The exam question will always ask you to focus on

Transform:


Describe the story of the animal farm as a poem. Consider:
The structure of text.
When is utopia achieved (if ever)?
What happens at the start, the middle and end of the text?
What is Orwell showing through the circular narrative? Criticise: Communism.

Communists believe that equality can be gained through sharing property equally in society.
How does Orwell attack this ideal? Prioritise:

Themes – What are the themes in the play and how are they shown throughout the text? 'All animals are equal - but some are more equal than others’

When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.
'It is the history of a revolution that went wrong - and of the excellent excuses that were forthcoming at every step for the perversion of the original doctrine,' wrote Orwell for the first edition of Animal Farm in 1945. Orwell wrote the novel at the end of 1943, but it almost remained unpublished; its savage attack on Stalin, at that time Britain's ally, led to the book being refused by publisher after publisher. Orwell's simple, tragic fable has since become a world-famous classic.<br>

Transform:
Power is a social construct – explore the elements of power that the pigs manipulate throughout the text. Consider:

Place
Power
Law
People

What could you say about these elements in relation to the allegorical tale – Animal Farm? Criticise: The Pigs.

How might a Orwellian audience have reacted to the behaviour of the pigs?
How might a contemporary audience now feel? Prioritise:
Vocabulary choices by and for the Pigs.

What language do they use? What language does the omniscient narrator use?
What language do the other animals use? Extract from Chapter 3 to start with – use your knowledge of the whole text for all tasks

The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. Boxer and Clover would harness themselves to the cutter or the horse-rake (no bits or reins were needed in these days, of course) and tramp steadily round and round the field with a pig walking behind and calling out "Gee up, comrade!" or "Whoa back, comrade!" as the case might be. And every animal down to the humblest worked at turning the hay and gathering it.<br>

Transform: Summarise the advice Boxer gives to himself and the impact that this has on the other animals. Consider:
What does Benjamin imply about Boxer?
What can we learn from his silence throughout the novella?
What kind of impression do we get of him? Criticise: “Boxer is too good, too kind and too forgiving of the pigs”

Challenge this statement Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes about Boxer and Benjamin and explode them with:
Meaning/Effect
Exploration of the context that links & why
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Focus on context
Exploration of the connotations Chapter 3 extract

Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Jones's time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day's work began. His answer to every problem, every setback, was "I will work harder!"--which he had adopted as his personal motto.<br>

Transform: Create a bullet point list to show how the dogs help to take over the farm from collective ownership to a dictatorship. Consider:
Power
How is power manipulated through the dogs and what do they represent?
How do the sheep help maintain this power? Criticise: “Napoleon’s intent is clear and his continual manipulating behaviour is foreshadowed by Orwell”

Challenge this statement Prioritise: Napoleon (use your knowledge organiser to help you):
Meaning/Effect
Exploration of the context that links & why
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Focus on context
Exploration of the connotations Chapter 5
At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws. In a moment he was out of the door and they were after him. Too amazed and frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase. Snowball was racing across the long pasture that led to the road. He was running as only a pig can run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped and it seemed certain that they had him. Then he was up again, running faster than ever, then the dogs were gaining on him again. One of them all but closed his jaws on Snowball's tail, but Snowball whisked it free just in time. Then he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.<br>

Transform: Find examples of vocabulary that show Orwell is making a point about the dictatorial nature of the farm now and the unfairness on the animals. Consider:
The way Orwell describes the humans at this point in the novella and how this keeps the animals in check. What do the humans represent now? Criticise: The simile worked like slaves is deliberately placed at the start of Chapter 6

Challenge this statement Prioritise: The context of the novella – what is Orwell mimicking and criticising throughout the whole novella? Chapter 6

All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.<br>

Transform: Write a poem to show the examples of deceit that have become evident throughout the novella. Consider:
What were the original seven commandments and how do they have biblical significance. Also, how are they being broken throughout the novella? Criticise: The stupidity of the animals who represent the proletariat – they are as much to blame for the situation as Napoleon "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.“

Give your opinions and thoughts with evidence on this idea Prioritise: Deception

Find examples that the animals are aware that they are being deceived but cannot quite grasp this 100%

Explain which animal is the most aware and why? Chapter 8 extract

A few days later, when the terror caused by the executions had died down, some of the animals remembered–or thought they remembered–that the Sixth Commandment decreed "No animal shall kill any other animal." And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this. Clover asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment, and when Benjamin, as usual, said that he refused to meddle in such matters, she fetched Muriel. Muriel read the Commandment for her. It ran: "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause." Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of the animals' memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated; for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.<br>

Chapter 10

and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.
He carried a whip in his trotter.
There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything–in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticising, no matter what happened–they might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of–
"Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!" Transform: Create a summary of the story of animal farm and its allegorical significance reflecting all the events and the circular nature of events. Criticise: Napoleon and the pigs greed.

Explore how the pigs greed has made them exactly the same as the humans they usurped in Chapter 1. Consider:
What were Orwell’s intentions?

What is he warning society about?

How do the warnings fit with his own disillusionment with communism? Prioritise: What point in the novella is it evident that there is no going back for the animals and that they will be stuck in another unfair regime?<br>