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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began studying Animal Farm by George Orwell. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains loads of information on the context of Animal Farm, focusing particularly on how the novel is an allegory for the 1917 Russian Revolution and the events that followed it. We learnt about the core ideas of Communism, and the main actors of the Russian Revolution (Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin), comparing each historical leader to their fictional counterpart in the novel. We also had a great discussion about our favourite and least favourite things about the book, in which students successful picked out the most important and enlightening features of the novel and its premiss. I really enjoyed hearing the class’s idea on what different concepts and characters symbolise in Animal Farm (i.e. sugar candy mountain, Mr Jones, the sheep) and thought that they dealt with the complicated historical context fantastically. Really well done for your work today everyone, today was a super complex and information packed lesson. You all picked up on the similarity in Old Major and Karl Marx’s language brilliantly, and I was really impressed at how quickly you grasped the concept of allegory and why it is important in studying Animal Farm. Keep up the fantastic work, have fun thinking about the message George Orwell is sending through the novel, and I will see you all soon 😊
Homework
P.S. If you get a chance, remember to look over the allegory chart on Slides 10 and 11 of the powerpoint, and to also have a look at the slideshow below with more detail about the historical context. Both will be super helpful to you later on, and are really worth just taking ten minutes to take a look at.
Slideshow: https://slideplayer.com/slide/9157325/
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I think in the book “Animal Farm”, the author George Orwell wanted to satirize communism in Russia and point out that one day it will fail to achieve its goal of equality. Here are my reasons.
First, in the book, “animalism” is like communism in the reality. Old Major the old pig, who reflected Karl Marx in the real world, founded animalism. Its main content is about the overthrown of the villainous human race, the equality between animals, and that resources belong to the community. This was really like communism which was founded by Karl Marx. Then after Jones was overthrown, there came two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, fighting for power. At last, Napoleon won. This reflected the fight between Stalin and Trotsky, which Stalin won. Then the pigs, reflecting the leaders of the Soviet Union, began to gain power and weaken the power of other animals, which is indeed similar to what happened after Stalin began leading the country. The pigs gained power by revising the seven commandments, which were the main idea of animalism, as well as using violence. Along with gaining power, the pigs also began a cold war with the neighboring farms, Foxwood and Pinchfield. Pinchfield farm was Germany in reality, while Foxwood was the US and the UK. The cold relationship between the farms was similar to the cold war in reality between the US and the Soviet Union. Then in the story, there came the peace and friendship between the farms, and in reality, the dissolve of the Soviet Union, which marks the transition of Russia from Communism to capitalism.
Although George Orwell died before the dissolve of the Soviet Union, the book sort of predicted it. The book pointed out that although communism (or animalism in the book) was a good idea, it will fail anyway for the thirst of power in people (the pigs), and the challenges from the other countries (farms). Another thing it reflected is that the leaders of the Soviet Union (the pigs) were just using the ideas of communism (animalism) to gain power and money while letting the people ( the other animals) work hard in bad conditions.
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Dear Beth
Thank you for your delightful class, please see the following attachment
Have a nice day:)
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Dear Beth
This is my homework for the first class of Animal Farm.
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Have a nice day</p>
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Tony</p> -
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The main thing I think Orwell is expressing is about is the quality of life for the animals. First, I think it’s getting worse, well at first when Jones ruled the animals were hungry, then after the revolution when Napoleon and snowball both ruled they were quite happy, later when Napoleon ruled alone without snowball they’re hungry tired and angry at snowball
Secondly, I want to talk about the self-confidence at first boxer was really happy with anything, then after snowball was gone the only thing boxer would ever say is ‘I will work harder I believe at Napoleon.’
Orwell used some descriptions such as ‘they rolled in the dew, they cropped mouthfuls of sweet summer grass, they kicked up the clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent.’ he uses the word sweet summer which is up to going like a positive attitude to make the reader feel the mood of the animals being adventurous, successful, and good attitude on the revolution.
He want us to know that without ‘man’ everything is ‘perfect’ in the book it said ‘the harness-room at the end of the stables was broken open；the bits, the nose-rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with……’it represents that it is like a paradise.
