George Orwell
Animal Farm
Chris Taylor
Tom Leggette
Corey Mauck
Jordon Cox
Chris Nguyen
George Orwell
1903-1950
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George Orwell was born
in Motihari, India in
1903.
His real name was Eric
Arthur Blair, he used
George Orwell as his
pen name.
Orwell attended Eton
College in England.
Orwell’s accomplishments
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In 1922 Orwell joined the Imperial police in Burma.
He wrote Burmese Days in 1934 from his experiences in
Burma.
His first book was Down and Out in Paris and London
which he wrote in 1933.
His wife was Eileen O’Shaughversy.
He fought in the Spanish Civil war on the side of the
loyalists in which he was wounded.
His two most famous book were Animal Farm (1945),
and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
Orwell’s inspiration for Animal Farm
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Orwell became a socialist when he was a young man in
England.
Though he was a socialist he resented the Soviet form of
communism for its cruelty and oppression.
Stalin’s totalitarian rule of Russia, as well as his purging
of the Soviet party of Leon Trotsky and his followers
made a huge impact on Orwell’s decision to write Animal
Farm.
Animal Farm was Orwell’s way of criticizing the Soviets
while at the same time making his case for how
communism should work.
Symbolism in Animal Farm
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Snowball, a pig in the story
actually represented Leon
Trotsky.
Trotsky was one of Lenin’s
closest confidants and was
chased out of Russia by Stalin
after the communist
revolution.
Trotsky was much more
popular with moderate
socialists, as such he was seen
as a threat by Stalin, who is
portrayed as Napoleon in the
Animal Farm.
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Joseph Stalin was the
man who emerged to
power in Russia after the
death of Lenin.
Stalin immediately set
about purging his party of
all his enemies, including
Trotsky and his old ally
Serge Kirov.
In the Novel, when
Napoleon drives snowball
out of the farm and takes
total control and begins
to solidify his power is
representative of Stalin’s
purges of Russia.
Characters in Animal Farm
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The pigs represented the Soviet leadership in Russia,
just as they rule the farm.
Old Major is the prize winning boar who represented
Lenin and Carl Marx, the original architects of
Communist theology.
Boxer is the cart-horse who shows much devotion to
Animal farms ideals but doesn’t question the pigs
decisions, and is often heard saying “Napoleon is always
right”.
Mr. Jones is the human who runs Manor farm before the
animals take over, and is a representation of Czar
Nicholas II.
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Mr. Frederick is the neighbor of Animal Farm and
represented Adolf Hitler of Germany. Mr. Frederick
parallels by being enemies at first, friends with later, and
an enemy again of Napoleons; just as Adolf Hitler
treated Stalin.
Some other major character were Squealer, Napoleons
propaganda pig. Clover was the female cart-horse who
often suspects the pigs of violating the seven
commandments. Mollie is the horse who pulls Mr. Jones
carriage and misses the attention the humans gave her.
Jessie and Bluebell are two dogs whose puppies are
taken by Napoleon for “re-education” and turned into his
own personal army.
Animal Farm: The Movie
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Released in 1999 by Hallmark Home Entertainment
Actors/Actresses include
-Kelsey Grammer (Snowball)
-Ian Holm ( Squealer)
-Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Mollie)
-Peter Ustinov (Old Major)
Awarded “Movie of the Week”
by TNT in Oct. 1999
The plot
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The story of Animal Farm starts when Old Major gives a
speech on revolution at Manor Farm.
3 days after the speech Old Major gives he dies and
Snowball and Napoleon emerge as the leaders of Animal
Farm.
The “revolution” begins when Mr. Jones becomes too
drunk to feed the animals, and after a day and a half
without food they finally revolt.
Soon after the revolution the pigs take the littler of
puppies that have been born for “education”.
The pigs soon show their own greed by keeping the
entire apple crop and milk for themselves as reward for
“supervising” the farm.
More plot
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Mr. Jones tries unsuccessfully to retake Animal
Farm with some other farmers after their
animals start acting badly as well.
After a dispute over building a windmill
Napoleon has the puppies he took attack
Snowball and chase him from the farm, and then
go through with the plan anyway.
The pigs soon being trading with humans, and
sleeping in the house, and the animals farms
“rules” mysteriously keep seeming to change.
Food shortages soon hit animal farm, and is
again attacked by the neighboring farmers.
End of Animal Farm
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Near the end of the story most of the older animals have
died off, and Squealer soon begins to take over from
Napoleon and walk on two legs.
The name of the Farm is changed back to Manor Farm.
In the final scene the pigs invite the humans over for
dinner, and the humans remark that the farm’s animals
do more work and consume less food that any other
farm in England. The animals watching through a
window outside are horrified when they realize the can
no longer tell the Humans’ faces from that of the pigs.
Orwell’s Death
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George Orwell (Eric Blair)
suddenly dies on January
21, 1950 due to a
hemorrhaged lung caused
by Tuberculosis.
He widowed his second
wife, Sonja Bronwell, to
whom he was only
married to for less than a
year.
Sources
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Animal Farm. Dir. John Stephonson. Hallmark Home Entertainment. 1999.
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Animal Farm. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/section1.html
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Kreis, Steven. "The History Guide." Editor. November 29, 2004
<http://www.historyguide.org/europe/orwell.html>.
Meyers, Valerie. George Orwell. St. Martin’s Press, New York. 1991
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. New York.
1946.