In the novel, Boxer is the central force that holds Animal farm together- without him, Animal Farm would have never prospered.

Animal Farm is linked to and represents the period in Soviet history known as the Russian Revolution. In writing in the novel, George Orwell, its author, intended to attack Totalitarian communism (a political system in which one ruling party plans and controls the joint action of a state/ region). He wrote it in fable style because it enabled him to criticize certain characters and the whole idea of communism in general without endangering himself. Also, because fables allow for character development, Orwell used characterization to add sympathy to his argument against communism. This applies more emotion than a political essay- showing that fables allow a writer to argue against ideas with risking his/her own life, and to get his his/her point across more effectively. George Orwell was inspired by two other books, both written by the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx- Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto. Orwell may have wanted to show that communism, in concept, is an inspirational notion, but when incorporated into society, there will always be a power struggle, which inevitably leads to one dictator turning the people back to the capitalist ideas they denounced. However, his criticism through Animal Farm has little to do with Marx's ideas but rather with the distortion of those ideas by later leaders. In the novel, Boxer is the central force that

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  • Level: GCSE
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Compare and contrast snowball & napoleon -evaluate their respective qualities for leadership, -how do the animals respond to each and why are their responses different?- why does napoleon constantly use snowball as a scapegoat?

Compare and contrast snowball & napoleon -evaluate their respective qualities for leadership, -how do the animals respond to each and why are their responses different?- why does napoleon constantly use snowball as a scapegoat? Napoleon and Snowball are both very interesting characters. Their main, comparable desire is the leadership position on the farm, however, their tactics were completely different, and they were constantly devising plans against each other. This resulted in a massive power struggle between the two competing leaders. Napoleon form the beginning seems to be a corrupt character. Napoleon seems to be an aggressive animal and always has it going his way. Napoleon is the biggest pig from all of them but so is Snowball but the look in Napoleons eyes and his own strength made him fearful to others. Napoleon is hanging around the shades in the beginning of the revolution but we see him make clever moves which Snowball does not detect. When Napoleon and Snowball were in the meetings Napoleon would always go against Snowballs ideas and suggestions which showed his strong self determination and his exist stance and importance to the other animals present "Napoleon and Snowball were by far the most active in debates. But it was noticed that these two were never in agreement." Napoleon also comes through as very cunning even if he just sits back and watches.

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  • Level: GCSE
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How important is a knowledge of the Russian revolution to a solid understanding of 'Animal Farm'?

Debbie James 13W How important is a knowledge of the Russian revolution to a solid understanding of 'Animal Farm'? 'Animal Farm' can be read in two different ways. The first is as a child's book about animals that can walk and talk, but the second is to understand what message the book is trying give. To understand this message you need to understand about the Russian revolution 1917. In the book 'Animalism' is created and in the revolution communist leaders gain power. The book directly links a person from the revolution to a character in the book. Everything that happens in the book happens because a similar event happened in the Russian revolution. 'Animal Farm' is a moral satire. It is predicting what will happen to communism in Russia and the fate of all revolutions that overthrow authority. In the book Orwell uses different animals to represent the different social classes that were in Russia at the time of the revolution. * Pigs for the exploiters * Horses for the labourers * Dogs for the police / army * Sheep for the blind followers. The book shows that as long as the pigs exist they will grab power, just as the exploiters did in Russia. It also shows that all the animals are partly to blame for the pigs gaining their power because at some point all the animals back down and follow the orders that the pigs give. Boxer is a good example of this. He

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Examine closely the means by which Napoleon establishes a personal tyranny over Animal Farm.

Examine closely the means by which Napoleon establishes a personal tyranny over Animal Farm From the very beginning of the novel, Napoleon emerges as an utterly corrupt opportunist, though always present at the early meetings of the new state, Napoleon never makes a single contribution to the revolution-not to the formulation of its ideology, not to the bloody struggle that it necessitates, nor to the new society's attempt to establish itself. He never shows interest in the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his power over it. Thus, the only project he undertakes with enthusiasm is the training of a litter of puppies. He does not educate them for their own good or for the good of all, but rather for his own good: they become his own private army or secret police, a violent means by which he imposes his will upon others. The only thing obstructing Napoleon's personal rise to power and domination of all the animals in the farm at the start, is Snowball. Snowball and Napoleon disagrees on everything, from the windmill incident to the best course of defence of Animal Farm, with Snowball advocating the spread of the revolutionary spirit to neighbouring farms, while Napoleon feels that the animals should procure weapons and develop a military force (this is apt as Napoleon already has an attack force of killer attack dogs). Snowball represents the more

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In what ways is MacNeice's Elephants a poem of protest?

Mac Neice started his poem by describing the elephant as A tonnage of instinctive, Wisdom in tinsel. He obviously had a lot of respect for the large animal which is naturally very wise but he is unhappy to see it dressed in such a cheap and gaudy way. Trunk like question And legs like tree trunks "Trunk like question" in this part of the poem the poet uses a simile, to have a configuration of "?" question mark. The elephant seemed to be questioning "Why do I have to do this performance?" "Why am I here?" "And legs like tree trunks" tree trunks give an impression of old, solid and strong which depicts the way it was in the jungle and circus. On each forehead A buxom blond A woman wearing a sexy costume, showing off her cheapness, the whole purpose of putting a lady on the forehead of elephant is to draw the attention of the audience, but it shows disrespect to the huge animal. And round each leg, A jangle of bell People are just laughing at them, because such a huge animal looks silly by are dressed in such a way.

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Animal Farm - Describe and discuss Napoleons methods of governing.

