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Bell Work: In your journal:. What makes a good leader? In your notebook/journal list the characteristics of a strong leader. Animal Farm : Introduction. English II McLeod. Meet George Orwell. Born 1903 in India as Eric Arthur Blair
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Bell Work: In your journal: • What makes a good leader? In your notebook/journal list the characteristics of a strong leader.
Animal Farm: Introduction English II McLeod
Meet George Orwell • Born 1903 in India as Eric Arthur Blair • “Lower-upper-middle-class” family; moved to England when he was one • Attended private school; joined Imperial Indian Police when denied a scholarship; quit after years of service to write • Decided to live the life of the hopeless and downtrodden for subject matter • Became a journalist and a socialist; remained skeptical of government and its power • Most famous for Animal Farm and 1984: visions of modern governments’ dangerous power • Died of turberculosis at 46
About Animal Farm • A simple, yet multi-layered story published in 1945; Orwell horrified when placed on children’s shelves • Tells the story of Farmer Jones’ animals who rise in rebellion to take over the farm • Asatire and allegory about Russian Revolution; message still applies today • Speaks against the exploitation of the weak by the strong • Explores how language can be used to control minds
Russian Revolution Background • Capitalism thrived in mid-1800s Russia at expense of poor, discontented populace who toiled 14-16 hours a day • 1847: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, German philosophers, commissioned to come up with plan for improvement: Communist Manifesto, which says capitalism unstable, revolution inevitable • Bolshevik party formed, led by Vladimir Lenin; overthrow Czar Nicholas II (Nicholas the Bloody); set up Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) • 1924 Lenin dies; sparks battle between Leon Trotsky, a Marxist, and Joseph Stalin, head of Communist Party • Stalin gains control; sends Trotsky into permanent exile (assassinated in Mexico) • Stalin work towards economic growth, but not well-planned; results in famine of 1932-33 in which millions died • Stalin purges country of anyone who opposes him, sets up secret police (KGB); millions executed, tortured, deported during 1930’s • Totalitarian regime of forced labor and no freedom until Stalin’s death in 1953; USSR officially dissolved in 1991
BELL WORK:In your journal… • “All that glitters isn’t gold.” What does this saying mean to you? Have you ever experienced a time when you were disillusioned by someone or something that you thought was “gold?”