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Year Ten English. with Mr Doherty. Mr Doherty’s Rules. 1. Respect each other and the teacher. This follows the universal ethos: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. 2. All of Mr Mott’s classroom behaviour rules apply to my lessons at all times.
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Year Ten English with Mr Doherty
Mr Doherty’s Rules • 1. Respect each other and the teacher. This follows the universal ethos: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. • 2. All of Mr Mott’s classroom behaviour rules apply to my lessons at all times. • 3. Homework shall be always accurately noted and subsequently completed. • 4. Bring the correct texts for each lesson and be punctual. • Detentions will be issued for failure to comply.
In this lesson we will: • recap Mr Mott’s lesson about power and fanaticism. • investigate Orwell’s background. • learn about the social and historical background of the period. • understand the concepts of allegory and fable. • begin reading and deconstructing George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Power and the Nazis • Hitler’s power was very much derived from a fanatical following. • Fanaticism - obsession without remorse or sorrow • Unaccountable power - corrupts. • Authority and power holders need systems of checks and balances. • Law, the public service, voters and opposition parties provide Australia with this. Not all societies, however, have been or are as fortunate.
Animal Farm • On the surface it is just a simple story with interesting characters and a riveting plot. We can enjoy it as a tale of a group of enterprising animals that struggle to become independent of humanity. • The tale celebrates the animals’ courage and commitment, even though in the end their successful toil comes at a high price.
This isn’t the reason the book has become part of our cultural mythology • Few people are unaware, when they initially embrace the book, that it is a book with a political and social message. • This book actually reveals George Orwell’s brilliant and insightful political voice.
George Orwell • Sadly, George Orwell is no longer with us. He passed away 56 years ago - 1950. • His fame is mainly based upon ‘Animal Farm’ and another book called ‘1984’. They are both indelibly etched into our culture’s social consciousness because of their powerful political commentary. • George Orwell was actually born Eric Blair - 1903 • He was schooled in English schools similar to BBC.
George Orwell Cont. • At the age of eighteen he joined the Imperial Indian Police. • Five years later he returned home and quit the police because he ‘could stomach no longer his role as an instrument of imperialism’ • Orwell then began a long association with socialism, which eventually saw him established as a committed political writer.
Allegory • The book works both as a fairy story about pigs and also as a social commentary on the rise of communism in the twentieth century. It is an allegory. • An allegory is a textual device in which characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning.
A Fable • Animal Farm is also a fable. A fable is instructional, often incorporates elements that are beyond the natural, and usually deals with characters and situations that are emblematic. Often animals are used to illustrate aspects of human behaviour. • Aesop’s fables easily exemplify how a piece of writing can contain more than one reading. They have been a source of guidance and wisdom for thousands of years.
An eagle and a fox AN EAGLE and a Fox formed an intimate friendship and decided to live near each other. The Eagle built her nest in the branches of a tall tree, while the Fox crept into the underwood and there produced her young. Not long after they had agreed upon this plan, the Eagle, being in want of provision for her young ones, swooped down while the Fox was out, seized upon one of the little cubs, and feasted herself and her brood.
The Fox on her return, discovered what had happened, but was less grieved for the death of her young than for her inability to avenge them. A just retribution, however, quickly fell upon the Eagle. While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to her nest.
A strong breeze soon fanned the spark into a flame, and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and helpless, were roasted in their nest and dropped down dead at the bottom of the tree. There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Fox gobbled them up. The message? Rule 1 - Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.
Animal Farm Cont. • Animal Farm is a fable that’s obviously a lot larger - content wise - than the fable of the fox and the eagle. It therefore contains a far greater amount of messages and possible readings. This is why it needs to be studied in detail, so naturally this is what we will be doing for the next month or so.
Communism • The text of Animal Farm relates directly to the emergence of Communism and the Soviet Union. • When Orwell published Animal Farm in 1945, there was a popular belief that the Soviet Union was an honourable nation. Orwell hoped to write a novel that exposed the murderous truth of the Soviet System.
Class Blog • Tenenglishwithdoherty • Vocabulary: • Ethos • Emblematic • Allegory • Imperialism • Indelible
