Context Flashcards
What are the 4 things I need to know
I need to know the 4 following things….
- Context
- Plot
- Characters
- Themes
Who was George Orwell
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair (1903-1950), he was a prolific writer of novels, poetry, criticism, journalism and non-fiction.
He wrote the manuscript of Animal Farm after his experience of the Spanish Civil War.
The book refers to the Russian Revolution and Russian society following events of 1917
What is the context of the book
The book is considered to be a novella rather than a novel
It is an allegory of events in Russia from just before the October Revolution in 1917 to the 1940s, and as such is a savage indictment (formal accusation) of the way the country - and Communist leader Stalin in particular - abandoned ideals.
Animal Farm can also be read as a general indictment of any dictator and tyrant and is considered political literature with universal resonance.
What is an allegory
A story where the chararacters and situations relate to other characters and situations to make a point about them.
e.g. The main action of Animal farms stands for the Russian revolution in 1917 and the early years of the Soviet Union
What is a satire
Satire is loosely defined as art which ridicules a specific topic in order to get people to change their opinion about it, often in a comic way
The animal farm is written in satirical form, where Orwell criticises the Human Folly associated with the Russian revolution in 1917 in a comical way.
The most famous work of British Satire is Swifts Gullivers Travels where each Island he visited reflected what he saw as the vices and corruptions of the time
What is the setting for the animal farm
- The animal farm is a dystopia
- An environment where everything is worse than your own environment
- In contrast to Utopia, where everything is better than your own evironment
- Other examples of dystopia novels include
- Huxley’s Brave New World
Characters - Which animals play which character in the Russian Revolution
Human, Mr Jones - Tsar Nicholas II
Old Major - Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin
Snowball - Leon Trotsky
Napoleon - Stalin
Dogs - Secret police
Crow named Moses - Church
The Horse named Boxer - Working class
What was the most famous line from the book
- All animals are equal but some are more equal than others
- It is supposed to reflect Orwells opinion of what happened in Russia after 1917
- Rather than eliminating the capitalist class system it was intended to overthrow it.
- Orwell was known for his opinion that those in power manipulate language for their own benefit
