February 26 Meeting - "Animal Farm" by George Orwell

Why should we read  it?

It is always a good idea to take a look back at some great classic British novelists. One of the most important characteristics of a master piece is that no matter how long ago it was written, it still has a message or several, to convey to present-day readers and a really meaningful one. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

Source: The following text has been compiled from Wikipedia publications

Source: Amazon

Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005); it also featured at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels,and number 46 on the BBC's The Big Read poll. It won a Retrospective Hugo Award in 1996, and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in industrial Northern England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945

Animal farm got it difficult to get published:

Animal Farm (originally Animal Farm: A Fairy Story) is a satirical allegorical dystopian novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It follows the mistreated anthropomorphic farm animals of Manor Farm as they rebel against their human master, and are hoping to create a society where all animals can be equal, free, and happy away from human vices and interventions. However, the rebellion is hijacked and betrayed, and under the dictatorship of the pigs, the farm ends up in a dystopian state nearly identical to what it was before.

According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, a period when Russia lived under the Marxist–Leninist ideology of Joseph Stalin. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Barcelona May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces, during the Spanish Civil War. In a letter to Yvonne Davet (a French writer), Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) wrote: "Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole."

Source: Wikipedia

The original title of the novel was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. American publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations, during Orwell's lifetime, the Telugu version, kept it. Other title variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire". Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and the British intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, which Orwell hated. The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers, including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did appear, as international relations and public opinion were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.

> Google Docs - Animal Farm Full Text.pdf - Google Drive

YouTube - Ivanna Oliink - Animal Farm (1954). George Orwell. HD Cartoon

Questions to spark discussion.

1. If you take a look at the first chapters, do you think Mr Jones is to blame for his behaviour? Point out any issues you find negative about how he run the farm.

2. We are presented with some of the pigs who will have an outstanding role all long the novel: Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer. How would you describe them? Why are they essential in the novella’s plot?

3. Look at the Commandments at the beginning and compare them to those at the end. Comment on them.

4. The sheep say a sentence repeatedly: “Four legs good, two legs bad”. What do you think is its hidden purpose? Is it changed at the end? Why?

5. Boxer is the most noble and hard-working animal in the farm, can you comment on his function along the novel? What about Molly? Why do you think she flees right at the beginning of the Rebellion?

6. Snowball and Napoleon fight about the windmill. What do they represent? What about Squealer? Comment on any other characters you like: Moses, the raven...

7. Napoleon takes some puppies and turns them into his bodyguards, why?

8. Pay attention to Benjamin, the donkey. What part does he play in the story?

9. Do you find any similarities between the techniques used by the pigs and some rulers’ tactics nowadays?

Pay attention to the last lines of the novel. Any final comments?

“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

10. One final question as the conclusion: Do you think terrible dictators such as Stalin or Hitler share tactics or characteristics which could be regarded as similar?