Animal Farm Essay Prompt
To conclude our unit on Animal Farm, you are going to write a 5 paragraph essay based on one
of the following essay prompts. All of these prompts are argumentative essays of some nature,
and you will use the three different rhetorical devices (Ethos, Pathos, Logos) in the three body
paragraphs to argue your point. You must address EVERY point in your chosen prompt, and
you You must also establish a connection with Animal Farm/Russian history in your thesis and
body paragraphs with quotes.
Rough draft due Wednesday 4/13
Typed Final Draft Due Friday 4/15
Prompt 1: If you were in charge of your own city, how would you make it the best place in the
world to live? What rules would you make? What freedoms would you give or take away? What
would happen to people who broke your rules and abused their freedoms? Use ethos, pathos,
and logos to justify your rules and to explain why it would be the best place to live. Also explain
with quotes from the novel how your society would match up and/or differ from the farm that
developed under the rule of Snowball and Napoleon.
Prompt 2: While Animal Farm’s author George Orwell clearly had a problem with communism
and used the novel to point out ways that it had actually failed in real life, some believe that
communism could still be a viable form of government. Argue how the basic ideas of
communism (equality for all, with each person working for their fair share) could have worked on
Animal Farm. Make use of ethos, pathos, and logos in your three body paragraphs. When
thinking of the differences between “good” and “bad” communism, consider both the
rules/inequalities that Napoleon introduced and the ideas that Snowball had which never got to
be put into action.
Prompt 3: Consider our upcoming presidential election. There are 4 leading candidates
currently in Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Cruz. Using ethos, pathos,
and logos, argue which candidate you believe would make the best president and why your
chosen candidate is a better choice than the other ones. Draw connections between the
candidates political stances and ideas and the political practices used by the animals in animal
farm. This prompt will potentially require extra research to provide accurate information about
the political candidates.
Important Notes :
-The paper must be in MLA format. This means 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double spaced,
with a proper header.
(More on back)
-We will work on outlining papers together in class. You will need to keep this outline and turn it
in with your final essay.
-You will be first turning in a rough draft on Wednesday, 4/13. This needs to be a complete
written (or typed) work, that will be worth 25% of your final paper grade. We will peer edit these
papers, making suggestions for structural and grammatical changes. You will then turn in a
TYPED final copy with your rough draft attached to it on Friday, 4/15. If you have issues printing
or do not have access to a computer at home, come talk to me.
-Quotes should be no longer than 8 words.
-You may use ethos/pathos/logos in a few different ways. You can either make one of your body
paragraphs focused around one type of appeal (ex: P1 uses ethos, P2 uses logos, etc), or you
can incorporate all three appeals into each paragraph.