Animal Farm: Chapter 1

1. Animal Farm: Chapter 1 • Recap learning: • What job did George Orwell have in Burma? • What did he first experience in Burma that made him always side with the working classes? • What war did he volunteer to fight in? • For what purposes did George Orwell write?

3. What function/job does a first chapter have? Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring. What first impression does the reader get of Mr Jones?

4. As you read the first chapter, pay attention as to how characters are introduced.

6. How do the pigs act as they prepare to listen to Old Major? What is the reader told about the raven? What does this suggest about the raven?

7. Foreshadowing:the presentation in a work of literature of hints and clues that tip the reader off as to what is to come later in the work. The writer gives the reader a hint--just a shadow--of something to come later in the story. . . . to plant clues, and to intensify the suspense. What predictions about characters and events do you have?

8. The Power of Oratory • In chapter one, Old Major speaks eloquently to the animals. • He reminds them of the way they are exploited and repressed • by humans. • Old Major uses the power of oratory: • to put forward his ideas and visions for the future • to persuade his audience about the ‘truth’ of his arguments • Oratory is inspired public speaking. An orator uses techniques such as: • Rule of three • Rhetorical question • Emotive language • Hyperbole • Repetition • imperatives

10. Great Oratory can help overcome tyranny; it can sometimes change the World. ‘I have dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.’

11. If we look around in the world where do we see women happy, well treated and satisfied unless where the world has been made what women wish it to be? Men are responsible if they allow the present condition of things to continue. Women have the power to work out their own salvation. But as it is, if a woman is ruined, if a child is injured, man is responsible for it all. It is a responsibility I would not care to have, and, as thing are, I would not be a man for all the world. If women fail as men have failed, then they will bear the burden with them. But since men cannot protect and shield us, let us share the duty with them, let us use our power so that women may be a participant, not to tyrannise over man but to take a share in the responsibilities of ruling, without which there is no real representative government. What we really are interested in in this fight is the uplifting of the sex and better conditions of humanity than men can secure. In the legal home there is but the man. What we want is the combined intelligence of man and woman working in salvation of the children of the race. This will make for the world a better time than ever before in history.

12. We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which generations to come will not be able to forgive. The sight of freedom looming on the horizon should encourage us to redouble our efforts. It is only through disciplined mass action that our victory can be assured. We call on our white compatriots to join us in the shaping of a new South Africa. The freedom movement is a political home for you too. We call on the international community to continue the campaign to isolate the apartheid regime. To lift sanctions now would be to run the risk of aborting the process towards the complete eradication of apartheid. Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way. Universal suffrage on a common voters' role in a united democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.

13. Not all orators use their power of speech for good. ‘The force which ever set in motion the great historical avalanches of religious and political movements is the magic power of the spoken word. The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.’ Adolf Hitler

14. "Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. "But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

15. Find examples of persuasive techniques in Old Major’s speech. Find examples of 1. Rule of three 2. Rhetorical question 3. Emotive language 4. hyperbole 5. repetition 6. imperatives