1. ( )

2. George Owell (pen name of Eric Blair)
Born: To English parents in Bengal, India (1903)

3. After his father retired, Eric and his family moved back to England

4. He was educated at Eton, an exclusive prep school.
                                     

5.                                           At eighteen, he passed the Empire’s Civil Service Exam and became a police officer in Burma ( )          

6. 1927
After resigning from the force, Orwell returned to Europe

7. During the Spanish Civil War Orwel fought for the Republicans against the Fascists
Before World War II he published both fiction and journalism
Orwell died in 1950

8. 1937 Homage to Catalogna 1945 Animal Farm 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four
His main works
1937 Homage to Catalogna
1945 Animal Farm
1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four

9. Animal Farm: a fairy tale

10. It's a Fable It's an Allegory
Most fables have two levels of meaning. On the surface, the fable is about animals. But on a second level, the animals stand for types of people or ideas. The way the animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says something about the nature of people or the value of ideas. Any type of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning in this way is called an allegory.

11. It's a Satire
A composition making fun of something, usually political.
Animal Farm makes fun of political society after the Bolshevik Revolution.

12. Historical Context
Russian society in the early twentieth century had two social classes:
- bourgeoisie: a tiny minority controlling the country’s wealth
- proletariat: the working class

13. Communism arose in Russia when the nation’s workers and peasants rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats.

14. This was based
on Karl Marx and his

15. The call for
action was . . .

16. Tsar Nicholas II,
monarch of Russia,
was forced
to abdicate
the throne.

17. His daughter,
Anastasia, was
lost.

18. Lenin, a Russian
revolutionary,
took power
in the name of
the
Communist
Party.

19. When Lenin died,
Joseph Stalin and
Leon Trotsky
competed for
control of the
Soviet Union.

20. Stalin banished
Trotsky and
took control.
He began his
brutal killings,
overseeing the
deaths of
approximately
twenty million
Soviet citizens.

21. Themes
1. Freedom &
individual dignity
must be guarded
very carefully.

22. Themes
2. Language is a
powerful tool;
used improperly,
it can enslave
and confuse us.

23. Themes
3. Weakness can be
dominated by
strength, fear,
and trickery.

24. Themes
4. Hope & vision
must be kept alive,
or we might
live like the
animals of
Manor Farm.

25. Themes
5. Power corrupts,
and absolute power
corrupts
absolutely.