Lesson 11
Interpreting a Character’s Role – In what ways have the characters of Animal Farm changed or not changed as the story has developed? How are their evolutions as characters important to the story and its allegorical meaning?
We will examine the concept of a character’s evolution and consider how various characters have or have not changed. We will then write a new first-person narrative vignette in which our character tells the story of a key scene from the book.
Lesson Goals
Can I discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings of text?
Can I analyze how my character has evolved throughout the narrative?
Can I use sentences from Animal Farm to practice writing first-person sentences and draft first-person narratives from my character’s point of view?
Texts
Core
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- Animal Farm, George Orwell, Signet Classics, 2004
Materials
Tools
Reference Guides
Question Sets
Editable Google Docs
Activity 1: Discuss
We will consider how characters change (or don’t) within a narrative and how their evolution is connected to conflicts and themes in a story.
Step 1
Access a list of guiding questions about characterization on page 19 of the Narratives Reference Guide. Review key questions and think about how they relate to Animal Farm and the characters you have been focusing on.
As a class, consider the concept of evolution in a character—the character’s change or lack of change within a story, its causes, and its importance. Consider this general guiding question from the list:
How do the characters change (or not change)? Why?
Step 2
Select an example character not being studied by a character team and discuss whether the character has changed within the story, why, and what the meaning of the character’s evolution (or lack of) might signify.
Discuss two words that are sometimes used to distinguish characters and how they change: static and dynamic. Consider the example character you previously discussed and which of these terms you would use to describe the character.
Suggest examples of characters who seem to change a lot within the narrative (are dynamic) and those that do not (are static), and why both might be important within the story’s allegory.
Activity 2: Discuss
We will examine book cover images depicting Napoleon and discuss how artists interpret details from the book.
In the context of your discussion of dynamic characters, and specifically Napoleon, return to the book cover images you viewed earlier using the Animal Farm Cover Art resources.
Examine (again) the cover art images that begin the collection (1 and 2), noting that they are mostly benign cartoons of Napoleon as you might have viewed him early in your reading.
Now examine the second set of images (3 and 4) and describe what you see in response to these questions:
What key details do you note in the depiction of Napoleon?
What do the details and image suggest about Napoleon’s character and role in the story?
How do the details and image suggest a change in Napoleon (or your view of him) as he evolves during the narrative?
Activity 3: Discuss
In character study teams, we will analyze the ways in which our character has changed (or not changed) within the first nine chapters of Animal Farm. We will share the first-person narrative vignettes we wrote for homework and identify key scenes in which our character is depicted or involved.
Step 1
Rejoin your character study team and discuss these general guiding questions about character change:
How and why does our character change (or not change) within the story of Animal Farm?
Why might our character’s evolution be important within the story and its allegory?
Step 2
In light of your team’s discussion, read and discuss the first-person narrative vignettes you wrote in the previous lesson that depict a key scene or development in Chapters 8 or 9. Consider this question as you review each of the vignettes:
Does the first-person narrative vignette suggest that our character has changed or not? What details indicate this?
Step 3
Using your Character Note-Taking Tools and other notes from previous reading and discussion, make a list of the key scenes and developments in Chapters 1–9 of Animal Farm in which your character is depicted or involved.
Discuss whether the character is changed or stays the same within each scene and how your analysis is supported by details from the text.
Activity 4: Write
We will identify a key scene involving our character, reread it, and find key details about our character’s presentation, involvement, and change. We will form a claim about our character’s involvement in a key scene.
Step 1
Individually, select a scene from your team’s list that you think is interesting or tells you something about your character.
Find the scene in your copy of the book and reread it. Look for specific details about what happens and your character’s involvement or reaction.
Step 2
Using one of the tools you previously used to help you read a passage from the book more closely, record and analyze the key details you identify, and develop an observation or claim from them.
Attending to Details Tool
Analyzing Relationships Tool
Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool
Activity 5: Write
We will practice translating and rewriting a key mentor sentence from one of the passages that involve or depict our character, in preparation for writing a longer first-person narration of the scene.
Step 1
Review the details you have analyzed, and the claim you have formed about how you think your character might have viewed and reacted to the scene you have selected. Reread the scene again.
Select one or more key sentences that directly involve or describe your character from the scene you have selected and reread them closely. Note the following:
Key visual details and descriptive words
Nouns and pronouns (in third person) that serve as subjects of the sentence or present characters that are involved
Step 2
For each sentence you have selected, use this process for rewriting the sentence as a first-person narration.
First, translate the key third-person nouns or pronouns that identify your character into first person, leaving the rest of the sentence as it was.
Step 3
Next, think again about the “voice” you have tried to develop for your character in previous first-person narrative vignettes. Try to use this voice and present your character’s thoughts as you now rewrite and enhance the descriptive sentence.
Note: You may need to bring in details from other sentences in the passage.
Step 4
Join with a discussion and review partner from your character study team. Explain how you have thought about the scene you selected and then how you translated and rewrote a key sentence from the scene.
Read each of your new first-person sentences aloud and review them considering these questions:
Is the sentence consistently written in first person, and does it describe what happens from your character’s point of view and voice?
Does the sentence suggest how your character views the events of the scene and what their effect on the character might be?
Activity 6: Write
We will imagine how our character might have viewed the key scene we identified and analyzed, and we will draft a first-person narrative vignette in which the character describes or tells the story of the scene.
Step 1
Again, review the details you analyzed, and the claim you formed about how you think your character might have viewed and reacted to the key scene you selected.
Brainstorm and then draft a first-person narrative vignette in which your character describes or tells the story of the scene, considering the following:
The details from a key scene you have analyzed
Your interpretive claim
What you think about your character
If helpful, use the process you practiced previously as you think about how to first translate the sentences in the passage from third to first person, then rewrite and enhance the passage, incorporating your character’s thoughts and point of view.
Think about the voice you developed for your character in previous first-person narrative vignettes—which you have communicated through word choices that match your interpretation of your character.
Based on whether or not you think your character has changed, decide if you will try to use a similar voice or alter it based on your character’s evolution within the story.
Step 2
Join with a discussion and review partner from your character study team. Explain how you have analyzed the scene you are depicting in your narrative vignette and how that is connected to the way you have had your character narrate the scene.
Read each of your draft first-person narrative vignettes aloud and review them considering these questions:
Is the vignette consistently written in first person and does it tell the story from your character’s point of view?
Does the vignette suggest how your character views the events of the scene and what their effect on the character might be?
Does the vignette establish the character’s voice in a way that suggests the degree to which the character has changed (or not)?
Is the vignette connected to and consistent with how you have analyzed the scene, its importance, and the character’s role in it?
Activity 7: Read
For homework, we will continue to think about our character as we read the final chapter of Animal Farm, which presents the story’s resolution or denouement.
Read Chapter 10 of Animal Farm. As you read, continue to think about the character you have been studying and how that character might view the events that make up the story’s resolution.
Consider these text-specific questions:
Following the climactic scenes in Chapters 8 and 9, what is the resolution of the story in Chapter 10? What happens, and how does that finalize the story’s plot and allegory?
How might your character have reacted to what the animals see as they look through the farmhouse window in the final scene (or as the character participates in the scene, if it is a pig)?
Record new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.