Intro to Animal Farm

What is a Fable? Fable:Fable: A brief, often humorous, tale that presents a moral or message. The characters are often animals.

Fairytale: a story involving fantastic forces and beings.

Symbol and Allegory Symbol:Symbol: a person, place, thing, or event that represents something else. Allegory:Allegory: a story where every character, every place, every event….virtually everything is a symbol.

Allusion references to well-known people, places, or events from literature or mythology.

ALLUSIONALLUSION

Anthropomorphism With anthropomorphism, we give human characteristics to animals. This is similar to personification except, again, those human qualities have to be given to animals.

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Real Name: Eric Blair British Political Novelist Born: To English parents in India

After his father retired, Eric and his family moved back to England.

He was sent to boarding school at the age of eight to prepare for Eton, an exclusive prep school. Because he had a scholarship, he was teased and humiliated frequently.

At eighteen, he passed the Empire’s Civil Service Exam and became a police officer in Burma, which is now known as Myanmar.

Returned to Europe

Socialist Socialist: someone who believes that the government should own businesses so that everyone will be equal Socialism: Socialism: an economic system in which the making and selling of all goods are controlled by the government instead of private enterprise.

Most fables have two levels of meaning. On the surface, the fable is about animals. But on a second level, the animals stand for types of people or ideas. The way the animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says something about the nature of people or the value of ideas. Any type of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning in this way is called an allegory.

satire A satire uses ridicule to make certain people, events or institutions appear foolish. Animal Farm makes fun of political society after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Example of Satire SNL mocks the presidential candidates, making them appear foolish.

Russian society in the early twentieth century had two social classes: a tiny minority (bourgeoisie) controlled the country’s wealth. The working class was called the proletariat.

Communism arose in Russia when the nation’s workers & peasants rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists & aristocrats.

Communism A system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common which is controlled by a totalitarian state, dominated by a single and self serving perpetuating political party. Political Systems & Cows

Confusing “isms” Here’s a simpler definition: Socialism: You have two cows. Give one cow to your neighbor. Communism: You have two cows. Give both cows to the government, and they may give you some of the milk. Fascism: You have two cows. You give all of the milk to the government, and the government sells it.

Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes both of the cows. Anarchism: You have two cows. Keep both of the cows, shoot the government agent, and steal another cow. Capitalism: You have two cows. Sell one cow and buy a bull.

How To Be a Good Dictator "... and he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm." When Josef Stalin was on his deathbed he called in two likely successors, to test which one of the two had a better knack for ruling the country. He ordered two birds to be brought in and presented one bird to each of the two candidates. The first one grabbed the bird, but was so afraid that the bird could free himself from his grip and fly away that he squeezed his hand very hard, and when he opened his palm, the bird was dead. Seeing the disapproving look on Stalin's face and being afraid to repeat his rival's mistake, the second candidate loosened his grip so much that the bird freed himself and flew away. Stalin looked at both of them scornfully. "Bring me a bird!" he ordered. They did. Stalin took the bird by its legs and slowly, one by one, he plucked all the feathers from the bird's little body. Then he opened his palm. The bird was laying there naked, shivering, helpless. Stalin looked at him, smiled gently and said, "You see... and he is even thankful for the human warmth coming out of my palm."

Farmer Jones A drunk and a poor farmer, his cruelty towards the farm animals inspires their rebellion.

Snowball A clever pig with a head for ideas, he becomes one of the main leaders of Animal Farm and the author of its central commandments.

Napoleon A pig with a gift for techniques of control, he establishes most of the farm’s rules and eventually becomes its sole leader.

Old Major An elderly show pig whose instruction to the animals about "animalism" becomes the philosophical basis for the creation of Animal Farm.

Squealer A pig with the ability to make any idea sound reasonable, he is Napoleon's side-kick and is in charge of communicating to the animals.

Boxer A strong and hard-working carthorse, he shows tremendous faith in the rebellion and its leaders.

Mollie She craves the attention of human beings and loves being pampered and groomed. She has a difficult time with her new life on Animal Farm.