Animal Farm Flashcards
(11 cards)
Snowball quotes
“Snowball’s eloquence” - convincing, threat to Napoleon
“had studied an old book of Julius Caesar’s campaigns”
Intelligence, wanted best for animals
However still corrupt - stole milk
Used as a scapegoat
Squealer quotes
“Squealer would talk with tears.. of Napoleons wisdom” - propaganda, controlling information
“When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say”
Use of animals illiteracy
Fear - “Surely, comrades, you don’t want Jones back?”
Ued by Napoleon - propaganda
Commandments
“All men are enemies” - contrasts end - “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”
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” - destruction of animalism
Boxer
“I will work harder”
“Napoleon is always right”
- First impression - illiterate / straw hat - couldn’t “get past the letter D” “somewhat stupid appearance”
- Windmill - determined / easily exploited “made arrangements with the cockerel to call him three quarters of an hour earlier in the mornings”
- Death - hurt hoof from overworked - pigs never valued, means to an end
Context
Russian Revolution (1917)
Karl Marx - Communism
Trotsky vs Stalin
Allegorical fable
Themes
Class
Education
Power + control
Old Major quotes
“Our lives are.. short” - communism
“The singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement”
Napoleon quotes
“A large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar… with a reputation for getting his own way”
“When he did appear, he was attended not only by his retinue of dogs but by a black cockerel who marched in front of him and acted as a kind of trumpeter.”
Initial secretive consolidation of power - create fear / rules to benefit him
Propaganda
Ending - became the humans , went against everything he stood for
Equality
Mr Jones abuse of power - “but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes”
Old Majors speech to rebel - animals excited about life of equality “the singing of this song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.”
Windmill - originally Snowball to create less work, then Napoleon later uses to mill corn to create more work and sell to humans.
Pigs walking on two legs, holding whips - cyclical structure “four legs good, two legs better”
Message - equality can’t be achieved
Class
Old Majors campaign to rid of it - rebellion, animals believe they are equal - however “the milk had disappeared”
Divides started showing more through literacy - Boxer “couldn’t get past the letter D” pigs were fully literate, they controlled knowledge that animals received
Cyclical structure - pigs turned into humans. Class wasn’t rid of, just replaced with new leaders “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”
Education
Education of dogs - Napoleon creating fear from beginning - never intended equality “responsible for their education
Hierarchy - only pigs mastered the “reading and writing” classes
Knowledge is power - illiteracy made animals easily exploited- e.g. Boxer - “When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say”
