Book Club

The Dystopian Novel

Animal Farm

A report by Antonio, Jaden, Carter, Chris

Reading Schedule (Put this in your notebook and leave a space to remind yourself to prepare)

Week 1: Setting

It happened In England, on a farm

It took place between 1917-1945

The setting contributes to the story because the farm represents containment or barriers to the outside world. The fences and the barn keep the animals from leaving.

Setting: Type of Control Used: Bureaucratic

The type of control exhibited so far has been Bureaucratic, seen due to the fact that the animals are being “governed” by the humans.

Week 2 : Main Characters

Mr. Jones: Owner of the farm and the antagonist.

Boxer and Clover: Huge Cart Horses, Boxer has a white stripe down his nose and is dumb but respected.

Snowball and Napoleon: Young pigs. Snowball is an intelligent and animated pig. Napoleon is a confident and egocentral pig. They can possibly be the protagonists of the story.

Benjamin: Donkey, oldest animal on the farm

Molly: Molly is a white colored horse. She is pretty but dumb. She refuses to learn the alphabet or anything that doesn’t involve her.

Major: Major was a pig around 12 years old. He taught the animals the “Beasts of England” song. Sadly he died but gave the animals courage to rebel

If you were casting in a movie, who would play these characters?

Major

Snowball and Napoleon

Dean Norris

Mr. Jones

Peppa and George

William Dafoe

Benjamin

Ian Mckellen

Character Foils (Who are the contrasting characters?)

Two contrasting characters in Animal farm are Major and Mr.Jones. Major does not like how Mr. Jones keeps the animals in captivity, but Mr. Jones continuous to do so.

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Week 3: Conflict

In the beginning of the story the conflict in the story was with the animals and the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones. Another conflict is that Snowball and Napoleon can agree on anything during their meetings they have. Eventually Mr.Jones attempted to take the farm back but failed. More conflict is risen when the windmill breaks and everybody blames it on Snowball.

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Week 4: Theme

The theme in Animal Farm can be about equality, inequality, power and control. Control can be shown by the fences that keep the animals from leaving. Power is shown by how Mr. Jones is superior to the animals in the beginning of the book. Equality is shown when the animals take over the farm, they say that all animals are equal. Inequality is shown by how later in the book even though the animals are all ëqual”the pigs get better treatment.

The message can be about the strive for more power and corruption. Napoleon is always wanting more power and this corrupts him. This was similar to the Russian Revolution in 1917 and how the Animal Farm is run on a dictatorship by the pigs.

Week 5: Plot

The plot in Animal Farm is the animals are tired of the humans controlling them and revolt and take over the farm. The animals start a society amongst themselves but is slowly starting to turn into a dictatorship by the pigs. The farm slowly starts falling apart and some animals start to leave like Mollie and Snowball. The previous owner, Mr. Jones attempts to take back his farm but fails and one of his men die in the process.

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Week 6: Conclusion

The Ending: How did this story conclude?

Pilkington and other human farmers come to eat dinner with the pigs at the farmhouse. As the other animals watch through the window, they find they are unable to tell pigs and humans apart. The pigs have started to dress and behave exactly like humans

Did you like the ending?

I don’t like the ending because it wasn’t the ending that I imagined and I thought the animals would’ve been free.

Week 7

Would you recommend this book? �Write your review here.

Do you recommend the book?

Yes I liked how Orwell made it easy to follow but still got his message across. You can see connection with history and how things can go wrong when power is abused. It’s a short book but a good read.