Year Ten English
with Mr Doherty
Mr Doherty’s Rules
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1. Respect each other and the teacher. This
follows the universal ethos: do unto others,
as you would have them do unto you.
2. All of Mr Mott’s classroom behaviour rules
apply to my lessons at all times.
3. Homework shall be always accurately
noted and subsequently completed.
4. Bring the correct texts for each lesson and
be punctual.
Detentions will be issued for failure to comply.
In this lesson we will:
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recap Mr Mott’s lesson about power and
fanaticism.
investigate Orwell’s background.
learn about the social and historical
background of the period.
understand the concepts of allegory and
fable.
begin reading and deconstructing
George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Power and the Nazis
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Hitler’s power was very much derived
from a fanatical following.
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Fanaticism - obsession without remorse or
sorrow
Unaccountable power - corrupts.
Authority and power holders need systems of
checks and balances.
 Law, the public service, voters and opposition
parties provide Australia with this. Not all
societies, however, have been or are as
fortunate.
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Cronulla race riots.
Animal Farm
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On the surface it is just a simple story
with interesting characters and a riveting
plot. We can enjoy it as a tale of a
group of enterprising animals that
struggle to become independent of
humanity.
The tale celebrates the animals’ courage
and commitment, even though in the
end their successful toil comes at a high
price.
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This isn’t the reason the book has
become part of our cultural mythology
Few people are unaware, when they
initially embrace the book, that it is a
book with a political and social
message.
This book actually reveals George
Orwell’s brilliant and insightful political
voice.
George Orwell
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Sadly, George Orwell is no longer with us. He
passed away 56 years ago - 1950.
His fame is mainly based upon ‘Animal Farm’
and another book called ‘1984’. They are
both indelibly etched into our culture’s social
consciousness because of their powerful
political commentary.
George Orwell was actually born Eric Blair 1903
He was schooled in English schools similar to
BBC.
George Orwell Cont.
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At the age of eighteen he joined the
Imperial Indian Police.
Five years later he returned home and
quit the police because he ‘could
stomach no longer his role as an
instrument of imperialism’
Orwell then began a long association
with socialism, which eventually saw him
established as a committed political
writer.
Allegory
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The book works both as a fairy story about
pigs and also as a social commentary on the
rise of communism in the twentieth century. It
is an allegory.
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An allegory is a textual device in which
characters and events are to be understood
as representing other things and symbolically
expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or
political meaning.
A Fable
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Animal Farm is also a fable. A fable is
instructional, often incorporates elements that
are beyond the natural, and usually deals with
characters and situations that are emblematic.
Often animals are used to illustrate aspects of
human behaviour.
Aesop’s fables easily exemplify how a piece of
writing can contain more than one reading.
They have been a source of guidance and
wisdom for thousands of years.
An eagle and a fox
AN EAGLE and a Fox formed an intimate
friendship and decided to live near each other.
The Eagle built her nest in the branches of a
tall tree, while the Fox crept into the
underwood and there produced her young.
Not long after they had agreed upon this plan,
the Eagle, being in want of provision for her
young ones, swooped down while the Fox
was out, seized upon one of the little cubs,
and feasted herself and her brood.
The Fox on her return, discovered what had
happened, but was less grieved for the death
of her young than for her inability to avenge
them. A just retribution, however, quickly fell
upon the Eagle. While hovering near an altar,
on which some villagers were sacrificing a
goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh,
and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to
her nest.
A strong breeze soon fanned the spark into a
flame, and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and
helpless, were roasted in their nest and
dropped down dead at the bottom of the tree.
There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Fox
gobbled them up.
The message? Rule 1 - Do unto others, as you
would have them do unto you.
Animal Farm Cont.
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Animal Farm is a fable that’s obviously a
lot larger - content wise - than the fable
of the fox and the eagle. It therefore
contains a far greater amount of
messages and possible readings. This is
why it needs to be studied in detail, so
naturally this is what we will be doing for
the next month or so.
Communism
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The text of Animal Farm relates directly
to the emergence of Communism and
the Soviet Union.
When Orwell published Animal Farm in
1945, there was a popular belief that the
Soviet Union was an honourable nation.
Orwell hoped to write a novel that
exposed the murderous truth of the
Soviet System.
Class Blog
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Tenenglishwithdoherty
Vocabulary:
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Ethos
Emblematic
Allegory
Imperialism
Indelible