Education Flashcards
(5 cards)
Quote: ‘The education of the young was more important than anything that could be done for those who were already grown up.’
Analysis: This quote shows how the pigs manipulate education to consolidate power. It reflects the idea that controlling the youth ensures long-term control. Orwell critiques how regimes use education as a tool for indoctrination rather than enlightenment.
Quote: ‘Four legs good, two legs bad.’
Analysis: This simplistic slogan is used to replace critical thinking with blind acceptance. It shows how language and education are weaponised to prevent the animals from questioning authority, highlighting the dangers of reducing complex ideas into propaganda.
Quote: ‘The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others.’
Analysis: The pigs’ access to education allows them to assume leadership roles. Orwell critiques the class divide that education can reinforce, where the educated exploit the uneducated.
Quote: ‘Napoleon took them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education.’
Analysis: This shows how Napoleon uses education as a form of control from an early age. By isolating the puppies and teaching them in secret, he turns them into loyal enforcers, symbolising how totalitarian regimes brainwash the young.
Quote: ‘Some of the animals remembered—or thought they remembered—that the Sixth Commandment decreed, “No animal shall kill any other animal.”’
Analysis: Orwell shows how the lack of education leaves the animals vulnerable to manipulation. The animals’ inability to read or recall the commandments allows the pigs to alter them without opposition, emphasising the importance of literacy and knowledge in resisting tyranny.
