Lesson 8

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • Animal Farm, George Orwell, Signet Classics, 2004

Materials

Tools

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• Animal Farm: Reading Schedule

• Vocabulary Journal

Reference Guides

• Irony Reference Guide
• Narratives Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Analyzing Relationships Tool

• Animal Farm: Section 1 Question Set

• Vocabulary Journal

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will consider the literary concept of irony and review the events and plot developments of chapter 6 in terms of the ironies they suggest.

Step 1

Review the concept of rising action in a story’s plot and how narrative events further complicate the story, its characters, its conflicts, and its themes.

Discuss this concept relative to what you have read in Chapters 6 and 7 of Animal Farm.

Step 2

Follow along as your teacher introduces or reviews the literary concept of irony, which is found in the Irony Reference Guide:

Irony involves contrast—a difference between what is expected and what actually happens or between what is apparent and what is real.

Irony can occur within the events of a story, play, or film, when what appears to be happening differs from what is actually happening.

Irony can also be conveyed through language. It can involve saying one thing but meaning the opposite, in order to shock or surprise an audience. It can also be the difference between the surface meaning of something that is said and the actual underlying meaning behind the words.

Step 3

Using the notes from your homework reading, list the major events and plot developments in Chapter 6, considering these text-specific questions:

1. What new details about the pigs and their evolving relationships with humans further complicate the story’s plot and your character’s situation?

2. What do you find troubling or ironic about the new developments of the story?

For each major plot event you have listed, discuss why it might be seen as ironic within the evolving story of the animals and Animal Farm.

Step 4

Make an entry in your Vocabulary Journal for irony.

As an illustration of the concept, choose one example from Animal Farm that you think is ironic. In your Learning Log, explain why you think it is ironic.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will do a close reading of several key passages from chapter 6 and discuss how they suggest irony within the story and what they might foreshadow as the story continues to develop.

Step 1

Reread the first two paragraphs of Chapter 6.

Discuss the irony found in the following two passages.

Passage 1 beginning with

"All that year the animals worked…”

and ending with,

“...thieving human beings."

Passage 2 beginning with

"This work was strictly voluntary…”

and ending with,

“...reduced by half."

Step 2

Discuss the building of the windmill and these questions:

1. How does the building of the windmill present "unexpected difficulties"? Why is overcoming these difficulties and putting their stamp on the setting of the farm so important to the animals?

2. In what ways will building the windmill change the setting of the farm and its meaning for the animals?

3. How is the windmill ironically a symbol of both inspiration and subjugation for the animals?

Step 3

As a class, discuss the ways in which Squealer has become an increasingly central character, and how his rise in influence is itself ironic.

With a reading partner, closely read one of two key passages in Chapter 6 in which Squealer plays a major role, as assigned by your teacher:

"Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals’ minds at rest…"

"‘You have heard then, comrades,’ he said…"

Consider and discuss these questions:

4. What is ironic about what Squealer says to the other animals?

5. What might Squealer’s explanation foreshadow as the story develops further?

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will do a close reading of a key passage early in chapter 7 in which the voice telling the story seems to shift.

Step 1

Turn to a key paragraph early in Chapter 7 that begins:

"Suddenly, early in the spring…"

Discuss this question:

1. In what ways does the voice and perspective of the narrator seem to have changed in this paragraph?

Step 2

Follow along as your teacher notes several aspects of sentence structure and wording that indicate a different narrative voice:

• The use of a passive voice verb in the sentence "an alarming thing was discovered."

• The use of an exclamation point at the end of the phrase "...frequenting the farm by night!"

• Another passive voice construction in the sentence "Every night, it was said, he came creeping in…"

With these sentence structure clues as a backdrop, return to a discussion of the text-specific question about changes in the narrator’s voice and perspective.

Step 3

Now read a parallel passage that occurs two pages later, is told in Squealer’s first-person voice, and begins:

"‘Comrades!’ cried Squealer, making little nervous skips, ‘a most terrible thing has been discovered…’"

Notice that Squealer is now sounding the alarm and telling the story himself, but that he again uses passive voice ("has been discovered") and very similar phrasing.

Step 4

In a class discussion, consider how you have followed the story of Animal Farm through the narrator’s detached third-person voice, how this changes somewhat in Chapter 7, and how Squealer has increasingly become the "voice" of Napoleon in framing the story for the animals.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will do a close reading of a key passage in chapter 7 that represents the animals’ reactions to snowball’s supposed treachery and the sacrifice of animals accused of collaborating with him.

