Today we are
learning:
• …about
George
Orwell.
• …about
Dictatorship
• Animal Farm is an unusual
story told in clear and
straightforward language.
• On first impression it might
seem like a children’s story.
• However, it has a strong,
political purpose.
• We will study the purpose
behind George Orwell’s story
and explore how and why
Animal Farm has become
seen as a classic in the history
of World Literature.
What is significant about the
year 1945?
Other famous books
written by George Orwell?
• Published in 1945.
• Written by world
famous writer,
George Orwell.
• Consistently appears
in listings for the top
Best 20th-Century
Novels.
• Adapted into film
several times
Context
George Orwell was born in 1903.
After leaving school he served as
a policeman in Burma. He
experienced poverty there for the
first time. It made him hate
authority and want to fight for the
working classes.
In 1936, he went to Spain to fight
for the Spanish Republicans in the
Spanish Civil War.
Thousands of young men from different
lands volunteered to fight for the
freedom of ordinary Spanish people
against a group of Army Fascist leaders
who had taken over control of the
country.
Orwell was an idealist, prepared to fight for his beliefs
that all people should be treated equally.
He was shot in the throat. What ideals would you fight for?
What ideals would you fight for?
Having been shot in the throat,
George Orwell had to find other
ways to fight against unfairness.
In an essay, he lists reasons why
he writes. He writes for …
A
‘Political purpose. — Using the word ‘political’ in the widest possible sense.
Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the
kind of society that they should strive after.’
B
“The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I
knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has
been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic
socialism, as I understand it.”
“My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship,
a sense of injustice.” George Orwell
Totalitarianism - dictatorship:
a form of government in which the ruler is an
absolute dictator
Name the totalitarian leaders
on the following pages.
Animal Farm is an unusual story in that it
is an animal story written for adults.
It is not simply a story about animals but
has deeper meanings.
Animal Farm is an allegory.
•
•
•
•
Allegory is a way of writing a story so
that it has two different meanings.
The first is the clear, LITERAL meaning
– surface meaning.
The second is a deeper, allegorical
meaning.
An allegory is a bit like a book-long
extended metaphor.
‘Anthropomorphic
Fantasy’
(animal centred
animal fable)
“Animals have human-like relationships in their own ‘natural’
environment and they speak to each other. Humans and animals do
not speak to each other although their worlds may connect. Some
humans may be privileged to understand the animals’
communication, and vice versa.”
Example: Watership Down (Adams 1974); Aesop’s Fables
(Aesop and Rackham 1994), Animal Farm (Orwell 1996)
Famous allegories
Why do writers choose to write a story as an allegory?
• George Orwell has used animal characters as a way to
making a point about Human behaviour.
• In an allegory human behaviour can be simplified and so
their actions and motives become clearer.
• Often in allegories, simplification leads to exaggeration.
This helps the reader to identify what exactly the writer
is criticising about human behaviour.
• By avoiding talking about specific controversial events
(e.g. the Russian Revolution), it allows the reader to
stand back and be detached when they are thinking about
the principles at stake.
Write your own little allegory
• Ensure that it has a clear message about
human behaviour and how we should
behave.
allegory
• a story, poem, or picture that can be
interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning,
typically a moral or political one