Animal Farm Describe and discuss Napoleons methods of governing In the novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell, the animals struggle to create their own society based on fairness and equality. Power and control of the farm went from Mr. Jones to Snowball and from Snowball to Napoleon. After the rebellion took place the idea of Animalism began and the seven Commandments were produced. Animalism was a difficult idea for all the animals to follow and live by as many of them were not very intelligent apart from the pigs. The failure of Animal Farm was mostly due to the pig's power over the other animals and the greed and wishes that the pigs wanted to achieve. The most corrupt of the leaders was Napoleon and he uses several methods of gaining more power and running Animal Farm. What ever Napoleon did to structure and form his government in the early stage was to help him later on. The first sign of corruption from Napoleon and the pigs was when the animals had milked the three cows and produced five buckets of milk before they all went to harvest. When they had produced the milk they did not know what to do with it so Napoleons said: (pg.16) "Never mind the milk, comrades! Cried Napoleon...That will be attended to. The harvest is more important" So then the animals went to harvest but: "When they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had

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Animal Farm is not just about a story about animals it is about human nature and behaviour. Discuss.

Animal Farm Animal Farm is not just about a story about animals it is about human nature and behaviour. "Animal Farm" by George Orwell is a novel based on the lives of a society of animals living on the Manor Farm. Although the title of the book suggests the book is merely about animals, the story is a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The animals are used as puppets to illustrate how the communist class system operated, and how Russian citizens responded to this, and how propaganda was used by early Russian leaders such as Stalin, and the effect this type of leadership had on the behaviour of the people of Russia. One thing which relates to the topic is how the pigs are favoured on Animal Farm. The main source for this was because their leader Napolean was a pig, the pigs were subject to favouritism by Napolean, and were given privileges that other animals were not given, such as sleeping in beds, wearing clothes and drinking beer. The pigs were also the only animals involved in making the vital decisions on Animal Farm. The fact emulates in a way how our Government tends to operate. The Government Party members are paid an exuberant amount of money, with this money the members of the Government can purchase costly cars and houses, if they wish to do so. They make all the important decisions about the country where as the

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Animal Farm - Show how Orwell captures the reader's sympathy for the animals so that he or she feels involved in their hopes, struggles and disappointments.

Animal Farm is a fable, in which the animals on a farm rebel against their tyrannical master and take over the administration of the farm themselves. For many of the characters and events in animal farm are parallel to the characters that took part in, and the events that followed the Russian Revolution and dictorships in general. The Definition Of Animal Farm is simple; characters are used to represent ideas on the ways of how particular types of people might behave in the real world. Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. I fell that both Old Major and Boxer are pivotal characters in the novel each is closely linked to the eventual fate of the concept behind Animal Farm Old Major is the leader of animal farm at the start of the book. Old Major has a dream one night and then wants to tell all the other animals about this dream he had. Old Major dream is that one day there will be a rebellion and the animals will rule the farm. He say's there will be no more working harder, happier lives and more food. Old Major is a prize middle white boar, he is a wise animal. All the others have a lot of respect for him. Old Major realises that human's are the only threat to them. He said "Remove man and we will be free". Man does not give he just sells and makes a living for himself not the animals. Man does not give milk, lay eggs, too weak to pull the plough and to

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Pastiche of Animal Farm

Rationale: The main objective of this political struggle/oppression related, text production was to write a short story pastiche with a writing technique similar to the one used by George Orwell in his book Animal Farm. In this story lions and animals were used to symbolize Americans and Muslims respectively. Like Orwell's book this short story is biased propaganda, only here it is the Americans who stand target while in Animal farm it was the communists being literally attacked. The audience should be (if to make any sense) Muslims. Being read to young children this would be effective if you seek an American hostility feeling in your society but also grown ups would be affected reading symbolism. To someone who knows what this is about it is clear that much in this story is, if not untrue, at least overly exaggerated to make the Americans look bad. Still it is very possible that it has an effect on the person. Already in the title, "How the evil lions destroyed the jungle" one figures that lions are evil. The reason for this obvious bias was not to criticize Americans. Rather, it was to make the reader understand that symbolism is a powerful weapon that anybody can use. How the evil lions destroyed the jungle. Once upon the time there was a jungle where all animals lived happily together. The animals prayed to God and in return God rewarded the animals with happy lives and

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How does Orwell depict the relationship between Napoleon and the other animals in this extract?

HOW DOES ORWELL DEPICT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND THE OTHER ANIMALS IN THIS EXTRACT? The idyllic setting of life on the farm provides little clue of the harsh realities George Orwell exposes in Animal Farm. Napoleon is portrayed in this novel as a harsh self-centred leader who acts in a manner of selfishness in order to achieve his goal. Orwell's choice of having Napoleon as the predominant leader on the farm is far from any coincidence, as his use of fear and propaganda against the vulnerable animals simply leads to outright annihilation on Animal Farm. Napoleon is illustrated as one who 'seldom moved out of walk'; this is a very ironic tone that Orwell uses because despite his lack of work he still indulges himself in luxuries the Farm has to offer. The rest of the animals are left with very little in comparison to the 'power hungry', ruthless and eminent boar by the name of Napoleon. Moreover, the ongoing struggle between Napoleon and Snowball, with its consequences felt by the population of the farm, clearly illustrates how totalitarian leaders will put their own confrontations ahead of the population they are supposedly leading. The destruction of the windmill brings about increased tension and anxiety among all the members of the farm. This is a key moment in the novel as Orwell shows that such is the extremity of the circumstance that it needs Napoleon to

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  • Subject: English
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