The Official LitNet AF homework help thread - get your answers here!

[osamabanana]

hmm i was thinking while doing my assignment about the name napolean. im sure it was no coincidence that he had the same name as napolean bonapart. any link there perhaps what do we all think?

[The Atheist]

Maybe some of them did provide some informations to KGB, but those were exceptions. Thousands and thousands were tortured nd killed for not cooperating with KGB.

Exactly. My understanding was that the KGB took the initiative in seeing that those ones who were removed were replaced by ones friendlier to the party aims?

My brother was reading Animal Farm in time of learning about 18th century history on his History classes. So when I asked him some Orwell's questions who looked me strangely...I really don't see purpose of reading Animal Farm before learning 20th century history.

I think it can be a great introduction to that part of history in itself. The problem with 20th century history is that it's so vast compared to other eras that different countries have different agendas and the Russian Revolution may be dealt with cursorily anyway. I know our own history (a few millennia ago!) lessons were so British Commonwealth-biased that I didn't really know much at all about the rest of the world from my lessons.

Maybe schools need to look at where Orwell fits into high school English nowadays - the Revolution itself is nearly a century old and of course has been replaced by a more recent, more peaceful revolution. (so far)

hmm i was thinking while doing my assignment about the name napolean. im sure it was no coincidence that he had the same name as napolean bonapart. any link there perhaps what do we all think?

Good spot. Orwell contains few coincidences, if any, and naming Napoleon is quite deliberate.

The accepted theory is that Napoleon Bonaparte did a very similar manoevre in hijacking a revolution for his own ends and Orwell saw the opportunity to pour some hot sauce on the legend of Napoleon. Makes perfect sense to me.

I think Orwell had a bit of an agenda about Napoleon Bonaparte and wove it beautifully into the story. The legendary picture of Napoleon the man is that of a great, brave general, but Napoleon the pig is a cowardly, manipulative character - note the Battle of the Cowshed and how Napoleon's cowardice in hanging back was quickly replaced by the legend of his heroism.

Two for the price of one, I guess.

[bazarov]

Exactly. My understanding was that the KGB took the initiative in seeing that those ones who were removed were replaced by ones friendlier to the party aims?

Bishop is replacing them, not KGB, so KGB was helpless in those situations. Priests were very very rarely friendly to Party, church was always a symbol of fight and hope against Party.
Today, in worlds majority, number of priests is falling, many believe that it's because they ''don't have to fight or show their disagreement against someone or something''. That situations is most serious in ex communist states, mostly in Europe.

[aldana]

My brother was reading Animal Farm in time of learning about 18th century history on his History classes. So when I asked him some Orwell's questions who looked me strangely...I really don't see purpose of reading Animal Farm before learning 20th century history.

I DO believe that teaching something of the 20th century history is somewhat essential in approaching the reading of Aninal farm...I did precisely that with my students. Before even starting with the reading itself...we had a somewhat thorough introduction on historical background both for the author and for the russian revolution and following events in history.

I must say that they were really into it...because they had already seen general 20th century history in other subjects, so they knew quite a lot about the topic and were able to contribute in the discussions.


But there still were a few points that proved to be really specific of the russian history -hence my question regarding moses as a symbol of church- and sometimes it's nice to hear different interpretations on the sybject.

I must say this forum is extraordinary...everybody is so willing to help and contribute with their ideas!!!! it's fantastic!!!

I have to confess that i'm a big fan of Bazarov and The Atheist's views...THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE WITH ALL OF US!!!

[katie9trent]

This is great stuff!

[igsozted]

i`m writing an analysis on this novel. could you guys help me cite the social and political issues found in the novel and in what chapter it appears. thank you.

[The Atheist]

i`m writing an analysis on this novel. could you guys help me cite the social and political issues found in the novel and in what chapter it appears. thank you.

If you start with the first post of this thread and just keep reading, I'm pretty sure you'll find all the answers - nearly everything in Animal Farm relates to social and political issues and we have them laid out above.

Enjoy!

Edit: Obviously, if there are more questions after that, give us a couple of specific ones.

Cheers

[bazarov]

Indeed...
Nice location!

[The Atheist]

Indeed...
Nice location!

I figured it was appropriate!



.

[RickyLPH]

Well hello, I have an IGCSE Coursework to do on Animal Farm, "What strategies do the pigs use to suppress the other animals on the farm?"

And help or ideas anyone please???

[The Atheist]

Transferred from the forum:

Well hello, I have an IGCSE Coursework to do on Animal Farm, "What strategies do the pigs use to suppress the other animals on the farm?"

And help or ideas anyone please???

Psychology/disinformation to begin with - "Who wants to see Jones back?" "Surely, none of you want Jones to return?" along with the reports on how much better things are since the revolution than before the revolution. Changing the commandments. All mirror tactics of those used in Russia.

Because simple disinformation & propaganda camapigns can only go so far, other methods are needed to ensure power continuance - enter the dogs. The dogs are the KGB (more correctly, the OGPU, in Orwell's day, I think) and they keep dissent down by instilling a climate of fear and state violence - the animals have seen their kin massacred, they now understand that to show dissent is to die.

[The Atheist]

Well hello, I have an IGCSE Coursework to do on Animal Farm, "What strategies do the pigs use to suppress the other animals on the farm?"

And help or ideas anyone please???

Just to keep it all in the one place, I've answered this in the AF homework thread, at the top of the forum page.

Or, you can just click this link!

[RickyLPH]

Thank you...

It really helped, i didn't get the Dogs idea. But i got the rest thnx...

[frostedflake]

Help Me Please!

i am so confused!

thank you all soo much!

[The Atheist]

I am wrighting a paper for my av. english class & the teacher asked me to compair and contrast the setting of Animal Farm to todays's modern world.

Ok, this is easy:

When Orwell wrote Animal Farm, the Russian Revolution was long in the past, >20 years, and was written against the backdrop of WWII. Orwell notably didn't seek to have the book published until he was sure Russia/USSR would survive the war.

Orwell wanted to point out what he saw as the evil in Stalinism and his brand of totalitarianism - quite rightly as history showed. The world situation was one of enormous upheaval, almost every country having just finished its involvement in WWII, and the political landscape of the world was changing rapidly.

Because Orwell wanted to cover the period from the Russian Revolution in 1917, through to the end of WWII, in 1945, he started Animal Farm at a time just before the Revolution - say about 1914 - 1916, a time when Russia had major problems with famine, the tragedies of WWI and a ruler - the Tsar - who behaved very much as Jones does in AF: aloof, uncaring, selfish. The Russian people rose in revolution exactly as the animals did in AF.

Compare that to today:

The world is largely stable, apart from a couple of [historically] minor conflicts, at present. Those conflicts will not change the shape of the world, WWII certainly did. The USSR no longer exists and has been gone for over 15 years, which I'm guessing is most of your life? Russia is a country at peace with itself and its neighbours and it has the appearance of a democracy.

Today, famine is largely the domain of developing nations, so Orwell would find it very hard to simulate the happenings of Manor Farm and relate it to a particular country or philosophy.