Section 2: Overview

Orwell and the Historical Context for Writing Animal Farm

Why and how did Orwell satirize the historical and political context in which Animal Farm was written?

We will learn about totalitarianism in 20th-century political history, Soviet communism under Stalin, and Orwell’s beliefs and responses as represented in his allegory, Animal Farm. We will continue to focus on questions and themes about the power of language to control information, manipulate truth, and gain power. In that context, we will study speeches from the novel in terms of their use of claims, rhetorical devices, and logical fallacies. Considering the new understanding we have gained, we will rethink our interpretation of the allegory and characters’ roles in it, and we will draft a first-person narrative that depicts and retells key events in the story from a chosen character’s point of view.

• Lesson 1:

  Totalitarianism – What is totalitarianism and why did Orwell react against it through the allegory of Animal Farm?

  We will engage in a K-W-L activity to learn about the socio-political concepts of totalitarianism and authoritarianism and rethink our interpretations of Animal Farm in light of these concepts. We will examine an essay by George Orwell that expresses his beliefs called “Why I Write.”

• Lesson 2:

  Historical and Political Context – How did Joseph Stalin rule over a totalitarian state in the postwar Soviet Union, and why did Orwell write Animal Farm as an allegorical denunciation of Soviet Communism?

  We will learn about 20th-century political history in Europe and Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution, and Joseph Stalin’s rise to absolute, totalitarian power in the Soviet Union. We will consider allegorical connections within the plot and characters of Animal Farm and rethink our understanding of its meaning.

• Lesson 3:

  Symbolic Chatacters – How might we understand, depict, and view the characters we have studied closely in light of their historical corollaries and their symbolic meaning in a totalitarian society?

  We will examine various visual representations of characters in Animal Farm in terms of their historical counterparts and reconsider how our selected character might fit into a historical interpretation of Orwell’s allegory. We will develop a new interpretive claim about our character’s symbolic representation and role in the narrative and support it with evidence from the novel and our supplemental reading. We will also review the expectations of the Culminating Task.

• Lesson 4:

  Rhetoric – How do the pigs use language and rhetorical devices to manipulate the animals and maintain power in Animal Farm? How do their speeches represent the use of unsupported claims, overstatement, disinformation, and fallacious reasoning in a totalitarian or authoritarian state?

  We will examine speeches from Animal Farm to determine their perspectives, the claims they are making, the evidence presented to support those claims, and the speakers’ use of rhetorical devices such as overstatement in making their arguments.

• Lesson 5:

  Retelling The Story – How might our character view and retell the story of Animal Farm, considering the historical parallels satirized in its allegory?

  We will re-examine Orwell’s allegorical novel in terms of its plot development, connections to Soviet history under Stalin, and our character’s role in the allegory. With the help of the Animal Farm Storyboard Tool, we will begin to draft a retelling of the story, building from the firstperson vignettes we developed in Section 1 of the unit.

• Lesson 6:

  Writing a First-Person Narrative – How do I combine, integrate, and unify my storyboard plan with the narrative vignettes I have previously written to retell key events of the story from my character’s point of view?

  We will work to combine, integrate, and unify our storyboard plan with the narrative vignettes we wrote to draft a first-person narrative that retells the story of Animal Farm from a selected character’s point of v Working in a peer-review writing process, we will collaborate with partners to plan, draft, and review our narratives.

• Lesson 7:

  Portfolio Preparation – How can I compile the work I have completed in Section 2 to submit for the Section Diagnostic?

  We will prepare to write a reflective narrative for the Section Diagnostic by compiling our portfolio of evidence from Section 2.

• Lesson 8:

  We will write a reflective narrative that tells the story of our reading and interpretation of Animal Farm and our learning about the context in which it was written. We will explain the connections among our interpretation of Orwell’s allegory, our claims about our character’s symbolic role in the allegory, and our first-person retelling of the story. We will turn in our Section 2 Portfolio.

• Lesson 9:

  Section 2 Diagnostic Feedback – What can I improve based on feedback from the Section Diagnostic?

  We Will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

• Lesson 10:

  We will share the understanding we have gained through our independent reading and continue reading our texts.