Thursday, December 2, 2010

Today, you were presented with a number of questions to answer. Each question needs to be answered in-depth (about half a page in length per question). These are due on Monday. I have attached them below:

Questions
1. "Surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?" Throughout the animals' reign on the farm, Napoleon and Squealer dangle the possibility of Jones' return as a constand danger, keeping most of the other animals in fear, and thus, submission. Do you think that this is a valid threat? Do you feel that, overall, the animals were better or worse off once they were in control of the farm?

2. Throughout the novel, the natural characteristics of each animal figure heavily in their motives and pronouncements. How do the actions of Napoleon (a pig), Boxer (a horse), Benjamin (a donkey) and the dogs and sheep reflect the traits normally associated with the animal? Do you feel that Orwell purposely chose certain types of animas to assume certain roles?

3. In one of the first scenes in the novel, Old Major sings Beasts of England, effectively bringing the animals together under a common purpose. Indeed, throughout the initial struggle against Man, it is a wildly popular and inspirational song. Yet later on, when the animals have successfully conquered the humans, Squealer, "attended by two dogs," announces that Beasts of England had been abolished and "was no longer needed." Why? Can you cite other examples where what was once held "sacred" and "necessary" to the common cause was later banished by decree?

4. The novel ends with a chilling passage, wherein Clover notices something odd about the humans and pigs meeting in the farmhouse: "Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. What is Orwell saying here? How do you interpret this final scene?

5. In reading Animal Farm, Lord Action's famous pronouncement "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" may come to mind. How asn why si this statement applicable to the course of events in the novel?

6. Among the various characters in the novel, whom do you feel is the noblest or most worthy? Which animal would be best suited to lead a group against Napoleon and the pigs? What qualities would this animal need to possess to do so?