Animal Farm: Chapters 9-10

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

While it may seem easy to identify who are the animals and who is human in the picture above, George Orwell challenges readers to see animals representing human behavior in Animal Farm.

Orwell gives his animals human characteristics so they appear human-like. This technique is called "anthropomorphism." It is when anything that is not human is given human traits, such as speech, actions, thoughts, and feelings. For example, many people anthropomorphize their pets by giving them the same names as people and feeding them human food. Reflect on a time that you have anthropomorphized something:

• What was the object or animal?
• What human traits did you give it?

George Orwell anthropomorphized the animals in Animal Farm so they could represent the conditions in Russia since the Russian Revolution of 1917.

• Do you remember the term for a story that has a hidden meaning?

It is an allegory. Orwell used the allegory in Animal Farm to comment on the conditions in Russia. Orwell believed in socialism, but he thought that what was happening in Russia under the Stalinist regime was not in the spirit of socialism. Animal Farm was written in 1940, which was before the outbreak of World War II. At this point, Stalin had held power in Russia for sixteen years. He had created a totalitarian state where citizens were oppressed by the government and forced to do the government's will at all times.

To learn more about Orwell's political beliefs, read The socialism of George Orwell, by Tejvan Pettinger (Biography Online). As you read, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper:

• According to Orwell, what are the three main values of socialism?
• What defines a socialist society according to Orwell?
• What did Stalin want to do to all political parties who were not the Communist party?
• What problem would socialism fix according to Orwell?
• How is Stalinist Communism different from socialism according to Orwell?

Next, discuss your responses with your parent or teacher.

When you have finished discussing Orwell's socialist beliefs, you are ready to work on the final two chapters of the novel. First, you will need to define the vocabulary words for Chapters Nine and Ten. Write down the words from the following list on a separate sheet of paper. Then, look up the definitions in either a print dictionary or use Dictionary.com. After you've defined the words, write a sentence for each word using it correctly in the sentence's context. Share your definitions and sentences with your parent or teacher when you have finished them:

• poultice
• superannuated
• precincts
• stratagem
• demeanor
• interment
• rheumy
• morose
• taciturn
• filial
• insoluble
• deputation
• eminent
• incumbent
• dispelled
• malignant

After you’ve completed your vocabulary, take out your Animal Farm Reading Log that you have been keeping since the first lesson in this series. (This can be found in Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar.) You will fill in the answers to the questions for Chapters Nine and Ten as you read those chapters. Take out your copy of Animal Farm that you have been using in this series. It can be a print copy or you can use the digital copy of Animal Farm from george-orwell.org. Read Chapters Nine and Ten and answer the questions on the reading log.

When you have finished, move on to the Got It? section to check your answers.