English -- Animal Farm Notes (quiz) Flashcards
How long did George Orwell live?
1903-1950
Orwell is noted as a _______ and _______ as well as what other two things?
novelist and critic; political and cultural commentator
He’s best known for two novels ______ of _______ in general and ________ in particular:
Animal Farm
1984
critical of totalitarianism and Stalinism
Orwell was a person who had a what and even making a virtue of his detachment?
reputation for standing apart
The “outsider” position often led him to do what?
oppose the crowd
How did Orwell view socialists, communists, and fascists?
repressive and self-serving
Orwell was skeptical of governments because?
their willingness to forsake ideas in favor of power
Orwell was a lonely boy who was likely to do what?
make up stories and talk with imaginary companions
Animal Farm is a masterpiece of what?
political satire
Animal Farm is a tale of oppressed individuals who long for freedom but are ultimately corrupted by what?
by assuming the very power that had originally oppressed them
The story traces the deplorable conditions of what, who can speak, and exhibit what?
mistreated animals and exhibit human characteristics
After extreme negligence by their owner, the animals do what?
revolt and expel Mr. Jones and his wife from the farm
The tale of the society the animals form into a totalitarian regime is generally viewed as Orwell’s critique of what?
the communist system in the former Soviet Union
Does Animal Farm deserve our attention? The answer lies in what?
power of allegory
Orwell’s chilling story of the ______ of ______ through what is as fresh and relevant today as when it was first published in 1945.
betrayal of idealism; tyranny and corruption
When was Animal Farm published?
1945
What is one oldest literary forms?
a fable
what is usually short, written in either verse or prose, and conveys a clear moral or message
fable
The earliest fables still preserved date back to when?
6th Century Greece BCE
Though Aesop’s animal fables were ostensibly about animals, they were really instructional tales on what?
human emotions and human behavior
Orwell took the short animal fable and expanded it to what?
the length of a short novel in the form of an allegory
Most fables have how many levels of meaning?
two
the animals stand for what?
types of people or ideas
The way the animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says something about what?
nature of people or the value of ideas
Any type of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning in this way is called a what?
allegory
Animal Farm is strongly what?
strongly allegorical
On the first level the story of the animals is what?
very moving
The story’s second level involves the careful critique Orwell created to what?
comment on Soviet Russia
Animal Farm also has a third meaning, this meaning is usually what?
a more general level of meaning
the animals could also be symbols for what?
tyranny more broadly
The characteristics are the qualities of all leaders who rely on what?
repression and manipulation
the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it is what?
a satire
Orwell uses a satire to do what?
expose what he saw as the myth of Soviet socialism
Irony results when there is a disparity between what?
what an audience would expect and what really happens
Orwell uses what type of irony?
dramatic