1. Read some of the famous fables by the Greek writer Aesop (sixth century B.C.) and then explain the ways in which Orwell uses elements of the beast-fable in Animal Farm. Be sure to explain why, like Aesop, Orwell would employ animals to tell a story about human morality. 2. […]
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1. Compare the lives of the animals when they live under Jones and under Napoleon. In what ways has Napoleon proven himself a similar tyrant? 2. Closely examine old Major’s speech to the animals in Chapter 1 and discuss the ways in which he uses language to persuade his listeners. […]
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binders machines that both reap and bind grain. Brussels carpet a patterned carpeting made of small loops of colored woolen yarn in a linen warp. carpet bag an old-fashioned type of traveling bag, made of carpeting. chaff the husks of wheat or other grain separated in threshing or winnowing. clamps […]
Read more Study Help Full GlossaryCritical Essays Major Themes
Satire Satire is loosely defined as art that ridicules a specific topic in order to provoke readers into changing their opinion of it. By attacking what they see as human folly, satirists usually imply their own opinions on how the thing being attacked can be remedied. Perhaps the most famous […]
Read more Critical Essays Major ThemesCritical Essays The Russian Revolution
One of Orwell’s goals in writing Animal Farm was to portray the Russian (or Bolshevik) Revolution of 1917 as one that resulted in a government more oppressive, totalitarian, and deadly than the one it overthrew. Many of the characters and events of Orwell’s novel parallel those of the Russian Revolution: […]
Read more Critical Essays The Russian RevolutionGeorge Orwell Biography
Son and Student George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Bengal, India, where his father, Richard Walmesley Blair, was an official in the Opium Department. Like many middle-to-upper-class men of his time, Richard Blair served the British Empire in its most prized and lucrative colony. […]
Read more George Orwell BiographyCharacter Analysis Pilkington
The owner of Foxwood, a neighboring farm in “disgraceful” condition, Pilkington becomes an ally to Napoleon. This alliance, however, has a rocky start, when Napoleon changes the pigeons’ message of “Death to Jones; Frederick” to “Death to Pilkington” and Pilkington refuses to help when the farm is attacked by Frederick. […]
Read more Character Analysis PilkingtonCharacter Analysis Frederick
The crafty owner of Pinchfield, a neighboring farm, Frederick is “perpetually involved in lawsuits” and reveals himself to be a cutthroat businessman. Despite his offers of sympathy to Jones about the rebellion at his farm, Frederick inwardly hopes that he can “somehow turn Jones’ misfortune to his own advantage.” He […]
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Like George III to the American colonists or Czar Nicholas II to the Russian revolutionaries, Jones is the embodiment of the tyranny against which the animals rebel — and with good reason. An inept farmer and slovenly drunkard, Jones cares little for his Manor Farm and the animals who live […]
Read more Character Analysis JonesCharacter Analysis Moses
With his tales of the “promised land” to which all animals retire after death, Moses is the novel’s “religious” figure. Like his biblical counterpart, Moses offers his listeners descriptions of a place — Sugarcandy Mountain — where they can live free from oppression and hunger. At first, the pigs find […]
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