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Animal Farm

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DIRECTORY
	Biographical Perspective		Quotes
	Historical Perspective		Assignments

	Animal Farm - the story		As Allegory
	Literary Perspective		As Fable & Satire
	Projects & Essay		10th Home Page

Biographical Perspective
author - Eric Blair	pen name - George Orwell (1903-1950)
publications	Animal Farm
	1984
	short stories
philosophy	socialist
	hated totalitarianism
	critical of communism
	offended by communism overtaking socialism
	Animal Farm in protest to expose corruption of ideal

Historical Perspective
Based on the Russian revolution of 1917
Names to know	Karl Marx	developed theory of socialism
		believed in classless society
		method of change - revolution by proletariat
		dictatorship with worker owned industry
		"from each according to his ability; to each according to his need"
	Leon Trotsky	political and military leader
	Vladimir Lenin	political leader
	Joseph Stalin	successor to Lenin

Russia prior to 1917	ruled by despotic czars and elite wealthy
	bourgeoisie (upper middle class) owners unhappy
	W.W.I brings hardships - poverty
	bourgeoisie overthrow czars and set up pseudo democracy - doesn't work
	control still in hands of wealthy landowning upper middle class
	working class (proletariat) unrest


1917 Bolshevik Revolution	October 1917 political proletariat leader Lenin returns to country after years of exile
	revolutionary and political leader Leon Trotsky returns after exile - becomes leader of Red Army
	White Army - Russians sympathetic to Czar and bourgeoisie
	Red Army victorious - 4 year civil war

U.S.S.R.	after war, Russia becomes Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics
	1924 Lenin dies
	struggle for power between new political leader Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky
	Stalin wins - Trotsky expelled, declared traitor by Stalin
	Trotsky fleas to Mexico - assassinated 1940
	Stalin gains power
	1930 arrests and public trials of anyone thought to be disloyal - thousands killed - all opposition eliminated

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Important Stuff - ideas/quotes
Ideas
According to George	To rewrite history is to control both the past and the future.
	"Political language . . . Is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind."
	The struggle for power exists in any society in which the people at large have no voice.
Karl says . . .	"Hunger, hardship and disappointment are unalterable facts of life, but man must continue to struggle to change them.
	"Good will, good intentions, and ideals and common decency are not enough."
Quotable Quotes
"The world wants to be deceived." - Sebastian Brant
"Power is much more easily manifested in destroying than in creating." - Wm. Wordsworth
"The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause." - Henri Bergson

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Assignments
Daily work	Prior to reading, select an animal based only on the name. As we read adopt the perosona of that animal and create daily response journal entries of a half page per day, commenting on the activities in the chapter and adding your thoughts and reactions as if you were the selected animal. Journals will be turned in and graded when the reading is finished.
Work sheets	Students will receive a packet of handouts which must be finished at the completion of the reading and handed in for a grade.
Readings	Students will read approximately one to two chapters per night completing journal entries after each chapter. We will discuss the chapters in class.
Quizzes & Tests	Periodic surprise reading quizzes may be given. Students will prove their mastery of the material on a final test over the story and concepts.

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"All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Afton

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