Allegory & Literary Concepts
This term means a story that uses symbolic characters and events to convey deeper meanings.
Answer: What is an allegory?
George Orwell’s real name.
Answer: Who is Eric Arthur Blair?
This animal gives the inspiring speech that starts the rebellion.
Answer: Who is Old Major?
The last Emperor of Russia before the revolution.
Answer: Who is Czar Nicholas II?
A newly created word or phrase.
Answer: What is a neologism?
Giving human traits to animals or objects is called this.
Answer: What is personification
Country where Orwell was born before moving to England.
Answer: What is British India?
Mr. Jones often fails to do this basic chore.
Answer: What is feeding the animals?
This dictator broke his neutrality pact with Stalin by invading the Soviet Union.
Answer: Who is Adolf Hitler?
A biased or misleading message used to persuade the public.
Answer: What is propaganda?
In an allegory, this is what characters or events typically represent.
Answer: What are larger moral, political, or spiritual ideas?
Orwell served in this police force early in his life.
Answer: What is the Imperial Police in Burma?
Old Major says humans do this to animals.
Answer: What is exploit (use them unfairly)?
Government type where one leader has total control.
Answer: What is totalitarianism?
The working class, or the group being exploited in political writing.
Answer: What is the proletariat?
The technique of using one thing (like a farm) to stand for something bigger (like a country).
Answer: What is symbolism?
This major political event inspired Orwell’s passionate criticism of fascism.
Answer: What is the Spanish Civil War?
Orwell was inspired to write about a farm after seeing a boy whipping this animal.
Answer: What is a huge cart-horse?
This Soviet system used propaganda to influence the public.
Answer: What is the Soviet Press?
A government ruled by one person with absolute power.
Answer: What is a dictatorship?
Work together: Explain why allegories are powerful tools for criticizing governments. Use examples from the real-world and history.
✔ Your answer should explain:
What allegories allow authors to do
Why indirect criticism can be safer or more effective
How the story of the animals represents real people
Answers will vary. Class should help to vet answers.
Example Response:
1. Allegories let authors criticize real governments without naming them directly.
For example, instead of writing about a real leader who abuses power, an author can use a character—like a greedy king, a strict robot, or a powerful animal—to represent that leader. This allows the author to show what’s wrong without pointing to one specific person.
2. Indirect criticism can be safer and more effective.
In history, people who spoke out against leaders were sometimes punished. Using an allegory makes the message less obvious, so authors can point out unfairness, corruption, or abuse of power without getting in trouble. This also helps readers think more deeply because they have to figure out the hidden message.
3. The story of animals can represent real people and real situations.
For example, hardworking animals might stand for everyday workers, while a bossy or controlling animal could represent a ruler or dictator. By showing how the animals are treated, the author can point out how real people are treated in society or under certain governments.
Discuss: How did three major experiences from Orwell’s life shape the themes of Animal Farm?
✔ Choose THREE from:
Growing up in the British Empire
Working in Burma
Fighting in Spain
Witnessing Stalinism
Seeing propaganda firsthand
Explain the connection between each experience and a theme in the novella.
Answer's will vary. Class will vet answers.
Example Response:
1. Growing up in the British Empire influenced Orwell’s focus on power and inequality.
As a child in the British Empire, Orwell saw how one group controlled others simply because they had more power. This connects to the theme in Animal Farm that leaders can become unfair and create systems where some groups have privileges while others are exploited.
2. Working in Burma showed Orwell how authority can be abusive.
When he served as a police officer in Burma, he witnessed the British government mistreating local people. This helped shape the theme of corruption and abuse of power in the novella—similar to how the pigs begin to control and take advantage of the other animals.
3. Witnessing Stalinism helped Orwell understand the dangers of dictatorships.
Orwell studied how Stalin used fear, violence, and lies to stay in control. This inspired the theme of totalitarianism in Animal Farm, where a leader gains so much power that no one can question them. The animals’ society slowly becomes just as controlling as the government they tried to escape.
