Fall 2013
Break into 4 groups. Each group must contain one or more of the participants of the Plato Symposium. Two groups will have 5 members. In the style of the Plato Symposium, each group should fashion a 20 or 25 minute presentation answering one of these questions about Animal Farm. You may also decide to formulate a new question relating Animal Farm to Plato. You may use a PowerPoint presentation if you wish. Please be creative.
We need a make up session, so the presentations will be held on Saturday November 9 or Sunday November 10.
Elect a team leader, and ask that person to contact me by the end of the day today with the names of the members of the group and which question you will answer.
1. Compare and contrast Napoleon and Snowball. What techniques do they use in their struggle for power? Does Snowball represent a morally legitimate political alternative to the corrupt leadership of Napoleon?
2. Why do you think Orwell chose to use a fable in his condemnation of Soviet communism and totalitarianism? What different opportunities of expression does a fable offer its author?
3. How does Orwell explore the problem of rhetoric in Animal Farm? Paying particular attention to the character of Squealer, how is language used as an instrument of social control? How do the pigs rewrite history?
4. Discuss Boxer. What role does he play on the farm? Why does Napoleon seem to feel threatened by him? In what ways might one view the betrayal of Boxer as an alternative climax of the novel (if we consider Napoleon’s banishment of Snowball and the pigs’ initial consolidation of power as the true climax)?
5. Do you think Animal Farm’s message would come across effectively to someone who knows nothing about Soviet history or the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky? What might such a reader make of the story?
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