Animal Farm Background Information:
Please click on the following links to access videos and take notes:
Russian Revolution (1917)
Ten Minute History- The Russian Revolution
Animal Farm Notes:
Connections Between Animal Farm and Communist Revolution
Click on the following link and, as you read, answer the following questions for each chapter:
Animal Farm Reading Guide Questions
STUDY GUIDE FOR SHORT RESPONSE TEST QUESTIONS:
Directions: For each of the following quotes, answer each question with as much detail and
insight as possible:
a. To what incidents is the
b. What happened?
c. What was the result?
d. How is the incident or event important to the overall plot?
e. What real-life person or event does this represent?
"When the hens heard this, they raised a terrible outcry. They had been warned earlier
that this sacrifice might be necessary, but had not believed that it would really happen.
They were just getting their clutches ready for the spring sitting, and they protested that
to take the eggs away now was murder. For the first time since the expulsion of Jones,
there was something resembling a rebellion."
"Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment
mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so. And Squealer,
who happened to be passing at this moment, attended by two or three dogs, was able to
put the whole matter in its proper perspective."
"Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table,
sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that
Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously. 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."
"At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing
brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball,
who only sprang from his place just in time to
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he
does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch
rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the
bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself."
Directions: For each question, provide a short written response.
Animal Farm serves as an allegory for a now-defunct country, the Soviet Union. Describe
how and why the story is an allegory. Be sure to include some of the history of the.Soviet
Union, whose full name was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Animal Farm also serves as a satire. Describe how and why it is a satire and, again, remember to include some of the history of the Soviet Union.
Discuss the following quote: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” How does it
How does the novel function as a fable?
Name and discuss at least 3 elements of a totalitarian dictatorship.