UEQ: How does an author use allegory to effect social change?
LEQ: How does Orwell use the elements of allegory, satire, and literary techniques for
political commentary in chapters 8, 9, and 10?
Animal Farm Chapter 9 Study Guide p.111-126
Vocabulary
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
complicity involvement w/ something illegal/wrong
interment the act of burial
demeanor outward behavior or mannerism
superannuated old; useless; out of style
wafted moved gently through the air
Reading and Plot Comprehension
1. Why does Squealer say that, “a too rigid equality in rations would have been contrary
to the principles of Animalism?”
What kind of propaganda is this?
2. Who is the father of the 31 piglets who are born in the spring?
3. Did the farm have a successful year?
4. In contrast to the pigs, who are producing a lot of young, which animal is barely able to
keep its numbers the same by producing offspring? What is the main reason that this
animal struggles to reproduce?
5. What are the pigs making that they drink each night? What crop do they use to make
it?
6. On page 116, what do the pigs use to distract the animals from the fact that they suffer
from hunger?
7. Who reappears on the farm? Why do you think the pigs allow him to stay?
UEQ: How does an author use allegory to effect social change?
LEQ: How does Orwell use the elements of allegory, satire, and literary techniques for
political commentary in chapters 8, 9, and 10?
8. When Boxer falls ill, where do the pigs say that he has been taken? Where has he really
been taken? What evidence shows that the pigs profit or gain from this decision?
Literary Techniques
1. Foreshadowing: Find an example in the first paragraph and write the quotation. Then,
explain why it is foreshadowing.
2. On page 113, in the midst of dramatic irony and propaganda, Orwell includes a line from
the narrator that indicates that they animals themselves bear some responsibility for
their situation. Find the quote that demonstrates that, although Squealer and the pigs
lie and manipulate with propaganda, the animals are complicit in their situation.
(Complicit means that they have played a role to make the manipulation possible.)
3. Considering the commandment that “all animals are equal,” how is the situation of the
difference between the numbers of the offspring ironic?
4. What is ironic about the election of a president of the Republic of Animal Farm?
5. Dramatic irony: How many lies do the pigs tell surrounding the death of Boxer? List the
lies that you can figure out in the space below: