All ninth grade students should write a reflective statement (150-250 words) that answers the following question: "How was your understanding of historical and political considerations of Animal Farm developed through the interactive orals?"
Due on Monday/Tuesday, May 21/22 (depending on whether you are a Day 2 or a Day 1 English 9 student).
Due on Monday/Tuesday, May 21/22 (depending on whether you are a Day 2 or a Day 1 English 9 student).
RB: To understand historical and political considerations of Animal Farm, the background information which was presented through the interactive orals was necessary. According to my understanding, it seems that George Orwell was quite engaged with war. Due to my understanding of the interactive orals, the following topics were discussed: Fascism, The Communist Manifesto, The Battle of Brittan, The Spanish Civil War, Orwell’s Life as a Journalist and his biography.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of political considerations of Animal Farm developed very well through the interactive orals. I acquired some knowledge about Communism since I learned the basics, like how it started; I also learned several examples of Communist leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx and more. By learning these basics, I was able to develop more of a sense of the historical and political considerations of Animal Farm.
On the other hand my historical knowledge of Animal Farm also developed quite well. My personal Oral was about the Battle of Britain, which is kind of an advantage because I had to research the background of the war and how it related to George Orwell. According to my research George Orwell became engaged with propaganda because of the job he took at BBC. His job was to be a news reporter about events that were happening in the war. But he was not comfortable being a propagandist, even for the side he believed in. In conclusion this helped my historical understanding because I was able to perceive the major events that led George Orwell to write Animal Farm.
As you can notice, Animal Farm is based on the Russian Revolution; therefore, Orwell uses animals as a way to insult political figures in an indirect way since he is writing about politics. Many of the characters in Animal Farm embody actual Communist at that time, such as Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union, and Snowball, who represents Leon Trotsky. At first Snowball and Napoleon are the leaders, but as Stalin/Napoleon rose to power, Snowball/Trotsky became one of his biggest enemies and eventually got killed by Napoleon's dogs/the KGB. Old Major, the father of 'Animalism', represents Karl Marx, but in some ways also symbolizes the original communist leader Vladimir Lenin; this is because in the book Old Major's skull and body are displayed in a similar way to Lenin's remains.
If it wasn't for the interactive orals my basic knowledge of the book would be much less. TheiInteractive orals helped me to understand both historical and political considerations of Animal Farm by George Orwell.
LB: My understanding of the historical and political considerations of Animal Farm through the interactive orals was progressive. At first I didn’t understand or even know that Orwell was trying to reflect communism in general through Animal Farm. The first thing I realized is that Orwell expressed his beliefs and points of view not just by writing, and he was socialist and anticommunist. I also learned that Lenin, a Marxist, was one of the founders of the Soviet Union and also participated in some protests. I also learned that Stalin, another Marxist, was worse than Hitler in terms of the number of people whose deaths he was responsible for. He got expelled from a school for trying to spread Marxism, gained power by putting its enemies against each other and became a dictator worse than Hitler. I also understood how Orwell expressed his opinion of how communism doesn’t work in his book by making the animals be unhappy with the pigs in charge and making them think that “animalism” is good.
ReplyDeleteJR: Animal Farm is an allegory created to depict the corruption of and to outsmart the Russian leaders. With the different presentations we learned about leaders like Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Marx in order to relate them with the actions that occur in the novella. By learning from the backgrounds about the wars and leaders that caused this war I was able to match each rebellion with an important political event. I also learned about important political parties like Communism, Fascism and Socialism. With the background about these different leaders and parties, I was able to recognize the allegory created by George Orwell in Animal Farm. The backgrounds made me understand the novella in a political view and not as a fairy tale. For example, in Animal Farm there is an important battle called the Battle of Cowshed. This is a battle fought between the animals and the human beings. From the background I was able to realize that this battle represented the Russian Civil War in which Tsar Nicholas II and his men were overthrown by the Bolsheviks who gained control of Russia. The animals represent the Bolsheviks, and the human beings represent Tsar Nicholas II and his forces. Also in Animal Farm in the exposition a character named Major starts talking about a rebellion, about making all animals equal. After learning about Marx in the presentations I realized that it is an allegory for him. Major was expressing the ideas that Marx expressed in the Communist Manifesto. In Animal Farm, all the themes of the backgrounds are represented as battles and animal characters. The presentations helped me see the events in the novella as political events which happened in history and not merely as a simple fight between some animals. Other allegories that I recognized thanks to the background orals were Snowball as Trotsky and Napoleon as Stalin. Additionally, I learned about their movements and ideologies and matched them with these animals.
ReplyDeleteCA: The background orals that were given in class became very useful to me when trying to decipher the meanings of certain aspects of Animal Farm. Previous to these oral presentations my knowledge on Animal Farm was limited in that I knew only that it was an allegory for an event in history. Through the presentations I learned that Animal Farm was an allegory for the Russian Revolution in which the Bolsheviks (or the Proletarians) became victorious over the Mensheviks. I finally came to realize the difference between Socialism and Communism which is that Communism is about all of the people being equal and trying to destroy the essence of Capitalism in trying to create a single agrarian society, and Socialism, on the other hand, is when people remain in their social classes but they all work together to create a greater good in society. The orals helped me further my understanding on the importance that people such as Marx, Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin had in the development of Communism and this helped me see the resemblance they had to certain characters in the novel (Old Major being both Marx and Lenin, Snowball being Trotsky and Napoleon being Stalin). Not only did the presentations help me understand the meaning of the book and how it criticized different forms of political government, but they also taught me of the truth behind Orwell’s inspiration for the novel. By learning about Orwell’s past I could begin to understand why he chose to write an allegory and by hearing of different events in Russian history I managed to understand the allegorical meaning behind the events in the book.
ReplyDeleteFC: I myself am always very curious about history, and I found that the background orals on the different topics related to Animal Farm helped me further understand the book. Since the book is very allegorical in regards to people and events that have occurred for the past century or so, it really allowed me to understand who each character was based on; for example, Napoleon represents Stalin in so many ways, as he got rid of Snowball, just like Stalin got rid of Trotsky. The book describes many events that have actually occurred, and thanks to the presentations I was quickly able to identify what each event in the book resembled; however, this also gave me a lot of insight on what the outcome of events was going to be. During the presentations I further learned about the origins of communism, and how Karl Marx founded it. When I was reading the book I quickly began to see how Old Major’s character was allegorical to Karl Marx. This was due to the fact that in Animal Farm he was the one who founded the theory of Animalism; however, his character was also an allegorical representation of Lenin in that he mobilized the animals and inspired the revolution that way. So not only have I learned a lot from the presentations about the origins of communism, but it also helped my understanding of the book.
ReplyDeleteR2D2: The presentations helped me understand the overall novel much better; I was able to directly associate many characters from the book with characters in the Russian Revolution. Napoleon for example represents Joseph Stalin due to his actions in the book of slowly taking over the whole farm, setting the rules and convincing the animals that he is always right. Snowball is a straightforward representation of Trotsky because he has all the bright ideas and is clear on how to make the “revolution” succeed but is kicked out for contradicting the central government. I think that the windmill portrays Lenin's and Stalin's failed attempts to make the Soviet Union more successful. This process was always interrupted and when it was finally accomplished it didn’t really benefit the country, despite all the hard labor that had been put into building it. Orwell really based his story on true facts and slightly modified them in order to fit the situation of the farm; he had a clear understanding of what was going on in Russia at his time and knew how the Communist system worked.
ReplyDeleteV.C-F: Animal Farm is an allegory written by George Orwell with the aim of criticizing communism and the way it was executed in the Soviet Union. Previous to the presentations we had in class, I was not at all familiar with Animal Farm and had little notion of what communism was. During the presentations I learned about the wars, the key people and the different political regimes. I also learned how these topics were an influence on Animal Farm or how they were depicted in the allegory itself. It was very helpful to have had some background information before reading the book. Without it I would have read and understood Animal Farm as if it were just a story. Now I know that all the characters in the book represent someone or an idea. One obvious example of this is that of Boxer. Boxer is an allegorical reference to all the proletariat or working class. They are both extremely powerful and the Revolutions could not have occurred without them. During the presentations I also understood the aims of communism and how they are relevant to Animal Farm. In conclusion, with the help of the presentations I was able to fully understand how the revolt of farm animals against humans and the development to having the pigs as leaders was relevant to the historical event of the Russian revolution and its causes.
ReplyDeleteLG: Personally I’ve always been interested in history and throughout my life I had heard more than a few references towards communism, the U.S.S.R. and the Russian Revolution, but I had never studied it in depth or decided to read about it. With Animal Farm I had to learn about these topics in order to fully comprehend Orwell's novel as an allegroy. At first it started as an obligation, but as I progressed in my research I became interested in the topic and I actually wanted to read more. My topic was Lenin, which I thought was extremely interesting because he was the spark and the origin of the revolution in Russia and to truly understand something you must be informed on its origin. I also learned a lot of new material with all the other presentations my classmates gave on the other topics such as Trotsky, Karl Marx, Stalin, Socialism and Communism. Now I knew what the difference was between communism and socialism and why a successful communist government had never been achieved. I knew how the Russian Revolution started, who was responsible for it, who kept it going and I also knew who the creator of communism was.
ReplyDeleteNot only did I learn about Russia and how it developed throughout the years, but I also learned about George Orwell and other wars and events in other countries in which he was involved, such as the Civil War in Spain or Orwell's years in Burma. I was fascinated by how the smallest things can influence a man's entire life. Orwell's travels and political views allowed him to write Animal Farm in such a clear manner. For example, he wrote an entire short story on the killing of an elephant and this influenced him, as he mentions in the story. Without these presentations Animal Farm wouldn’t have been clear to me and I wouldn’t have been able to connect all the allegorical references in the book with the events that happened in real life. These orals allowed me to connect the dots and fully comprehend the book.
JH: The interactive orals allowed me to expand my understanding of Orwell’s historical and political considerations of Animal Farm. For instance, I realized that Animal Farm is an allegory about the Russian Revolution where Napoleon and his supporters represent the elite group of the Communist party; conversely, Boxer represents the blind loyalty of the Proletariat. Snowball, on the other hand, epitomizes the intelligence’s disloyalty to the regime. However, Napoleon’s greed for absolute power ultimately leads to Snowball’s expulsion. Moreover, I was able to realize Orwell’s true purpose in writing the novel. Orwell lived through many situations such as the British domination of Burma, Spanish Civil War, Russian Revolution, and Soviet political purges. He also observed different political ideologies being promoted by these leaders and falling apart in the end. In today’s society, for example, Fascism is used as a derogatory term. Many people today believe that it is all about suppression and oppression. Originally, the system did not strive to confine the rights of the individuals; it actually strove to create a better world by doing good things that would largely benefit the masses. However, fascist regimes failed because the power was in the hands of the wrongful leaders. Similarly, in Animal Farm, Animalism failed in the end because Napoleon manipulated its politics to gain power. Through the interactive orals, I realized that these political ideologies such as Communism, Fascism, and Socialism started off with good intentions; however, because of the wrongful leaders, they all ended up being corrupt and unsuccessful. Knowing the background of Orwell’s history and life has not only allowed me to understand why Orwell wrote this book, but also what he wished to tell the world about the Russian Revolution.
ReplyDeleteAL: The Animal Farm orals helped me understand the meaning of the book in an easier way. For example, the short oral which Mrs. Lowman gave us on the Communist Manifesto helped me relate the different characters to the Proletariats and the Bourgeoisie. In the end the pigs were like the Proletariats, ending up like the Bourgeoisie which was the humans. It shows that in order to get something, you have to end up becoming something you don’t want to become, like the pigs. Also, the oral on Stalin really helped because in the end, there were all the allegories stated, like which characters represented which political leaders. I think though that Boxer, even though he was hard working like the Proletariats, he didn’t go down the path of becoming like the pigs. He went the opposite direction, which eventually led to his death. Furthermore, since Orwell was involved in World War II, a lot of his ideas in Animal Farm are directed towards that. For example, Animal Farm itself is an Anti-Stalinist allegory. Lastly, the oral on communism helped me realize that the pigs represented the communist leaders, trying to change everything. Animal Farm is a great book as it is both an allegory and deeply ironical. It really makes you reflect upon the different political leaders and their actions and help you understand them easily.
ReplyDeleteKL: All the presentations that my classmates made were really useful in helping me to understand the book much better. Every piece of information that was given to us in the presentation, was important to understand the book. For example, the person that made the presentation about communism really helped me differentiate between comunism and socialism because I did not know the difference in the beginning. Others that contained vital information to understand Animal Farm were the presentations about Orwell's writtings, life and books, because with George Orwell's information, I can understand better his type of writings and ideas, especially why he even wrote the book Animal Farm. But what really helped me the most was my own presentation since I had to investigate about it myself making it easier to understand. My presentation was about Stalin, and it helped me know about Stalin's life and how he came to power. But the section of my presentation that really helped me was the comparrison between Stalin's history with the book Animal farm and its events (the allegory). This section made me understand better what was happening in the book, especially the allegory where I discovered that Napoleon was Stalin, Snowball was Trotsky, Old Major was a mix of Lenin and Marx and many other characters as well. This investigation really surprised me and it made me want to read the whole book in one day because I wanted to compare it with the history of Stalin already. Knowing about Stalin was really important because it made the reading assigments easier to understand and more exciting to read. I enjoyed every presentation and investigating about my own topic.
ReplyDeleteRP: Through the different interactive orals I learned more about the political and historical point depicted in Animal Farm. The different orals helped me because each different oral said something about Orwell that made him think that way or something that may have influenced him to write this book as he wrote it. In my interactive oral I had to write about his childhood and his education. His childhood did not have a lot to do with the subject of why it made him write about these subjects, but I did learn a lot about his background and how he was a very smart kid who did not have the resources to get a good education so got a scholarship to the best schools. That being said, throughout the other interactive orals I learned that he had a strong connection to the Russian form of government and different political leaders. I learned that through out Animal Farm he was trying to spread the idea of communism. For example he tried inserting different characters of Russian government like Joseph Stalin, who in the book represented by Napoleon, as well as characters like Snowball, who is a representation of Trotsky. All the presentations made me have a clearer understanding of the book while I was reading it because I saw how much it tried to point out the dangers of Russian communism. I also related it a lot with Venezuela: all the sneaky tricks that they pulled are the exact same tricks that have been pulled here in Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteTJM: After everyone finished his/her presentation about George Orwell, I have a lot of information to help me understand the novel. His life was so colorful because he moved a lot, and he joined the Spanish Civil War so he learned persistence and the presentation helped me know more about the war. He has been a reporter for BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), so as a reporter he knew that everything must be honest. You can’t just say something that is not true. He lived in Myanmar for about six years. As a result he realized how hard life is for the working classes, so he became a man who cared about the poor people. Persistence, honesty, and caring about poor people add to his talent to make him become a good writer. He is a person who doesn’t like Communism. In the book Animal Farm the reader can see that. He changed some of the animals into Communists. I think communism is not that bad; it just can be when something is wrong with the leader. The presentations of the description about the leader helped me a lot about how the revolution begins and makes me understand more clearly about the book. The presentation about Communism helped me more easily understand Orwell's critique of the system in Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteJS: Animal Farm is a really acrimonious book written by George Orwell. At the start of the book, Old Major is telling his dream to the animals, similar to Marx and Engel’s Communist doctrine and propaganda in Russia under the influence of a group of communists. In Animal Farm they make some rules like: "Four legs good, two legs bad", "All animals are friends.” These are the same as the international communism of Marx and Engels, who called for the world proletariat to unite under the slogan. The song "Beasts of England" is similar to the song, The Internationale, but after old Major dies, Napoleon and Snowball start to go against each other, and Napoleon’s expulsion of Snowball corresponds to when Stalin came to power.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the pigs didn't make the other animals have a better life. Napoleon started to tamper with the "Seven Commandments" and killed other animals. Eventually, the pigs change to humans. This is a pattern in history: the Soviet Union legalized socialism, but the country ended up exploiting its people.
Orwell uses an allegory of how animals built their farm to reproduce the history of the former Soviet Union and its development.
CA: In the presentation last week on Animal Farm I learedn about different Russian leaders who can be connected to the characters in Animal Farm. One of those characters is Joseph Stalin, but his real name was Losif Vissarionovich. He used to study in Gori Church School, and it surprised me that Stalin who had a very bad reputation of killing people. As a matter of fact, he actually had a strong love for flowers because his mother used flowers to encourage him to walk as a kid because he had a disability. He got a scholarship to the Theological Seminary in Georgia, but then he was expelled from the seminary, leading him to be exiled to Siberia on the third of April of 1901. After this he came back and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the information about Stalin I was given important facts about Orwell’s life. Orwell’s childhood and education were difficult for him because he was neither rich nor poor, but he lived in place where almost everyone was financially well off. This created a psychological problem for him because his friends could spend a lot of money when they wanted, but he couldn’t do that. George Orwell changed his name because he didn’t like it. Since he didn’t like it and he loved England, he figured out a name which could tell that he came from England so he combined two English names. These were George V, who was a monarch at the time, and Orwell the name of his favorite river in England. This brought him the idea of the name of George Orwell. With the information that I took during the presentation I was able to have better understanding of the book by showing me why George Orwell wrote Animal Farm, basically because he didn’t like the imperialism that England had over different countries, so he decided to use Russia as an example of Imperialism through the use of animals representing different characters from Russia who played a big role inn the Soviet government.
DZ: The background presentations gave me a good historical view on how the novel is, like how Marx and Lenin gave an idea to their comrades to revolutionize and take arms against their harsh rulers. All the presentations were important to understand the historical and political view of Animal Farm. Many of the characters and events represent historical moments which the author, George Orwell, tries to create. An example of this is the exile of Snowball, in which Napoleon takes over. That is a parallel to Stalin exiling Trotsky from the Soviet government. Also an event of the book when the animals finally complete the windmill represents that the Soviet government made the magnificent buildings for industrial purposes, butthey were never used for the original purpose. The presentation about communism helped me understand the differences between communism and socialism like that communism should have no classes at all while the working class of socialism should rule democratically. Also my presentation helped me understand how communism first started and the original idea. Karl Marx created communism to have no classes, but none of those who tried the political idea succeeded on making everybody equal. In conclusion, I think that the background orals are vital to understanding the book.
ReplyDeleteDB: One of the things that I will never forget about Animal Farm is the shocking words of Napoleon: “All animals are equal but some are moreequal than others”. When I read this, I was amazed at how the propaganda of Napoleon and Squealer managed to convince all of the
ReplyDeleteanimals in the farm. One of the most important allegorical comparisons in the book was Napoleon, who in real life represented Stalin in the Soviet Union. Another example is with Old Major, the one who first introduced communism in the F arm. He was a fusion of Lenin and Karl Marx. My presentation actually was about Stalin and this made acomplete difference in the perspective with which I viewed Animal Farm because after having a good background about him, I could understand all the allegorical points in the book. Also my knowledge expanded with all the other political figures whom my colleagues presented in class and
who took part in these atrocities that lasted years. Hate, social instability and extreme poverty in Russia with the people disappearing because they talked bad about the government were just a few of their problems. I personally compare Animal Farm with the Soviet Union
and also with many other governments that are in the process or have done the same, like for example in Cuba which started out as communism
and turned out to be a dictatorship. Venezuela is another candidate because even though it has not become a communist country, many of the
traits that the farm showed are appearing every day more in this country. Lastly Animal Farm is a classic, which should be read by all
young adults to educate them about the past so it can be more probable for these things to not occur as often. Thank you, Mrs. L, for this
wonderful education, which was fun and interesting at the same time.
AS: In order to gain a better understanding and increase my knowledge of the historical and political considerations of Animal Farm, the interactive oral presentations were extremely helpful and necessary. The reason I think these interactive orals were beneficial is because each student related their George Orwell presentations and blended them to the difficult times in the USSR when communism had just began to formulate. What also proved to be helpful in the presentations was when students mentioned how Orwell was related to communism. Prior to the interactive orals in class, my knowledge on this topic was not vast. However, these presentations helped me decipher the meanings of some of the events in the book which were parallel to real historical events.
ReplyDeleteThe oral presentations made a great impact on my awareness of the political considerations; although I studied the Russian Revolution in middle school, we didn’t go into the depth of the topic; just the basic facts. A large amount of the allegory in Animal Farm helped me increase my knowledge of the Russian Revolution. For instance, I learned about the major individuals and leaders during the Russian Revolution such as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Karl Marx was probably one of the most significant individuals because he was the one who created and had the majority of ideas for communism. Therefore, on the orals and through my reading, I realized that Old Major represented Karl Marx. Old Major was the one who proposed the idea of Animalism. Another example of the book corresponding with real humans in history is the character Napoleon, who symbolized Joseph Stalin. They were both treacherous leaders who used their military force (in the case of Animal Farm, the dogs) to intimidate the other animals/people to switch over to their side. The orals greatly aided me to comprehend which of the animals corresponded to the political individuals in history.
Throughout the oral presentations, my historical considerations also developed a large amount. Learning about Orwell’s past was enormously useful since it helped me understand the many reasons why Orwell was influenced to write Animal Farm in an allegorical form. By many impacting events during the book I was able to make connections in history such as one of the battles in the novel, representing a civil war in in the Russian Revolution. One of those events was the Bolsheviks defeating the opposing forces, which in Animal Farm referred to the animals defeating the humans and Mr. Jones when they returned to take control over the farm.
IC: I believe that the oral presentations were necessary for my overall understanding of Animal Farm by George Orwell; this is due to the fact that, although I studied the Russian Revolution and Communism in Russia two years ago, I could not remember the subject clearly. The oral presentations helped me refresh my mind on the subject and also teach me more of it; for example, I did not know George Orwell lived in Burma or even that he was a police officer. This gave me more insight abut his life and how it influenced him to write Animal Farm. The orals also helped me to further identify each character and event in the book with the people and events involved in the Russian Revolution and in Communist Russia. However, I believe that the most important thing that the orals caused me to do was to reflect on all the different types of forms of government mentioned in the orals - communism, socialism and capitalism. In conclusion, the orals were probably the best resource we could have had to complement the reading of the book.
ReplyDeleteYS: Learning background allegorical information about Animal Farm was very enjoyable since it gave me better understanding of the book. First when I started reading the book, I just read through events without any interpretation, but once I learned about Russian Revolution and people associated within the revolution, it surely gave me better understanding of the story. Also I was astonished by Orwell’s skill to turn such an event into a book, replacing characters and story lines with the animals' revolution on a farm, with characters representing remarkable people in the event. I researched about Karl Marx, and there was so much about Communism I didn’t know about. Nowadays, communism is considered a failure and frightening, maybe even a sign of evil, but all Marx first wanted was to bring adecent life to proletarians, which is also allegorical in the book where first what all animals want is decent life, but some animals start to get avaricious. Also the background information on Orwell also helped me to learn how he was inspired and what formed his view towards the Russian Revolution. In the end of the book where the pigs start to walk on two feet, I realized that they had lost what they have stood up for completely, as they clearly have stated “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy”, and I don’t really know what happened after the Russian revolution but from this, my guess is that after the revolution, proletarians became bourgeois themselves, as they enriched their lives while the poor suffered.
ReplyDeleteVF: The oral presentations for Animal Farm were very useful to us because they helped us understand what the book was really about. Had we not been properly introduced to the topic of the Russian Revolution, the book would have had no allegorical value, which would mean there would have not been much of a reason for us to read it. In an allegory the allegorical significance of certain characters or events is the most important part and the background presentations not only helped us understand them but also helped us relate to the characters not as animals but as the real people they represented. An example of the allegorical significance of a character in the novel is Snowball being Leon Trotsky, for people who knew the Russian Revolution this would have been obvious because of Trotsky and Snowball both being exiled and fighting for power. But I had very little background knowledge on the topic before the presentations, so I wouldn’t have been able to figure that out. Also the information in the oral presentations about the author George Orwell was important in fully understanding the book. Knowing that he was against the Communist regime in Russia tells the reader that he is going to be biased about it, so you know it’s not a very accurate source for information about the Russian Revolution.
ReplyDeleteBut knowing that Orwell was disposed to favor the Russian Revolution but then changed his mind when he saw how the Soviet leaders actually behaved and treated the people might help us to see some of Orwell's views as valid, no?
DeleteCJ: CJ: The presentations undeniably helped me further understand Animal Farm. I understood the gist of the story, how it was anti-Communist, on my own, but the presentations really enlightened me to detail that I completely missed. Who the animals symbolized was what I thought was the most ingenious element Orwell had in his story. For example how Old Major signified Karl Mark. The presentations also enlightened me to how the separate events throughout the book represented real events in history. The story was comparable to a timeline how you fit all the pieces together and related them to history. For example how the first animal revolution can be compared to Bloody Sunday and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The presentations also taught me many other things. The Communist Manifesto can represent the painted commandments; dictators in in real life based their beliefs off these rules, but eventually changed them for their own benefit. Napoleon represents Stalin in a way that he banished Snowball (Trotsky), he changed Russia’s national anthem (like Napoleon changed Beasts if England), and he executed many people for being disloyal as Napoleon did. It was also interesting to hear George Orwell’s history because this was a crucial part to how he became such anti-Communists, and this eventually led to him to write this extraordinary tale.
ReplyDeleteEF: I found that the background presentations were extremely helpful when trying to learn more about George Orwell and Animal Farm. First, they really helped my understanding of allegorical significance better. When I read the book in 5th grade for fun, I really didn’t understand the gist of the allegory. These presentations really helped me connect better. For example, after I saw Vincenzo’s presentation about Leon Trotsky, it really helped me make that connection that Snowball was supposed to be Trotsky. In the beginning, I thought that Snowball was more related to Lenin; however, after I saw all the presentations I was able to realize that almost every character was related to a figure in the Russian Revolution. Furthermore, the presentations about Orwell’s background really helped me understand about why he would want to write this book. It was great to learn about his life because we didn’t just look at the book as another book; we looked at it like a social statement. It was cool to know that he worked for the British Raj and that could have been a big reason why he wrote the book. In conclusion, even though that this book was not extremely challenging we really were able to go deep into it and really understand more about. This made reading it a lot more exciting!
ReplyDeleteDG: Since the moment in which our (not for long) English substitute introduced the idea of making power points about the historical background on both Animal Farm and George Orwell himself, I knew these presentations were going to be very informative and presented in a way simple enough for us to understand and enjoy. Like I predicted the orals presented by my classmates taught me a vast amount of information that really helped me not only understand but actually enjoy Animal Farm much more than I would, had this information not been delivered to me in such a simple manner. The first day, most presentations, as I recall them, were about government types, such as Communism and Socialism; one of them also talked about Karl Marx one of the “founders” of both Communism and Socialism. I was glad these went in this order because on the first day I was able to concentrate and learn more about the government types, their rulers, their principles, and how these played different roles in Animal Farm, as opposed to how harder it would’ve been to learn about this, had it been presented on different days, with out of topic presentations in between. The presentation order wasn’t as convenient on the other days as it was on the first, but I was still able to learn a lot. I especially remember Orwell’s journalism career and his wild adventures in Burma as a policeman. These two presentations also intersected when Orwell wrote "Shooting an Elephant" while in Burma, but this was as also a very important text for his career. Overall the orals presented expanded my knowledge on political and historical considerations present in Animal Farm tremendously, and without them I wouldn’t have understand much of what I did in Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteXA: XA: Animal Farm is a book written with the purpose of showing how a totalitarian government has a lot of complications, which in comparison to the others, in my point of view, is the worst. The presentations that were given before reading the book made the book more interesting because we were able to understand the history behind it, and the purpose. The use of animals makes the book more interesting because each animal represents an important character in the history of communism, for example, Snowball is a pig that gets exiled by Napoleon, like Trotsky after the Russian Revolution by Stalin. The character that I liked the most was Boxer the horse, because he represents the proletarians, and what happens to Boxer is the betrayal of the working class in Russia. The failed attempts of making the Russian Revolution successful are very well portrayed as the Windmill. The Windmill represents how the USSR made such magnificent buildings for industrial purposes that most of them were only to glorify that the country could build such buildings. In conclusion, the presentations were useful to understand the book, and the investigation about the book led to curiosity about how the book was narrated. The animals revolted against the farm like the humans revolted against the Russian Revolution.
ReplyDeleteCVA: I am not the greatest reader or analyst, but I did see a clear resemblance of the communist party and beliefs in Animal Farm. Thanks to the orals I saw the clear resemblance of the characters and the communist leaders. I learnt that Lenin and Karl Marx were like Old Major, because both of them started or initiated the idea and ways of communism. Karl Marx wrote literally wrote the principles of Communism, and Lenin expressed them. I also learnt a lot about Germany and Communism in between the World Wars, because up until now I only knew the basics of WW1 and WW2. Like Stalin, the Russian dictator after Lenin, was worse and deadlier than Hitler; he killed and was responsible for many more deaths than Hitler, which I find incredible because of all the Jewish deaths in the concentration camps by Hitler. There were also the characters that didn't represent one person but a group of people. Boxer, the strongest most hardworking horse and member of Animal Farm, represents the working class or people of the Communist nations. They work and work, but end up exactly like Boxer, betrayed. In Animal Farm, there was also the representation of the intelligent leader that worked for the people and wanted to achieve true communist views of equality, like Snowball. Throughout the book I could clearly see the resemblance and allegory of the book and the current events and views of Communism, and I was able to see these thanks to the more broader knowledge on the background thanks to the orals.
ReplyDeleteLM: I think that if it weren’t for our presentations we did in class, we wouldn’t have understood well Gorge Orwell’s book. At first, I didn’t know anything about Karl Marx and in the book Major was Karl Marx. In the book you can see how Major (as Karl Marx) proposes the idea to the animals, called animalism, like Karl Marx when he introduced the idea of communism in his book Manifesto. This fact, for example, I would not have known if it had not been for my presentation about communism. In the book Gorge Orwell tried in a way to describe what the world was and is going through; the only difference is that instead of people, there are animals and the idea is Animalism instead of communism. Major introduces the idea to the animals and it seems like a good idea and an easier way to control everything, but then when they put the idea to action and try it, everything comes out wrong. In the farm everything goes out of control and it becomes a total chaos. This can relate to the real world when Marx introduces the idea of communism. It seems like a good and easy idea and people decide to take communism to action. After, everything comes out wrong, like Cuba, a country that is under a communism government. I also believe that what Orwell meant by writing this book was to explain that Karl Marx’s idea wasn’t bad, it only was only executed in the wrong way and this is why all this chaos happened in Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteMR: The book Animal Farm written by George Orwell has the purpose of comparing real world events and people to animals and events that took place in the farm where all the animals lived. The presentations my classmates made helped me understand and relate characters and events in the book to things they had explained during class. The presentations that most helped me understand the books were the presentations related with people and their lives because it helped me relate this people and things they had done in their lives to some of the animals in Animal Farm. Some of these animals were Napoleon (Stalin), Snowball (Trotsky), Old Major (Karl Marx, the person that started communism), Squealer (the persuaders that tolled people that everything the government did was right) and Boxer (the hard working people that sacrifice for the government). Some presentations that also helped me were the ones that explained communism, nationalism and fascism because they helped me understand the concept of Animalism and where it came from; I was also able to relate some of the routines they had in the farm with some of the rules of this three governments. In conclusion, I was able to understand the book better and I was able to read smoothly and faster knowing some background on people and events that my classmates explained. Also to conclude, the presentations helped me understand how the animals represented the proletariat population by revolting against the humans and their farm.
ReplyDeleteYM: Before the oral presentations that were given in class, my interest in Animal Farm was acute and I tried my best to understand what was going on. After listening in class, I have started to realize the further meaning of the plot. Meanwhile making my presentation, I was connecting my topic with the plot in Animal Farm, and then I started having a different view in the story. I started to view the rebellion of the animals against Mr. Jones as the fight for independence in India. Later on in class, all the presentations about communism and socialism, as well as their leaders, started to take over my mind and changing the way I read Animal Farm even further. I started to compare Animalism with Communism since it had the same concept. I started comparing the main characters with the people associated with Communism, such as Karl Marx being Old Major, Joseph Stalin as Napoleon and Trotsky as Snowball.
ReplyDeleteEverything started to make more sense and I could really see what George Orwell was trying to express and tell everyone. In my point of view, I imagine that George Orwell was trying to let everyone know what is actually going in the communist government, how everything is not going as it is supposed to. An example to enforce my idea is the “perfect world of equality” that Karl Marx was talking about. Karl Marx described communism as a government that would make everyone equal with equal rights and fortune. His suggestion for communism was accepted by many leaders, but they were followed differently therefore not meeting Karl Marx’s standards. I really enjoyed the book especially when I understood everything, and I appreciate the oral presentations for that.
HR: The interactive oral presentations were very helpful in the matter of increasing my understanding of the political and historical considerations in Animal Farm. The interactive orals were helpful because at first Animal Farm was interesting, but there were times when I didn't understand how the story was an allegory to communism in the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteThis confusion was quickly taken care of when I finished my presentation and when I saw the interactive orals about Stalin and Karl Marx. These three presentations helped me because I understood that Old Major's dream was, basically, a communist farm; the presentations about Stalin and Marx helped me understand that their roles in communism were portrayed by Snowball and Napoleon. Afterwards everything in the story started making more sense; this is because once I knew who each character represented the actions they committed seemed more logical and were easier to understand.
Also the interactive oral presentations were helpful because they gave me a lot more background of the context of communism in the USSR and all around the world; this is something that Animal Farm does not do.
In conclusion I believe that the interactive oral presentations were very helpful in the matter of understanding a very good book.
NG: Unlike most of the books that we read this year, without a doubt Animal Farm was the most allegorical. Therefore, without the background knowledge from the oral presentations the history-demanding book wouldn't be as easy to understand. Besides providing just historical information the orals also provided political information, and political views from different continents and countries such as from the delegations of the U.S.S.R and all the way to the diplomatic representatives of the Indian nation. But one of the most important political views that were expressed a lot in the orals were Orwell’s opinions, which would be the most important when reading his works. For instance a few things that he showed were things such as the demonstration of the war between the proletarians and the bourgeoisie. Even though this was a very small example, it was big enough to ridicule the Soviet government, which was Orwell’s original intention. Another thing that I learned from the orals was that Orwell was a very emotional novelist, because each book was written off expressed emotion; everything he felt he wrote about. This element made him a unique and stronger writer. And that is one of the reasons that Animal Farm is still recognized for being of the greatest books even today.
ReplyDeleteAM: History has always been a great interest for me; however, I enjoy it when the history is incorporated into the story like Percy Jackson. Which is exactly why I really liked this story; I don’t really know a lot about what was happening in Russia in that time period but with Animal Farm and the background orals I feel like I know a lot more than I used to know. One of the reasons that I think I understood so much was because of the oral that I chose. I had to investigate about Joseph Stalin, because most of his personal life closely related to what happened in the big picture. So by having to investigate about him I found out a lot. However even though Animal Farm in an allegorical representation to what happened in Russia, it was related enough that I could see how they were telling two stories at the same time. But was also different enough that without having an excess of knowledge about what happened with Russia at that time, which, in my opinion, made it more enjoyable. The only thing that confused me a little about the book was how fast paced it was. Animal Farm told a very long story in very few pages. Therefore I felt like in a turn of a page the whole book would change, not giving me time to get accustomed to what was happening. Apart from that, I found that this book and the way it was presented to us (with the background orals) was a great way to learn about this dreaded period in time in Russia.
ReplyDeleteEM: My classmates did very well because now I have the understanding of historical and political considerations of Animal Farm, which were developed very well through the interactive orals. At first, I did not understand the book very well. The Communist Manifesto made me think of characters that were Proletariats or Bourgeoisie. In the end all the animals were proletariats and all the humans (and the pigs standing on two legs) were Bourgeoisie. But then after the orals, it made me think about how communism was trying to take over, just as the animals. The oral about Stalinmade me realize what characters were allegorical political leaders. Mr. Jones's farm was taken by overworked, mistreated animals that wanted equality with them and the community. Boxer, the horse that was a very hard worker, hurt his legs, which made me think about all the people that were against but under communism and were having to work through it (Proletariats. He suffered and then died for animalism. The animals were idealistic because they don't like to be mistreated just because they're animals, so they created a paradise of progress, equality and justice. This book made me reflect on Russia when Stalin was in power years before, and it caused me to think about Russia and how the animals were being treated just like the people. I think that if someone like Stalin became the leader again, Animal Farm by George Orwell will be a message that will be inside people's minds to refer them back to how communism was in Stalin’s, Hitler’s, and Mao Zedong's (etc.) hands.
ReplyDeleteAT: Throughout all the presentations, I was able to acquire a better understanding of Animal Farm in many ways. First of all, since my topic was to research about the concept, meanings and examples of allegories, immediately I was able to connect many political ideas such as the main one of the Russian Revolution with the ongoing rebellion that was presented as a fictional event in Orwell’s book. Moreover, I had the opportunity to connect many of the characters of the book with political individuals such as having the Major as Marx, who was the one that introduced the principles of communism in his book “Communist Manifesto”; meanwhile, he expresses these principles in an allegorical way through his speech towards the animals in the farm. Additionally, with the help of the presentations I was able to recognize and contrast many historical battles, such as having the Battle of the Cowshed representing the Russian Civil War in which Tsar Nicholas II and his men were overthrown by the Bolsheviks who gained control of Russia, which gives a real background to every detail of the story. Furthermore, I didn’t only learned about the political meaning of the novel, but also a more human meaning, since for me the novel suggests not only the point of view of George Orwell towards politics, but his beliefs of how the human beings can be so ignorant and follow certain individuals just for the necessity and human instinct of following a leader and being guided though a path.
ReplyDeleteGS: During the summer after 8th grade and going into 9th, my mom mentioned the book Animal Farm to me and told me that I was going to read it for 9th grade English. I then decided that I wanted to get it out of the way, so I just read it over summer. While reading it, I thought there was so significance to the book at all and it was just one of those stories that had a meaning but didn’t contain any allegory at all. The interactive orals really showed me another side of Animal Farm that I never realized was there. I started realizing that George Orwell actually put his opinions and ideas about the history of communism in this. Throughout the orals, I realized that all of the characters were actually just important figures in the history of communism. It taught me of how Stalin took over from Trotsky and also how the ideas of communism started with Marx and Engel. My oral was on communism and instead of writing it on the ideas of communism, I made it about the history of communism and its most important founding fathers. I believe this actually taught me more because I made the comparisons even more about the characters and communism in the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteYJH: I found that the orals done by my classmates strengthened my apprehension of historical and political considerations of Animal Farm. Historically, I was able to connect Napoleon as Joseph Stalin and Snowball as Leon Trotsky. Stalin wanted to make communism stronger within the territories they already attained, which is similar to Napoleon wanting to increase food production steadily rather than introducing a new technology. However, Trotsky thought that spreading their idea to other areas was necessary. Nevertheless, just like Napoleon, Stalin used his position to exile his rival and soon, claim his idea as the legitimate one. Furthermore, throughout the novel, Orwell put Napoleon as the antagonist who usurps the farm. This setting is an allegory of Orwell criticizing Stalin’s murderous political apparatchiks. Presentations about politics also helped me interpret Animal Farm. Before the interactive orals, I thought that Socialism and Communism were the same concept. However, I discovered that Communism included violence, which led to the thought that the political system changed after the climax which is Snowball being exiled. Before the event, animals hated humans and used violence when they came back. This allegorizes Communism. However, after Napoleon’s reign, the leaders mingled with each other, which can represent Socialism. Therefore, the interactive orals broadened my thoughts and allowed me to comprehend Orwell’s intention of writing the book.
ReplyDeleteOdlT: The interactive orals gave important information to enhance the learning of Animal Farm. The orals gave us information to infer in the book so the story can be understood. Animal Farm gives brief explanations of what really happened in real life. Without knowing the background knowledge, we would probably think it was a regular novel, with no objective. In my opinion, the objective of the novel is to transmit the effects of communism and how it does not work in practice. Without the background orals we would probably not get the point of the novel. In my opinion, the most important mechanism that the background orals gave us was the author’s opinion of communism and what he is trying to communicate to us through the book. With the background orals, we could understand the main fact in this book is about the Russian Revolution Stalinism. The background orals gave us the opportunity to understand (maybe in a funny, easier way) what happened during the Russian Revolution, the “creation” of the USSR and some events of the Second World War. Another important aspect that the orals gave us was the information about communism, fascism, and socialism. This helped us understand each of the ideologies with the characters. We can also see the relationship that fascist governments that usually call themselves communist. In conclusion, the background orals helped us understand the happenings of WWII and different ideologies “established” during that time.
ReplyDeleteEO: Animal Farm is a book written by George Orwell. This book describes the time when the Russian Revolution took place and emphasizes how the leader’s actions were and how their governmental power was from the point of view of animal characters. The Animal Farm presentations helped me understand and visualize the book better because they explained that this novel was based on the Russian Revolution. The presentation that talked about Joseph Stalin made me realize that Napoleon, one of the main characters in the novel, wasn’t a fictional character; he was based on the Russian political leader. Napoleon’s transformation throughout the book and his behavior toward the rest of the animals is a detailed interpretation of Stalin’s personality and his actions during the October Russian Revolution. Stalin during his reign held various persecutions and executions of those who were opposed to his government. Like Napoleon in the novel, he executed animals who opposed him and his governmental ideals. Another example of how the listener can see the relationship between Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution demonstrated in the presentations is through the rivalry between Napoleon and Snowball which are represented by the historical figures of Joseph Stalin and Trotsky, when he expels him from the farm and puts all animals against him. Another presentation that helped was the one about Trotsky because it facilitated my way of seeing his characteristics in Snowball which helped me understand what his ways of acting and governing are.
ReplyDeleteTY: TY : The background orals that were given in class by my classmates helped me understand Animal Farm to a further extent both historically and politically. Before the presentations, I didn’t have a full understanding of what the book is about but that it is about the conflicts and rebellion that happen between the farm animals. However after the background presentations it was easier for me to understand certain ideas related to the book that I may have had doubts aboutor never heard of.
ReplyDeleteInformation about Orwell’s childhood and his life in Burma explained his purpose to criticize communism by relating it to the Russian Revolution and the reason why he would have decided to write Animal Farm. In addition, I was finally able to differentiate the three terms that I always got confused; Socialism, Communism, and Fascism, from the specific explanation by classmates gave us. Presentations about historical figures such as Czar, Marx, Trotsky, Stalin, and Lenin helped me understand the importance of them in the Russian Revolution and how each character in the book resembles each one of them. For example, Mr. Jones resembles Czar, Old Major as Marx and Lenin, Snowball as Trotsky, and Napoleon as Stalin. Not only do the characters resemble a person but they also stand for ideas or group of people such as Lenin’s propaganda and the selfish Russian citizens. In general, I thought it was nice to have background information before discussing about the book so that we have a better idea of what the book is about.
CAb: To understand better what was going on in the book, Animal Farm written by George Orwell, we were assigned presentations on George Orwell’s life, political figures, and ways of governing. These presentations helped a lot to understand the book because it was showing what also happened in real life, how people could get excited with power and try to rule everything. Also plenty of the animals represented famous political figures. For example Karl Marx and Lenin were Old Major, who was the first animal to introduce the idea to kick out the farmer. Another example could be the Battle of the Cowshed/October Revolution, which was when the farmers tried to come back to defend their land, but the pigs didn’t give up and they still fought. One of the main reasons that this book was an allegory of the Soviet Union because the pigs tried to kick out the farmers. They thought that the farmers weren’t good and that they treated the animals badly. So they kicked the farmer out and introduced this new way of controlling the farm which was called “Animalism.” After time the pigs started to get powerful and fight, so that made them all separate and had two different power groups. This was like the Russian government because the pigs did the same thing as the Bolsheviks; they tried to kick out the current power for the good of the people and introduce the new ways of governing which was “animalism” or in real life communism. And later the Soviet leaders got very powerful and made bad decisions and destroyed the whole government. From my point of view I think that the orals helped a lot to understand Animal Farm because it explained how it was related to real life and also expressed how power could be really dangerous. The presentations also helped a lot because without them I would never had thought that napoleon was like Stalin, because I would have those types of ideas. So this is why I think that the orals were very helpful.
ReplyDeleteGR: The oral presentations helped me a lot to understand the book “Animal Farm” because I got to understand the similarities between what happened in the real world’s history to what happened in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I didn’t know about some of the things said in the presentations, and they helped me to understand some of the thing written on the book. In a way, the novel is like a history book but with animals and not so accurate. It made me understand that some of the animals in the book are sometimes several people, like Snowball that could be Lenin and Trotsky or Old Major, who could be both Lenin and Marx. There is also Napoleon that could be Stalin and Boxer the hard working workers, the sheep like the people who believe everything that they are told and the dogs as the military.
ReplyDeleteCP: My understanding of Animal Farm changed thanks to the presentations seen in class, including my own; they helped me understand better how and why each action was made and for what reasons they were performed. With the different presentations I understood which animal represented an real person in Russia’s history and with simple facts about the October Revolution, and the conflict between Stalin and Lenin/Trotsky, it was easier to differentiate the behaviors of Napoleon and Snowball. Also by knowing how the other animals, like Boxer, represented the people who believed in communism and later were killed and mistreated. Also, learning about the author’s life, childhood, and point of view towards government helped with relating to the book so the ideas he wanted to express were almost understood. Sometimes with some presentations I was not able to get the ideas until I asked a relative or teacher who would explain a little further.
ReplyDeleteSB: The presentations that the students in Mrs. Lowman’s English 9 class gave on George Orwell’s ideas were of great help for my understanding of Animal Farm. As I read the book, I started realizing that each animal or group of animals represented a person or a group in the Russian Revolution. But there were a lot of animals I couldn’t link to anything until I heard the presentations. For example I didn’t know that the friction between Snowball and Napoleon was the same friction between Stalin and Lenin in the rise to power. This example is one of many parts of the allegory I learned from this presentation. Not only does this help understand the book, it helps you understand how humans in society work. It isn’t just in Russia that this happens; in Venezuela it is tending to turn this way slowly. If you take every communist government, there is one characteristic they have in common as a result. It is that all communist governments end up being the same type of government as the one before. To emphasize, Napoleon set the seven commandments so no one would be like Mr.Jones including himself. But at the end Napoleon does everything that Mr.Jones used to do: drink, sleep in a bed and live in his house. The presentations definitely helped me realize all the key facts I needed to understand the communist concept. Without the presentations in my opinion I wouldn’t have gotten the point of the allegory.
ReplyDeleteRB: The presentations that the students in Mrs. Lowman’s English 9 class gave on George Orwell’s ideas were of great help for my understanding of Animal Farm. As I read the book, I started realizing that each animal or group of animals represented a person or a group in the Russian Revolution. But there were a lot of animals I couldn’t link to anything until I heard the presentations. For example I didn’t know that the friction between Snowball and Napoleon was the same friction between Stalin and Lenin in their rise to power. This example is one of many allegorical interpretations I learned from these presentations. Not only does this help understand the book, it helps you understand how humans in society work. It isn’t just in Russia that this happens; in Venezuela it is tending to turn this way slowly. If you take every communist government there is one characteristic they have in common as a result. It is that all communist end up being the same type of government as the one before. To emphasize, Napoleon set the seven commandments so no one would be like Mr.Jones including himself. But at the end Napoleon does everything that Mr.Jones use to do, drink, sleep in a bed and live in his house. The presentations definitely helped me realize all the key facts I needed to understand the communist concept. Without the presentations in my opinion I wouldn’t have gotten the point of the allegorixL comparisons between some characters in the book.
ReplyDeleteCB: The presentations really helped me understand the book Animal Farm. Even though I did understand the book, without the presentations. I did not understand the background of the story. Adriana’s presentation on allegories made me understand the book so much better. In addition, investigating The Bolshevik Revolution helped me a lot. The presentations helped me associate the characters of the book with Vladimir Lenin, Nicholas II and many other characters. I also started to associate the order of the book's plot to the Bolshevik Revolution, the October Revolution and many other important events that occurred in the early 20th century. Finding out about George Orwell’s childhood and about his view about the government made me understand his point of view. I started to think about the reasons why he wrote the book, and the similarities between the book and actual history. I found the presentations really helpful in order for me to understand the allegory.
ReplyDeleteLR: In my point of view, my classmates' presentations helped me understand better the book Animal Farm. Because I could put these presentations as different ideas of the book and help me realize things that maybe before I couldn’t notice about the book. And with some of the “character” presentations I could realize about the fact that they were the animals in the book that were part of the Russian Revolution. And it didn’t just help me realize more, it also helped me get together some of the questions I asked myself as I was reading the book. Going on with help of the presentations I could also realize and understand better why and how the actions were taken and the type of things they did. And one thing that it helped me get clear was when it came to the different behaviors between Napoleon and Snowball. Last but not least I could say that what actually gave the push for me to understand the book and its meaning well was to learn about more about the author, his childhood, his family background and even his education and especially his different point of view about the government and how things were done. All gave me a good relationship with the book. As well of course during some presentations there were things that I couldn’t understand or missed, but overall they let me have a better and clear idea about this book and its themes.
ReplyDeleteDT: DT: My understanding of historical and political considerations of Animal Farm was greatly developed through the interactive orals. This topic was one which I was not very familiar with, so the presentations truly helped me with the understanding of the allegorical meaning of the book Animal Farm. The biographies on the leaders and important people of the revolution helped me to understand the characters of Animal Farm and who they represented. I enjoyed that the orals were made interactive, because this allowed the class to make questions on any doubts that they had after the presentation. My presentation was a challenge to make, since the topic, the Spanish Civil War, was something I was not familiar with at all. I found that the topic was very difficult to research on, but eventually I was able to come up with the basic information. The other presentations definitely helped me present my own, since they gave me even more background information to my presentation. In conclusion, the orals were very helpful to my understanding of Animal Farm and to my basic knowledge about the Russian Revolution.
ReplyDeleteRP: The presentations really helped me a lot to understand the overall novel. As we know that Animal Farm is an allegorical representation of the Russian Resolution, the background orals gave me insight into the history and further helped me to understand how it is connected to Animal Farm. After listening to the presentations, I was able to relate each character as well as events of the book to whomever or whatever they were based on. For example Old Major represents Karl Marx and also Lenin, as Old Major started Animalism on the farm, the same way Karl Marx was the founder of Capitalism in Russia. his speech at the beginning of ht enovel resembled Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. I learned a lot from the presentations, not only about the book and its allegorical meaning but also about many important people like Stalin, Karl Marx, Trotsky, Lenin, communism, fascism and socialism. I was not sure about the correct meaning of communism, socialism and fascism, but thanks to the presentations now I know. I also got some insight into George Orwell’s life and how he was influenced by the history, such as the Battle of Britain, his life in Burma and also more about his career and other influences. My topic was British imperialism, and as I researched about it, I got to know more about the history of Burma, India and more about the British rule and also how it is related to George Orwell and his book. All the presentations were quite interesting and helped me a lot to understand all the allegorical points of view of the book Animal Farm. I personally think that without the presentations I would not have recognized all the allegorical meanings in the book.
ReplyDeleteAT: I believe that the presentations prior to reading Animal Farm helped to further expand my understanding of the book. The background information on the history of the Soviet Union as well as the various forms of government allowed me to perceive the allegorical meaning of each character, ideal, and event. Making this an assignment in which we, the students, presented to each other I think helped us learn about each topic on a deeper level of understanding. This is because each person was focused on making his or her presentation interesting and intriguing for others to watch. Therefore it was more impacting to learn about each topic from each other as opposed to learning directly from a teacher. Overall, I agree that the background presentations were extremely helpful in the sense that they contributed to my understanding of the allegorical meaning and Orwell’s position on communism and the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteGC: The presentations given by my classmates on the background history surrounding Animal Farm were a huge help for me to deeply understand the book. Learning about George Orwell’s life all around the world led me to see a whole other perspective about the book. I had read this book two years ago in my old schoo,l and I knew nearly all the allegories involved in the book. The difference this time through the book is that I knew much more about Orwell’s life and biography making me understand better what Orwell meant inside the book and also what led him to write the book. The presentation on Orwell's years in Burma was really helpful in helping me know why Orwell wrote a book on oppression because he managed to live first person the oppression of the British Empire to the people living in Burma. This made me think that what he meant in the book was much broader than an allegory on only the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks. It made me look for more historical allegories of other governments instead of just looking for the classic representations of Napoleon – Stalin, Snowball – Trotsky, etc.
ReplyDeleteJCM: In our English class we were preparing ourselves to read Animal Farm, but before that we had to make presentations about some of the important characters in the Russian Revolution that can be associated with the characters in the story. These presentations helped us to have a better understanding of the novel and also to connect the animals in the story with the real people in the Russian Revolution. After we finished the presentations we had more information about George Orwell which is the author of the novel and the leaders that had importance in the political controversies in Russia.
ReplyDeleteThe author, George Orwell, wrote the novel Animal Farm toward the end of World War II. In my opinion his understanding of the war helped him to create the book and explain indirectly what happened, what caused it and how did it ended. The connections he made between characters like Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky and Snowball, Old Major, Napoleon are very difficult to find. That’s why the presentations about these important characters in the Russian Revolution made it easier to us to compare the similarities between them and the animals. As an example of these connections that George Orwell made between the animals and real characters I could see that Mr. Jones, who is the human in control of the farm, can be compared to the Czars that were in control of Russia in those times. The most noticeable similarity between them is that they didn’t care the way they should care about the people they ruled. For that reason in Animal Farm the animals started the rebellion against Mr. Jones as Lenin who was the leader of the Communist party started the Russian Revolution and took over the throne of the Czars. Lenin can also be compared to Old Major in some ways: in the book Old Major's skull is displayed in a similar manner to the way Lenin's remains were displayed to the public. Also Old Major spread the idea of having a rebellion against humans which Lenin also did but in this case against the czars.
RK: My understanding of historical and political considerations of Animal Farm developed quite extensively while the orals were presented in class. For example, before the presentations I was still struggling to know the difference between Socialism and Communism. I never heard of those words nor of Venezuela before I came to this country. I never lived in any Communist country before, but I’m guessing if I did hear of any, I would’ve been questioning it a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing how George Orwell made a whole book all from one small revolution on a farm, and it’s even more amazing that he made his characters animals too. It’s as if this idea struck him one day and from that point he started to improvise. I liked one particular presentation in which he compared the characters of the book to actual people who were part of the political situation in which George Orwell lived. It’s weird how he could do that perfectly.
JP: The oral presentations helped me a lot to understand the book because Animal Farm is an allegory of what happened in Russia between the years of 1917 and 1943, so to really understand the book and what it means we first need to understand the situation of Russia at that time. The book starts when the Old Major calls a meeting to tell all the animals that humans are taking advantage of them and that it is time to end their tyranny but that the only way of doing this is working; in general he is encouraging a rebellion. From here and from what we learn in the oral presentations we can deduce that the Old Major is a representative for Karl Marx. These thoughts that the Old Major manifests are the basic ideas of the Manifesto which was put down by Karl Marx; in general it just said that the problem with the capitalist economic system was that even if workers worked hard they couldn’t see the results because other people who owned the means of production claimed them. At the end the manifesto says: "The proletarians (common workers) have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of the world, Unite!" So just as in the book this is a call for a rebellion to change the system which is apparently not working; however, neither the Old Major or Karl Marx say how to change it.
ReplyDeleteRK: After listening to my classmates give their presentations, I started to read the book, and the presentations really helped me notice what character in the story was a famous leader in real life. The book didn’t say exactly who was who, but by listening to my peers talk about the different things that the book shows I was able to make connections between the characters and their actions to the real life leaders. Some quick connections I made were Boxer and the working class people. He was the one that idolized Napoleon and did all the work when others were slacking, and then when Napoleon was tired of him and his injury he simply got rid of him, symbolizing the communist leaders getting rid of people who didn’t or couldn’t work. Also Napoleon symbolizes Stalin, and many of his actions in the story match up similarly to what Stalin was doing in Russia during this time. Over all this help me understand further into the story and what was going on; when I read something and didn’t understand it I went back to listening to the presentations and then I made the connections and I understood more of what was going on.
ReplyDeleteSS: The different presentations of topics related to Animal Farm gave me a different and easier way to understand the book and what was happening throughout it, what all the different animal represented, and the different wars and new government ideas. The orals cleared and refreshed the different doubts that I had about the topics, for example, communism, which was the main problem that produced the different effects in the book. Karl Marx is represented by Old Major in the book, and I realize how obvious it was the moment that Karl Marx starts telling all the other animals in the farm how one day it could be controlled by animals, which is referring to the moment when communism was established and the “people” owned everything. Also things didn’t work out the way it was expected communism would, because everyone was supposed to be a part of it and not kill each other. In the book the animals that weren’t capable of doing their job on the farm anymore were killed because they weren’t helping. Although I had an idea about the topic of the book, the different orals cleared all the doubts and helped me understand the book in a better way.
ReplyDeleteLO: Animal Farm is precisely an allegory, which has in itself various symbols that represent people and crucial moments that occurred in Russia and Europe in the early and mid-1900’s. George Orwell historically depicts mainly what happened in Russia after Tsar Nicholas ll’s fall. But if we read this book without having at least some prior knowledge of its background, we would not be able to understand it fully. That is why the orals that we watched and the information we gathered ourselves was so useful to fully comprehend the story and message in Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteAs we know, the book represents different characters in the Russian Revolution history with animals (or few humans). Listening to the presentations given by my classmates before we even started reading the book, I believe that my understanding of the historical events that Animal Farm is based on increased greatly. For example, after finishing the first chapter and beginning the second, I could already start making some analysis ol the characters, like Mr. Jones being the Tsar Nicholas ll, or Old Major as Karl Marx, and his ideas of Communism (Animalism in the book). As the pages turned, more and more of the characters and happenings in the book started to get a meaning in real life.
In conclusion, the orals that we listened to and annotated prior to starting the book helped me very much. Not only did they give me the chance to understand Animal Farm on a more intense and deep level, but they increased my knowledge of Russian history and of Communism.
JP: I think that the interactive orals were necessary before reading Animal Farm. Because of the interactive orals, I could make sense of what was happening in the book much sooner than if the orals hadn’t happened. From the start, I could point out characters that I thought represented a real life person or thing. The orals helped me further understand what happened in the book and cleared up the metaphorical writing of George Orwell in his book Animal Farm.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started reading the book, I realized with ease that the events fit in with the events that happened in Russia at the time. For example, when Old Major talks to the farm about his dream, I could immediately tell that was Karl Marx thanks to the in class presentations. Also, later on in the book, the presentations helped me link the happenings and have moments where I understood perfectly what was going on.
The interactive presentations made me understand things that I would not have known before, like Snowball representing Leon Trotsky. Before the presentations I knew very little about Trotsky and I would not have been able to link Snowball with Trotsky. It was when I analyzed Snowball’s behavior and linked everything in a timeline that I realized the strong connection between these individuals. For example, both Snowball and Trotsky became the enemies of Joseph Stalin. In the book Stalin is linked to Napoleon. Also, Snowball is exiled from the farm, like Trotsky, something I learned from the presentations.