Animal Farm

Animal Farm is Orwell's reaction to the historical events that followed the Russian Revolution, World War 1, his time in Burma and World War 2.  

It is a warning.  Orwell desperately understood brutality, oppression and the control of people.  He warns us about the effects of imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism.

Published during the final days of World War 2, the novel is about power and control.  The animals living on the farm decide to rebel and overthrow the humans.  What happens to the world they create?

Terms

Satire

Satire is a genre of literature and performing arts, usually fiction and less frequently in non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. Wikipedia

Irony

Irony, in its broadest sense, is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case or to be expected differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony can be categorized into different types, including verbal irony, dramatic irony, and situational irony. Wikipedia

Allegory

As a literary device, an allegory is a narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. Wikipedia

Fable

Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. Wikipedia

Dictatorship

A dictatorship is a form of government characterized by a single leader or group of leaders and little or no toleration for political pluralism or independent programs or media. Wikipedia

Animal Farm Reading Questions

Answer these questions in your notebook. We will take them up together.  You need textual support ( a quote with a page number) for your answer to be complete.

Chapter 1

1. What is significant about how the animals arrange themselves as they gather to hear Major? What might this arrangement say about future meetings or events?

2. According to Major, what is the cause of all the animals’ problems? 

3. What motto does Major give the animals?

4. What are the commandments Major gives the animals? Can you think of ways each of them could be considered a vice?

5. Examine the song “Beasts of England” as poetry. What imagery is present? What is the message? Why do the animals like it so much that they memorize it on the spot? To what emotions and needs does it appeal?

Chapter 2

1. After Major’s death what happens to the idea of rebelling against man?

2. Why don’t the pigs like the pet raven Moses’ stories about Sugarcandy Mountain?

3. What causes the animals to finally rebel against Mr. Jones and his four farmhands?

4. When the humans have been chased from the farm, what do the animals do?

5. What do the animals do about the farmhouse?

6. How does the behaviour of the pigs foreshadow their eventual leadership positions?

Chapters 3 and 4

1. What further examples of the difference between the pigs and the other animals occur in these two chapters? 

2. What are Napoleon’s ideas about education?

3. How is Squealer able to convince the other animals to accept whatever Napoleon decides?

4. Describe the Battle of the Cowshed.

5. What was Snowball’s part in this battle?

6. Where is Napoleon during the battle?

7. What is the significance of the gun’s placement at the foot of the flagpole? 

Chapter 5

1. Why does Mollie run away from the farm? 

2. What changes have been made in the weekly meetings over the last year?

3. Explain the windmill controversy from Snowball’s point of view.

4. Explain the windmill controversy from Napoleon’s point of view.

5. What changes does Napoleon make after his dogs chase Snowball off the farm?

6. Why don’t the other animals protest Napoleon’s decisions?

7. Note how the animals now arrange themselves when they enter the barn to receive their orders as compared to the description in Chapter I.

8. What is the importance of the dogs accompanying Squealer when he comes to talk to the animals?

Chapters 6 and 7

1. How much work are the animals now doing? 

2. Why does Napoleon decide to engage in trade with neighbouring farms?

3. How do the animals react?

4. How is the windmill destroyed? Why does Napoleon blame Snowball?

5. Why does Napoleon insist the windmill must be rebuilt immediately?

6. Why does Napoleon order that the hens’ eggs be sold?

7. How does Napoleon react when the hens’ rebel against his orders?

8. Why does Napoleon revive the threat of the farm being sabotaged by Snowball? 

9. Explain why the animals confessed to being traitors. Or is there any explanation?

10. Why does Napoleon order the animals to stop singing “Beasts of England?” 

Chapters 8 and 9

1. What purpose is served by the production figures Squealer reads to the animals?

2. How is Napoleon becoming more and more like a typical dictator?

3. Compare/contrast the poem “Comrade Napoleon” to “Beast of England.”

4. Describe the sale of the stack of lumber. How does Napoleon outwit himself?

5. What makes the battle against Frederick’s men different from the Battle of the Cowshed?

6. Why do the men blow up the windmill?

7. The animals celebrate a victory, but at what cost?

8. What do the pigs decide isn't too bad?  How do they plan to make more?

9. Why are the animals so easily fooled, even when they find Squealer with a ladder and white paint beside the barn at night?

10. What is happening to Boxer? 

11. What are living conditions like for all of the animals except the pigs and dogs?

12. Why does Napoleon allow Moses to return and to tell his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain?

13. What happens to Boxer? How do the animals accept it?

14. Of what kind of person does Benjamin remind you? Give some examples. What is your opinion of such people? What makes people behave this way?

Chapter 10

1. What changes have the years brought to the farm?

2. How does Orwell make fun of bureaucracy?

3. How do the animals no feel about their social order, their farm?

4. What drastic actions do the pigs use to shatter the animals’ complacency?

5. All seven commandments are erased. What is the new commandment and how has it been true from the beginning? 

6. At the conference with neighbouring farmers, what new changes does Napoleon point out?

7. What happens to the pigs’ appearance? 

Information Report Assignment - Animal Farm

Becoming familiar with using an approved digital research sources is important for grade 12 and college.

Wikipedia is not an approved digital research source for this assignment.

In this unit, you will learn how to:

• research a topic using an approved digital source

• select appropriate information

• write an information report

Notes for writing a report are found on the Writing page.  

Take a look at both the Information Report Template and a completed Information Report Template before you start the assignment.

Research using Encyclopedia Britannica or InfoBase (passwords are in our Google Classroom and the school Library's Google Classroom), and write an information report based on one of the following topics:

Topics

• Joseph Stalin

• Leon Trotsky

• Vladimir Lenin

• Tsar Nicholas II / Expulsion of the Tsar

• Russian Revolution

• Bolsheviks

• Proletariat

• The Great Purge

• Non-Aggression Pact of 1939

• Anglo-Soviet Treaty of 1942

• Tehran Conference

• Hitler’s Invasion of Soviet Union in 1941

• Industrialization in the Soviet Union

Structure

Your report needs one additional paragraph where you explain how your topic relates to the novel.

1. Introduction

2. Sub-Topic 1

3. Sub-Topic 2

4. Sub-Topic 3

5. How does your Topic relate to the novel * THIS IS THE ADDITIONAL PARAGRAPH*

6. Conclusion

Submit this assignment to Turnitin and Google Classroom

How to Access Encyclopedia Britannica

I will show you in class, but if you forget, there is an animation below.

Remember:

• You can save the article by printing it to a PDF.

• You can listen to the article.

• You can double-click any word for a definition.

• You can Find related articles, images and videos.