Animal Farm CONTEXT

1. Royal Family were imprisoned, then exectuted
   1. Mr Jones - the previous 'ruler' was evicted from the farm
2. Russia changed its name to the USSR - United Socialist Soviet Republic
   1. Manor Farm changed to Animal Farm
3. Religion was supposed to be banned but it was eventually tolerated. Karl Marx called religion "the opium of the people" meaning it kept them docile and controllable.
4. Animal's revolution

Annotations:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

1. Lenin died in 1924
   1. Old Major dies before Animalism is established
2. Political theorist - created Leninism - a form of Communism nased on the writings of Karl Marx
   1. Old Major invents Animalism
3. Old Major

1. means 'Man of Steel'
2. Responsible for 22 million deaths
   1. Napoleon Says he kills because the animals that committed a crime deserved to be punished but he may have just been killing for entertainment
3. Wanted absolute power
4. Distorted communist ideal of a 'Worker's Paradise' to a brutal dictatorship
   1. At the end, Napoleon is complemented on the way that he treats the animals with disrespect and only gives them what they need to survive.
   2. 'All animals are equal but some animals are more equal that others' was the last edited rule of animal farm which showed that the pigs didn't even mind if anyone else knew that they were purposefully giving themselves privileges that the other animals didn't have and could treat them like lower beings.
5. Nepoleon

   Annotations:

   • ytyty

1. Not allowed to Lenin's funeral
2. A good public speaker
3. Interested in education
4. Exiled by Stalin
   1. Was chased away by Nepoleon
5. Snowball

1. Stalin tried to dramatically improve and restructure industry, agriculture and infrastucture
   1. Demanding productivity targets were set
      1. Rise of the Cult of the Worker Hero - Praising those who follow the party line and try to exceed targets
         1. 'Animal hero first class' and 'Animal hero second class' is introduced for animals that have shown outstanding courage or commitment
      2. Not meeting targets was blamed on treachery or sabotage
      3. Chickens were forced to give Napoleon their eggs for the market against their will because of the lack of money. when the chickens tried to voice their displeasure through a miniature protest, their rations were cut off and many starved to death. The three hens that led the protest were executed later in the book
   2. 1928-34 Problems of production arise, with many animals dying and people going hungry
      1. Stalin controls the media and misreports productivity and employment figures
         1. George Bernard Shaw -the socialist author of Pygmalion was given a stage-managed tour of USSR and so misreported back to the West

            Annotations:

            • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw
            1. Mr Wymper was shown the animals working happily, well selected animals that didn't look so undernourished and the feed bins which had been filled with sand and covered by the rest of the grain so create the illation that they were full and animal farm was thriving
         2. Squealer tells the animals that times are better than when Jones was the 'ruler' but really they weren't
      2. The animals are working hard and going hungry. Some die of undernourishment
2. The Windmill

1. Creates the Ministry of Persecution
   1. Nepoloeon's dogs
2. The 'Purges' were incidents when Stalin would remove people who disagreed with him
   1. In 1934 there was a Party Congress where over 2000 attendened. In 2 years, over 1000 of the participants were dead
   2. Many of the animals were killed because they confessed to doing something that they probably didn't under Snowball's Influence. Napoleon tries to kill Boxer as he is seen as a threat but fails.
3. Napoleon got rid of Snowball and tried to get rid of Boxer (before his injury) because they were seen as a threat to his power.

1. Privately Educated at Eton
   1. Rejected privilege and became a writer and journalist
      1. Wrote Road to Wigan Pier (1937) about working families in the North of England in poor mining communities
      2. Went to Spain in 1936 to fight for the communists against General Franco - a fascist. but disliked Stalin's influence on the communist troops who began to turn on their own members. Wrote Homage to Catalonia (1938)
      3. Wrote Animal Farm - A Fairy Story as an allegorical satire to criticise Stalin's methods (1944)