Russian Revolution.

• Review the following handout and see if you can place the character names from Animal Farm with the real characters from the Russian Revolution.

How did it happen?

• Propaganda

• Manipulating language (Chapters 5-7)

• Creating a new society