Katie,+Carol

Discussion Leaders for //Animal Farm//

For your assigned section, you need to be prepared to discuss the items below. You must attempt to have multiple examples of your assigned discussion topic, **providing specific page numbers and quotations**. In order to prepare for the discussion, you need to write-up your findings on the designated wiki page. You should divide up the work equally, and **clearly label your contributions to the wiki page, for example (Mr. Stephens)**. You are encouraged to check your partner's work for accuracy, but you will receive a grade on your specific contributions. Your grade will be based on accuracy, thoroughness, participation, and knowledge of the text.

Discussion topics for each chapter:
 * 1) summary - you will simply provide a verbal summary
 * 2) allegorical connections (What is the 'below the surface meaning?)
 * 3) symbolism (**see below** for symbols to look for)
 * 4) satire (How is Orwell making fun of and making a point about the object of his satire? **See information below for help**.)
 * 5) character change, focusing on the pigs (How do the pigs change?)
 * 6) twisting of logic and history to serve political ends (What examples do you see?)
 * 7) use of propaganda/doublespeak (look for slogans, songs, etc.); EXPLAIN the significance; **use the handout**
 * 8) abuse of power (How do some abuse power at the expense of others?)
 * 9) questions: develop a minimum of five (total) interpretive and evaluative questions based on the section (see below for question writing help)

Carol C.

The animals spend a laborious summer harvesting in the Animal Farm. Boxer is presented as the hardest worker, and pigs abuses their power and takes apple, and milk. Meetings are held to organized, and direct which paths the Animal Farm should take, and within the meeting, Snowball and Napoleon are also disgruntled. Every Sunday, the flag-raising ceremony is held. Snowball establishes committees to educate the adult animals, while Napoleon believes that they should focus on the youngsters. Because it is difficult to educate everyone, Snowball reduces the Seven Commandments into a phrase: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” The news of Animal Farm spreads quickly via the birds, and discontented Mr. Jones marches on to the Animal Farm, with Mr. Pillkington, and Mr. Frederick. Animals get victory (Boxer and Snowball did the most), and the event is named “The Battle of the Cowshed.” Those honorable two animals are rewarded, and “Animal Hero, First Class.”
 * 1. Summary**


 * 2. Allegorical Connections (What is the 'below the surface meaning?)**


 * Still much of the work is done by the working class
 * “they toiled and sweated” (45)
 * “Pigs didn’t work, but directed and supervised the others” (45)
 * Industrialization was difficult under Stalin’s rule, because people did not know how to use the machines, and the workers were inexperienced.
 * “a great drawback that no animal was able to use any tool” (45)
 * “inexperienced though the animals were” (46)
 * Ignorance of the Tsar
 * “Pigs understood the business of mowing and raking far better than Jones” (45)
 * The effect of the Five-Year’s Plan, and the Coda
 * “Moreover, it was the biggest harvest that the farm had ever seen” (46)
 * Idea of Communism: One works according to his/her capacity, and gets only as much as they need
 * “everyone worked according to his capacity” (47)
 * The Battle of the Cowshed (October 12) shows dissatisfaction against the ruling party (56)
 * October Revolution
 * Bolsheviks replaced the provisional government
 * The pigeons spread the words about the Animal Farm around the neighborhood. Snowball is trying to encourage “Animalism” in other areas of the world (54)
 * Troktsy wanted to establish communism in a global scale (Karl Marx’s belief)
 * Just as the West (like US and Britain) attempted to discredit Russian communism, so did Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick
 * spread disparaging rumors about Animal Farm.


 * 3. Symbols**
 * Green Flag: The fields of England (p.48)
 * Hoof and horn (white) signifies the future Republic of the Animals (48)
 * Squealer= propagandist/ propaganda
 * The Meeting= The Supreme Council of National Economy, called Vesenkha and State Planning Commission called Gosplan.
 * Snowball= Trotsky & Napoleon= Stalin
 * “Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates ... these two were never in agreement” (48)
 * Snowball projects (committees) “these projects were a failure” like Comintern, which was a committee set up to help revolutionaries around the globe.
 * Boxer:”Heroes of Socialist Labour”
 * “from morning to night he was pushing and pulling” (46)
 * “I will work harder!” (47)
 * “Rebellion” = “Bolshevik revolution”
 * Mr. Pilkington, owner of Foxwood (a neighboring farm): capitalist governments
 * “easy-going gentleman farmer” (54)
 * Mr. Frederick, owner of Pinchfield: Adolf Hitler, the ruler of Nazi Germany
 * “tough, shrewd man” (55)


 * 4. Satire**
 * Irony: The animals still use classes to show who is “better” than anybody else (60)
 * “Animal Hero, First Class” (59)
 * “Animal Hero, Second Class” (60)
 * Ridicule: The leaders praise their existence by themselves.
 * “The pigs had set aside the harness-room as a headquarters for themselves” (48)
 * Ridicule: The pigs, symbolizing a leader, are portrayed as “intelligent” being compared to other animals.
 * “As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly” (49)
 * Irony: Animals were in Chapter three in agreement that “all animals to be ready to die for Animal Farm if need be” (59), but ironically Boxer is horrified by the fact that he killed a human.
 * Irony: Animals think that they are fighting for their freedom of oppression from humans, but in fact they are consolidating the pigs’ regime, and power. The animals are getting rid of the primary threat to the pigs’ regime, the humans.
 * So, “who are they fighting for?” and “what are they fighting for?” are different

Pigs begin abusing power, backing up with lame justifications that they are the “brainworkers,” and that they are working for the better of the animals.
 * 5. Character Change**


 * “It (milk) was mixed every day into the pigs’ mash” (51)
 * “It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions.” (51)
 * “The animals had assumed as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs” (52)
 * “reserved for the pigs alone.”(53)
 * Pigs making up lame excuses for taking apples and milk (52)

Katie C.

-“As soon as they were weaned, Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education...kept them in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence” (51). Even though Napoleon says that he would teach the young puppies, it does not make sense that a pig can teach the puppies. The puppies need their mother as they grow up in order to learn about a dog’s behavior, not a pig’s.
 * 6. twisting of logic and history to serve political ends (What examples do you see?)**

-Squealer says, “Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health” (52). We can clearly see that the pigs are making excuses in order to take the apples and milk for themselves. The pigs are using the excuse of being the “brainworkers” and taking advantages over other farm animals.

-Animal Hero medals - One of the seven commandments was all animals are equal, but the medal states the classes that the animals are in.


 * 7. use of propaganda/doublespeak (look for slogans, songs, etc.); EXPLAIN the significance; use the handout**

-“Four legs good, two legs bad” (50) -they are implanting the idea of all men are evil to the farm animals. Also, by making the idea of Animalism simpler, more animals can understand it by heart.

-repetition: the pigs’ repetition of the idea that the pigs posses the leadership because of their superior intelligence. They use this excuse to avoid working and getting the milk and the apples. Also, this makes the other animals follow the pigs without questioning them.


 * 8. abuse of power (How do some abuse power at the expense of others?)**

-Pigs abuse their powers by taking advantage of other animals; they trick the other farm animals by saying they are taking the apples and mile for the animals’ sake (52)

-Farmers/Mr. Jones use weapons at the animals; gun, sticks, and boots.(57)


 * 9. questions: develop a minimum of five (total) interpretive and evaluative questions based on the section (see below for question writing help)**

-Why is Benjamin not interested about the rebellion at all? -Are the animals all equal at this point? -What is significant about the Battle of the Cowshed? -What does animalism represent? -Why does Napoleon take the puppies and seclude them from rest of the farm animals?