As a group, explain:
Why is a farm the perfect setting for Orwell’s political message?
✔ Consider:
Power
Labor
Class systems
Control
Exploitation
Provide at least three reasons backed by examples.
Answers will vary. Classmates will vet response.
Example Response:
1. A farm shows power differences clearly.
For example, the farmer is the one in charge, and the animals have to follow whatever the farmer says. This makes it easy to show how one group can have power over another.
2. A farm shows how labor can be exploited.
Animals do all the hard work—pulling heavy loads, planting, harvesting—while the farmer collects the food and profits. This is a strong example of exploitation and unfair control.
3. A farm naturally has different groups or “classes.”
For example, some animals are stronger (like horses), some are smarter (like pigs), and some follow the group (like sheep). This helps show hierarchy and how different groups can be treated unequally.
Work with your group:
Create a chart matching at least 4 real historical figures or groups to their allegorical representations in Animal Farm.
Explain why Orwell chose each comparison.
**Note-This should be based on your memory of the slideshow**
Answers will vary. Responses will be vetted by the class and teacher.
Example Response:
Joseph Stalin--->Napoleon (the pig) Stalin became a dictator who used fear, violence, and propaganda to stay in power. Napoleon represents how a leader can start with good intentions but slowly turn into a controlling, oppressive ruler.
Leon Trotsky-->Snowball (the pig) Trotsky was an intelligent leader who wanted rapid progress but was forced out by Stalin. Snowball represents the leader who is blamed, chased out, and used as a scapegoat to keep others afraid and obedient.
The Working Class / Proletariat-->Boxer (the horse) Boxer represents hardworking citizens who are loyal, honest, and strong but often exploited by those in power. Orwell shows how rulers take advantage of the labor and trust of ordinary people.
The Soviet Propaganda Machine-->Squealer (the pig) Propaganda in the USSR was used to twist the truth and convince people to believe lies. Squealer symbolizes the voice of propaganda, spreading persuasive messages to control the animals’ thinking.
As a team:
Choose three vocabulary words (e.g., propaganda, proletariat, neologism, totalitarianism).
Explain each term in your own words, then provide an example from Animal Farm or real history.
Your explanations must show:
Understanding of the term
Correct real-world or literary example
Clear reasoning
Answers will vary. Classmates and the teacher will vet responses.
Example Response:
1. Propaganda
My explanation:
Propaganda is information that is spread to make people think a certain way, usually by showing only one side of the story. It often uses emotional language, slogans, or half-truths to control what people believe.
Example (Animal Farm / history):
In Animal Farm, Squealer uses propaganda when he keeps changing the Seven Commandments and then tells the animals they are “remembering them wrong.” In real history, totalitarian governments used posters and speeches to make their leaders look perfect and to hide their mistakes.
Reasoning:
This shows propaganda because the goal is not to tell the full truth, but to convince the animals (or people) to obey and stop asking questions.
2. Totalitarianism
My explanation:
Totalitarianism is a type of government where one leader or one group has complete control over everything—people’s actions, the media, even their thoughts. Citizens have little or no freedom.
Example (Animal Farm / history):
In Animal Farm, Napoleon turns the farm into a totalitarian state. He uses the dogs to scare the animals, controls the rules, and doesn’t allow anyone to disagree with him. In real life, leaders like Joseph Stalin used secret police, censorship, and violence to keep power.
Reasoning:
This shows totalitarianism because there are no real choices, no fair voting, and no way to challenge the leader without being punished.
3. Proletariat
My explanation:
The proletariat is a word that means the working class—the regular people who do most of the physical labor but usually don’t have much power or wealth.
Example (Animal Farm / history):
In Animal Farm, Boxer the horse represents the proletariat. He works harder than anyone else and always says, “I will work harder,” but he never becomes a leader or gets rewarded fairly. In history, factory workers and peasants in the Russian Revolution were part of the proletariat.
Reasoning:
This shows the idea of the proletariat because Boxer does all the work that keeps the farm running, but the pigs (the leaders) are the ones who get the comfort, food, and power.