After the revolution Boxer and Snowball have different view on the revolution and a new thought on animalism and human society. One thing two animals, two opinions.
In my opinion the reason why, Boxer said this I is maybe because he has a bad attitude on everything, that he always thinks about bad things of the things he has been through. It tells us about the situation in Boxer’s mind is not positive.
In my opinion the reason why, snowball said this is because he has a positive attitude on things even she is hurt. This is a compare between two leaders.
For a conclusion the main thing you want us to know is about the animal’s life, reflecting the Russian revolution, and how it leads to an end in the Russia revolution lead to a kind of victory but the animal farm however leads us to a dead end.
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Hi Beth,
Here is my homework
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CcXvfzeIz-WjJ_0fhdfqoN4Uy7cseGX4hPdp_PmgLMo/edit
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I think that the main point that Orwell has made clear is that he wants a better life for animals. The book clearly indicates this as the animals are slaves and they want a better life by abolishing slavery or anything to do with humans. This book also shows that animals are almost just as capable as humans and equal to them. Boxer is very determined and he has a negative mind so it shows that even animals can be hardworking and just as stubborn and headstrong as humans and possibly even more.
Another thing is that this also shown communism. Animalism Is like communism as both want each other to be equal. They think it is a perfect life and everyone is equal however that is not the case. Napoleon Is like Stalin, using communism, or in this case animalism to get in power and is using that power to abuse other animals like Stalin. The name Napoleon itself was used by the French king Napoleon and he was a tyrant, just like the pig Napoleon and Stalin. The animals were the people and they believed in animalism and communism so they were blinded by the evil and the deeds of Napoleon or Stalin.
Orwell did a good job about how we should treat animals better but proved that it is always a good idea to have a good leader.
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we continued studying Animal Farm by George Orwell. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our thoughts on the style and narrative of the novel, focusing particularly on the role of symbolism and foreshadowing in the book. It contains the students’ fantastic analysis of the central themes of the novel and of the semantic field surrounding it, and also involves their identification of the meanings behind the key symbols in Animal Farm (i.e. whiskey, milk and apples, the windmill etc.). We had a really great discussion on the concept of village voice and why it is a powerful narrative device within the book, backing up our ideas through analysis the key quotation “four legs good, two legs bad”. Both classes were really excellent today, everyone was super on the ball and had loads of great ideas to contribute. I particularly enjoyed our conversation on collective perspective in the novel and the shifting nature of truth in Orwell’s universe, and thought that the class’s grasp of foreshadowing and its effect was excellent. You all also did some really fantastic work on symbols and the way they Orwell uses allegory to create a sense of impending doom throughout the novel. Really well done to you all, keep up the fantastic work- you are all coming up with some outstanding ideas and I am really impressed by your focus and thoughtfulness in class. Have a lovely week and I will see you all soon 😊
Homework
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Dear Beth
Thank you for marking my work, this is my homework from this lesson, have a nice week!😊❤😜✨🎉
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Dear Beth
This is Tony’s homework for the second class of animal farm.
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Yours</p>
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Tony</p> -
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Dear Beth
Here is the link to my homework:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yMEZ9EgKiUlVycFaA-2WKqIVRm1cZbR6Y6wlqXdQz8I/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you 😀 😛 🙂
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I agree most with Boxer, you may question me, Why? Although Boxer is the one that is being tricked, I still agree because he is hard-working, and he is easy-believed. There are two main reasons why I agree with the boxer.
First, he is hard-working, however, I don’t like working, and being controlled by others. Well remembered what Boxer always says? [His two slogans, ‘I will work harder’ and ‘Napoleon is always right’ seemed to him a sufficient answer to all questions.] this is a quote from page sixty-one, where Orwell describes Boxer’s two slogans. Boxer’s first slogan shows us he is a positive person. He tells us about his perspective and opinion of whether he is in a good situation, or he is depressive, he is in a good attitude.
