Animal Farm Final Discussion Questions
Directions: Please type your answers in short essay format. A short paragraph per question will
suffice
1. Does Animal Farm (the farm in the book, not the book itself) succeed? If no, how and
why does it fail? If yes, in how and why does it succeed?
2. Animal Farm presents a classic blueprint for an individuals rise to power. It presents a step
by step recipe for dictatorship and control. Outline the methods used by Napoleon and
the pigs in the takeover of Animal Farm. (Notice: Pigs feeding their brains)
3. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This statement by Lord Acton, sent
in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton on April 5, 1887, provides the basis for understanding the
effects of power on the heads of state, and it furnishes insight into one of the main themes in the
novel Animal Farm. How does power affect the characters, the events and the outcome of the book?
4. Why do you think George Orwell wrote this book (i.e. why did he write an allegory
about the Russian Revolution and the establishment of communism in Russia)? Why not
just write an essay critiquing Stalin and his brand of communism?
5. Clearly, Orwell finds some problems with the system presented in the book. Do you see any of these
problems still facing the current world? United States?