Animal Farm by George Orwell
George Orwell, born Eric Blair, was a political novelist. He was born in India to British colonists and spent his childhood attending private schools including the elite Eton.
Orwell became a socialist as a young man. He did not agree with the then Russian socialism. The Tsars were overthrown by Stalin and Russian communism was born.
Socialism is term used for economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources. Communism a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classlesss and stateless society structured upon communal ownership of property.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 centres around two primary events: the February Revolution and the October Revolution. The February Revolution, which removed Tsar Nicholas II from power. The October Revolution (also called the Bolshevik Revolution) overturned the interim provisional government and established the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks declared themselves the representatives of a dictatorship of the proletariat. In response, the Russian Civil War broke out in the summer of that year and would last well into 1920.
Nicholas II - the last Russian tsar, who ruled from 1894 until Vladimir Lenin (a.k.a. Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov) -The founder of the Bolshevik Party, organizer of the October Revolution, and the first leader of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin (a.k.a. Joseph Dzhugashvili) - after the revolution, Stalin became increasingly powerful and eventually succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union upon Lenin’s death in Leon Trotsky (a.k.a. Leon Bronstein) – a Bolshevik leader and one of the most prominent figures of the October Revolution. Trotsky, who was in exile abroad during the February Revolution, returned to Russia in May 1917, closely aligned himself with Lenin, and joined the Bolshevik Party during the summer.
The animals in the novel represent the four men in last slide and the Russian people. The characters of Old Major, Snowball, Farmer Jones and Napoleon represent each of the four men.
The novel opens with disgruntled animals aiming to take over the farm and scare Farmer Jones (Nicholas Tsar) away. They succeed and agree to live like socialists. However, this does not last long as some of the animals become more powerful and their shared vision of equality turns into communism, bullying and exploitation of the farm animals with alarming consequences.
Study of the novel will focus on: 1. Characterisation 2. Theme (Russsian Revolution/politics etc) 3. Turning point in novel (where the story changes dramatically) 4. The language used by Orwell. All of the above will be done through note-taking, group work, homework and critical essay writing.
1. Character notes and analysis of main characters (Farmer Jones, Snowball etc) 2. Study of the main themes and the impact they have on the novel as a whole and indeed the characters. 3. In depth study of the turning point and how it affects the course of the plot and indeed, the characters. 4. The language used and how it helps you as the reader to understand the overall meaning of the themes, character and novel as a whole. E.g. Metaphors, similes A Textual Analysis will be carried out on an extract from this novel to help prepare you for NAB. You will be required to learn your literary techniques and be able to comment on their effectiveness within the novel. There will also be work done on vocabulary, sentence structure and punctuation in order to improve these skills. Ultimately a critical essay on the novel.
orwell.org orwell.org