Name: ______________________________ Class: ______________

Animal Farm by George Orwell - Pre-Reading Activities

Activity 1: Look carefully at the book covers on the PowerPoint.

Discuss with your partner/ group.

1. Do you think that Animal Farm by George Orwell is a children’s story about a

group of animals on a farm? Why?/Why not?

2. Do you think it’s a positive story with a happy ending or a negative one? Why?

3. From the book covers what do you think the story is about?

4. What made you come to these conclusions?

Write down your ideas:

Personal Response of students referring to the images on the

book covers.

Activity 2 – Meet George Orwell.

Follow the PowerPoint and listen to the video clip.

Task 1: Fill in the Fact File

Task 2: Fill in the quote from Orwell’s essay Why I write:

Task 3: Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE:

TRUE FALSE

a Orwell went to University. b Orwell worked as a policeman in Burma. c Orwell suffered from a lung illness for a short time. d His experience in the Spanish Civil War did not affect his political

beliefs.

e Orwell trusted governments and believed they followed ideals. f. Animal Farm was written in 1945 and published that same year. g Orwell was shocked that his novel was placed in children’s

sections in bookstores.

Name: Eric Arthur Blair

Pen Name: George Orwell

Born in: 1903

Died in: 1950

Place of birth: India

His two most famous novels: Animal Farm

1984

___________ 191984

______________________________________

What I wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make

political writing into an art_. My starting point is always … a sense

of injustice. … When I sit down to write a book … I write it because

there is some lie I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw

your attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.

Activity 3: Fable, Satire and Allegory

Task 1: Fill in the blanks in the following fable.

• The Fox and the Stork•

The Fox one day thought of a plan to amuse himself at the expense of the Stork, at whose odd appearance he was always laughing. “You

must come and dine with me today,” he said to the Stork, smiling to himself at the trick he

was going to play. The Stork gladly accepted the invitation and arrived in good time and with a very good appetite. For dinner the Fox

served soup. But it was set out in a very shallow dish, and all the Stork could do was

to wet the very tip of his bill. Not a drop of soup could he get. But the Fox lapped it up easily, and, to increase the disappointment of the Stork, made a great show of enjoyment. The hungry Stork

was much displeased/disappointed at the trick, but he was a calm, even-tempered fellow and saw no good in flying into a rage. Instead, not long

afterward, he invited the Fox to dine with him in turn. The Fox arrived promptly at the time that had been set, and the Stork served a fish dinner that had a very appetizing smell. But it was served in a tall jar with a very narrow neck. The

Stork could easily get at the food with his long bill, but all the Fox could do was to lick the outside of the jar, and sniff at the delicious odour. And when the Fox lost

his temper, the Stork said calmly: Do not play tricks on your neighbours unless you can stand the same treatment yourself.

Task 2: Now look at this picture from another fable. Narrate the

story together with your partner. Write down the moral of the

story in the box below:

A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little

Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran

across the Lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on

the tiny creature to kill her. “Spare me!” begged the poor Mouse. “Please let me

go and someday I will surely repay you.” The Lion was much amused to think that

a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.

Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the

toils of a hunter’s net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry

roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the

net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it

parted, and soon the Lion was free. “You laughed when I said I would repay you,”

said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion.”

A kindness is never wasted. / There is no person in the world so little, but

even the greatest may, at some time or other, stand in need of his help,

Task 3: Look carefully at the two satirical political cartoons. With your partner/ group discuss what each cartoon is about. Which issues are

they attacking and how?

a) Racism/ immigration in America. Statue of Liberty –symbol of America

is not white and was a gift from France. Some Americans don’t want immigrants in the US. Statue of Liberty crying – US was created by

immigration.

b) Politicians posing in front of a screen with artificial trees while at the

back there’s deforestation and pollution. It’s Earth Day 2035 – a comment

about how our future will look like – and a comment on how some

politicians tackle environmental problems/ don’t give importance to our

environment. Also a comment on how media can give a false/fake image-

totally different from what reality truly is.

Task 4: In your opinion, what character traits would these animals

represent in an allegory? Why? Discuss with your partner/group.

Students’ response.

Examples: horse – hardworking/ strong

Sheep – follow blindly

Donkey – ignorant/ stupid

Pig – greedy

Dog – friendly/ loyal/ aggressive

Activity 4:

Task 1: Discuss with your partner.

What is a Revolution? a revolution (Latin: revolutio, "a turn around") is a

fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political

organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government,

typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or

political incompetence.

Why do you think revolutions occur? What circumstances would lead people to

overthrow the daily political and economical structure of their lives?

oppression (political, social, economic) or political incompetence

Identify one revolution that occurred more than ten years ago.

What sorts of goals were the revolutionaries seeking to accomplish?

In retrospect was the Revolution successful?

In retrospect was the revolutions successful?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_incompetence

Task 2: Match the names in the box with the corresponding photos of

these historical figures.

Stalin Hitler Marx Lenin

Tsar Nicholas II Trotsky Churchill

Churchill

Stalin

Trotsky

Tsar Nicholas II

Hitler Marx

Lenin

Task 3: To which historical figures do these statements refer?

Historical Figure

a under his rule the Russian ruling class lived in luxury Tsar Nicholas II

b the German Leader Hitler

c he called workers to unite as they had “nothing to lose but their chains”. Lenin

d a German intellectual Marx

e a monarch with absolute power Tsar Nicholas II

f he won the struggle for power and became a dictator Stalin

g the British Prime Minister Churchill

h his book Das Kapital, said society should be free and equal Marx

i the strategist behind the Red Army’s success in the Civil War Trotsky

Task 4: Put the following historical events in chronological order.

1-10

a After the October Revolution the Communists took power. 4

b The people were hungry and there was civil unrest. 2

c Stalin comes to power. 8

d Under Stalin’s dictatorship the people of Russia live in fear and suffer hunger. 10

e Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia. 1

f Vladimir Lenin died. 6

g Trotsky is exiled. 9

h The February Revolution removed the Tsar from the throne. 3

i There was a struggle for power between Trotsky and Stalin. 7

j Vladimir Lenin becomes Head of Government. 5

Stalin Hitler Marx Lenin Tsar Nicholas II Trotsky Churchill

Task 5: Discuss.

Why was Animal Farm considered too politically sensitive when it was

published?

Assignment:

Imagine you are George Orwell in 1945 and you want to send a letter of

information to bookshops to explain why Animal Farm should be removed from

the children’s section.

Write your explanation giving as much detail as possible to convince the

bookseller.

Explain:

why you wrote the book

how you were inspired

what it is about

why it should be moved to the adults’ section

Write your letter.

Orwell makes it clear in the preface, that

he wrote the book to criticise Stalin’s

regime in the Soviet Union .The Soviet

Union was an ally of Britain’s in the

1940s, so he was actually attacking and

exposing an ally of Britain.