The second reason is about Boxer’s second slogan [Napoleon is always right]. Boxer is very obedient, listens to everyone, he believes in nearly everyone like the animals in Animal farm, at last, we noticed that they had become brainwashed by Napoleon. The reason I like the way Boxer think is that I don’t believe in people I am not familiar with, sometimes I don’t even believe in people I know when they come up with crazy facts or other things I don’t believe in. In some circumstances, when they want to cheat me, I don’t believe these tricks, it is the right thing to at that time. But in other cases, when they mean well when I don’t believe in them, at that time I am choosing the wrong option. That means if I just learn a little from Boxer, I would not offend people so often, I mean just a little if I learn too much on Boxer and I would have had the same fate, be the target to be tricked.
I share a similar outlook with squealer on the death of Boxer. Well to tell the truth sometimes I am very annoying, like I lie as Squealer does it all the times. However, the only difference between me and Squealer is I don’t like to make a fuss or speak for others, I mean to hide the truth together.
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Hi Beth,
Here is my homework,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uUTt5-E4dexR1ZgzrHjtIQeEYmJn-xGtRtHzLHBbncE/edit
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we concluded our study of Animal Farm by George Orwell. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs and speeches assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains our work on the close textual analysis of Animal Farm, focusing in particular on elements such as the power and effect of propaganda in the novel, our analysis of the literary and persuasive techniques in both Old Major’s speech and its historical counterpart, Lenin’s 1917 speech, and our final reflections on the key messages and most powerful ideas within the novel. The class worked brilliantly in today’s lesson, their contributions were incredibly sophisticated and impressive- they should all be super proud of themselves for their work! We had a fantastic conversation debating the similarities and differences in the tone, language and meaning behind Orwell’s and Lenin’s revolutionary speeches, and the students made some really astute contributions regarding the power of propaganda in both the novel and the real world. I really enjoyed hearing their analysis of the core tenets of Animalism and how this linked to the ideals of Communism, and thought that their discussion of what they had learnt from the book was really insightful. Well done everyone, it has been a pleasure working with you all and I will hopefully see you all again soon. Keep up the brilliant work, keep questioning the world around you, and keep reading between the lines! See you soon 😊
Homework
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Here is the link to my writing:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16XBORVrPg4khmMTe7-VeGWJiy_3gYguRDp7vFFoCUxU/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you 😀
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Option one
The similarities of animalism and communism is that they both want people to be equal. They are all for the animals or people to be equal. Another thing is that they think it is a good life however it turns out worse than it actually already was. Napoleon used animalism to take over and so did Stalin. They both broke rules and the most obvious one was that both were just plain evil. It corrupted almost everybody and both were broken by having a leader.Although the book animal farm was an allegory, there were also some differences. The first and most obvious one is that one was animals and another one was humans. And also, after Napoleon took over, there weren’t as many deaths as there was in the Russian revolution. Another point is that their influence didn’t get to other farms animals however with communism, it spread across many other countries.
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In my opinion, there are a lot of similarities between animalism and communism because they are alike in animal Farm, Orwell is using animals to represent the people in the Russian revolution, in the Russian revolution they believed or had a belief called communism, and in Animal Farm. Orwell uses animalism as being equal to everyone in the animal world, It just so happens that we humans are also animals.
The differences have to do with equal and in animal Farm, we can see clearly, very clearly actually that the equality through the animals has changed. I want to talk about the difference and the changes from the beginning of the novel from the ‘seventh commandment’ to the last few chapters at the end of the story which from the seventh commandments ‘all animals are equal to the new seventh commandments ‘all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.’
The revolution in Manor Farm reflects many occasions in the Russian Revolution. First, about Old Major’s speech, about the animal’s life and planning for the revolution and how all animals are equal, it is similar to when a group of people wanted Karl Marx to teach them about basic communism, Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, a book about the basics of communism. So, the writer uses Old Major as the leader and mind developer to lead the revolution, So Marx was the beginning of the Communism. However, the old leader of animal farm Mr. Jones represents the old king before the revolution, Tsar Nichola. In animal farm, where about you see the animals to represent different characters there in the Russian Revolution. People like Carl Marx and Stalin are then they’re important leaders in the Russian Revolution, so is and the leaders of animal farm.
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