Animal Farm Review

Remember that Animal Farm connected directly to the things you have been learning in history class about the Russian Revolution. In English we discussed the plot and characters as part of our exploration of literature, but your history classes helped you understand the real events that Orwell allegorized in the novel. We discussed the importance of symbols: Napoleon for Stalin, Snowball for Trotsky, Boxer for the working class, and others.

George Orwell's real life, as Eric Blair, offers some important information for study as well. He served in the Spanish Civil War and suffered a nearly fatal throat wound. Because the pen is mightier than the sword, however, he sought vengeance on the Russian Communist movement that he disagreed with because of his strong socialist identity. We discussed why his political writing may have demanded he us a pen name, or pseudonym. His work aside from his creative writing was that of a journalist, and that is, in part, responsible for his straightforward, simple syntax.

The quiz and the exam are full of zingers, which, as Mr. Sheehan advised me, are questions that require a careful reading of the novel to answer. For instance, the animals intended for Boxer to be able to retire after his twelfth birthday, but about month before that birthday, when Boxer fell ill, he was sent to the knacker to be turned into glue. So, in reality, he never got to retire to the pasture.

Ultimately, the animals didn't succeed in preserving their utopia designed around communism. The pigs became power hungry, and in order to preserve their power, they used propaganda to justify their loose interpretation and revision of the Seven Commandments. In the end, the pigs began walking on two legs, and they became indistinguishable from the humans. They walked on two legs and drank beer with humans that they had earlier deemed enemies. The other animals were never any better off, just like Benjamin, the donkey, had predicted.