Animal Farm Reading Response Journal
Due: ________________________________
As you read Animal Farm, please keep a reading response journal. In it, record at least ten (10) examples of language being used to subvert, coerce, or manipulate the characters.
Directions:
1. Divide the pages vertically. On the left , record a direct quote from the novel, using MLA citation.
2. On the right , include your personal reaction, prediction, comparison, observation.
Please type.
Suggestions:

Discuss the way language and words are being changed, twisted, manipulated to benefit certain characters or groups
 Relate your passage to another work you’ve read; how are they similar? How are they different?

Let me hear your voice

DO NOT explain the passage, restate the passage, summarize the plot; instead, discuss your reaction to the manipulation of the language
Rubric

Does your journal contain at least 10 separate entries?
 Have you quoted and cited correctly?
 Do your personal responses demonstrate an understanding of the language?
 Do your entries clearly address the use/abuse of language in the novel?

Do your entries demonstrate perception, originality, and above-average clarity?
 Have you demonstrated mastery of spelling, grammar, punctuation?
Passage
“Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing” (Orwell 29).
Response
Old Major seems to try to add power to his speech by using words like ‘forever’ and ‘only’. Definite words tend to catch more attention, as it seems the speaker is decided and using force to get his or her message across. Old Major proves to be a charismatic public leader, and I think he definitely plays the key role in getting the animals wrapped up in the rebellion. I don’t believe, however, that he expected things to turn out the way that Napoleon made them. He calls humans the ‘root cause of hunger and overwork’, and the animals are just unintelligent and rallied up that they don’t realize that this makes little sense. Plainly, it wouldn’t be strictly human error if crops failed or were destroyed by the weather. This is also ironic, because the pigs here are against the humans, but the pigs eventually envy the humans enough that they emulate their ways and methods, inevitably overworking all the animals and handling the farm even worse than Jones.