Step 1

As a class, discuss what happens following Squealer’s revelation of "a most terrible thing" that "has been discovered" regarding what he characterizes as Snowball’s continuing treachery.

Share your reactions to the scenes that follow and to "the cruel retribution" that follows the confessions of animals seen to be in league with Snowball.

With a partner from your character study team, discuss how you think your character might have viewed and reacted to those scenes.

Step 2

Turn to a key passage in Chapter 7 that begins:

"When it was all over…"

With the same reading partner from your character study team, closely reread the three paragraphs that follow, up until the sentence:

"And he moved off…"

Consider again how your character might have viewed and thought about the scene that is described.

Activity 5: Read – Write

We will do a close reading of a key sentence in chapter 7 and practice writing in first person with our character’s point of view.

Step 1

Closely reread the following sentences from the first paragraph you just read from Chapter 7 beginning with

"The animals huddled…"

With your reading partner, notice the contrast between the first, very long sentence—which includes a list of the animals involved, set off by dashes—and the second, very short sentence.

Step 2

With your partner, translate these sentences from third- to first-person narration, maintaining their sentence structures but using the persona and voice of the character you are both studying.

Step 3

In a class discussion, share the first-person narrations you have developed from this scene and explain what you visualized when reading this passage and how you have represented your character’s reactions to it.

Activity 6: Read – Discuss – Write

We will listen to a reading of the closing paragraphs of chapter 7 and discuss the ironic contrast between the utopian vision of Animal Farm and the dystopia it has become. We will write about the utopian-dystopian contrasts.

Step 1

Set up an Analyzing Relationships Tool to examine the closing paragraphs of Chapter 7, considering one of these two text-specific questions (as assigned by your teacher):

1. What vision is conveyed by the key details of Clover’s "picture of the future" as she recalls it and by her resolve to "remain faithful"?

2. What contrasting picture is conveyed by the key details of what the farm has become, when "no one dare[s] speak his mind"?

Step 2

Listen as your teacher, a classmate, or another reader dramatically reads the closing paragraphs of Chapter 7, beginning with the sentence:

"The animals huddled about Clover, not speaking."

As you listen and read along, look for key details related to the text-specific question you have been assigned. Record and think about them on your Analyzing Relationships Tool.

In the final section of the tool, write a sentence that responds to your question (Question 1 or Question 2) and summarizes what the details you have identified suggest about Animal Farm.

Step 3

As a class, return to the concept of a utopia, which you discussed previously. Using your Analyzing Relationships Tools for Question 1, identify evidence in the final paragraphs of Chapter 7 that describes the utopia that the animals had envisioned following Old Major’s speech. Share the observations you have developed at the bottom of the tool.

Now discuss the antonym for utopia, the concept of a dystopia. Using your Analyzing Relationships Tools for Question 2, identify evidence in the final paragraphs of Chapter 7 that describes the dystopia that Animal Farm has become by the end of Chapter 7. Share the observations you have developed at the bottom of the tool.

Activity 7: Discuss – Write

We will discuss and then write about the contrast between Animal Farm’s utopian vision and dystopian demise.

Step 1

In a final discussion of Chapter 7’s ending, consider this text-specific question:

1. How does the banning of “Beasts of England” and its replacement by the new anthem written by Minimus symbolize the transition of Animal Farm from its utopian vision to its dystopian reality?

Step 2

In your Learning Log, individually write 1–2 paragraphs in which you discuss how Animal Farm was at first a utopian vision and has now become a dystopia for the animals.

Refer to specific evidence from the end of Chapter 7 (or elsewhere in the text) to explain and support what you have concluded.

Activity 8: Write – Read

For homework, we will finish writing our explanations of the ironic tension between utopia and dystopia in Animal Farm and begin reading chapters 8 and 9.

Step 1

For homework, finish writing your 1–2 paragraph explanation of Animal Farm as both a utopia and dystopia. Remember that you should refer to specific evidence from the text to explain and support what you write.

Step 2

Begin reading Chapter 8 of the novel, considering this question:

1. In what ways does the rewriting of the Seven Commandments of Animalism symbolize what has happened to Animal Farm and underscore the irony of its transition from a utopian vision to a dystopian reality?

Record new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.