Revising Animal Farm

What are the ideas and

attitudes of George
Orwell?
Propaganda: persuading people to accept certain beliefs or
facts without question

Who is responsible for the propaganda on Animal Farm? How are these
images connected to propaganda?

Can you think of

any other examples?
Who does propaganda
benefit on the farm?
Satire – a piece of writing that attacks a person or idea
making it look ridiculous or unpleasant

Orwell attacks different historical figures or ideas and uses the

novel as a warning about the ways in which power can be
abused by individuals
Snowball Napoleon
Old Major

Lenin: established
Communism, part Trotsky: wanted to
Stalin:
of the October educate people
established control
Revolution and an of the secret police
organised Rebellion wanted socialism in
one country

Who looks ridiculous and who is unpleasant in the novel?

In what ways is power abused in the novel and by who?
 Proletariat – the lower or working class

Orwell felt disgust and guilt after witnessing the way the British ruled
India whilst he was in the the Indian Imperial Police. This influenced his decision to
live the life of a proletariat – what do you think Orwell was trying to show about
powerful historical figures through the use of Boxer?

weakened
slaughtered by hard work What events in the
novel suggest that
Boxer has been
treated in an
unpleasant way and
has been abused
under the power of
‘Napoleon is ‘I will work Napoleon
always right’ Harder’
Anthropomorphic – a term used to describe animals
behaving like humans e.g. by talking or thinking

‘a fairy story’ (uses simple language to describe events on

a farm)

Orwell had a purpose in writing

the book: to criticise the regime of
the Soviet Union and condemn
Stalin for his ‘barbaric and
undemocratic methods’ in a
country where everyone was
a fable (uses animal characters to make serious moral
meant to be equal but were ruled
points) by a hierarchical society

In what ways is Napoleon ‘barbaric’?

Who is part of the ‘hierarchical’ society in ‘Animal
Farm?
Allegory – a story or piece of writing that contains two
logical meanings

‘Animal Farm’ is a political allegory with two

levels of meaning: the lives of the animals on
the farm and the deeper references to the
Russian Revolution
 In what ways are the following terms
significant to Orwell’s purpose of writing the
novel? Think of:

1. George Orwell’s reason for

1. propaganda writing ‘Animal Farm’

2. satire 2. George Orwell’s ideas and

attitude towards political
3. proletariat power

4. anthropomorphic 3. The deeper meaning of

‘Animal Farm’
5. allegory
Themes
 The corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet
Union
 The tendency for societies to organise
themselves into hierarchical classes
 The danger of a naïve working class
 The abuse of language as instrumental to the
abuse of power