Literary Heritage Prose A664

Animal FarmGeorge Orwell

You will have a choice of two questions and 45 minutes to answer. This is one half of the exam – the other being unseen contemporary poetry.

AO1 Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations.

AO2 Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.

What am I being assessed on?

Language: The words on the page. Orwell’s descriptions of characters/setting/action and what the characters actually say.

Structure: The way the story has been put together. The order of events within the story. The significance of the extract in terms of the whole novel. The significance of the type of characters used. How the story is told.

Form: The overall shape of the story as a whole. The type of story it is.

Showing an understanding of the story and its possible interpretations.

Choose quotes that support the point you have made and then analyse what that quote reveals about the story/characters and how a reader might respond to those ideas.

Give a detailed analysis.

How is this part of the exam marked?

REMEMBER: Quality of Written Communication is assessed in this paper. You are expected to: •ensure that text is legible and that spelling, punctuation and grammar are accurate so that meaning is clear; •present information in a form that suits its purpose; •use a suitable structure and style of writing.

AO1 AO2 QWC

•sophisticated critical perception in response to and interpretation of text(s) •cogent and precise evaluation of relevant detail from the text(s)

•sensitive understanding of the significance and effects of writers’ choices of language, structure and form

•text is legible •spelling, punctuation and grammar are accurate and assured •meaning is very clearly communicated

A band 1 response:

GRADE D/E

Simply repeats your idea

GRADE C

Makes a point and supports it with a quote

GRADE A

Makes a point, embeds a quote and develops your idea

When Napoleon gives the signal, there is the sound of the dogs barking outside the barn, ‘there was a terrible baying sound outside’.

When Napoleon gives the signal, terror is heightened through the description of the ‘terrible baying sound outside’.

The ‘terrible baying sound outside’ heightens the terror of Snowball’s expulsion from the farm and also emphasises the animals’ confusion at what unfolds before them, building the tension before the dogs actually appear in the barn.

The words on the pageWords used to describe characters, actions, places and the speech between characters.

• What does the language used reveal about the characters, setting or action?

• How does the language used make the reader feel or respond to the characters or themes presented?

Using quotes:• Always use quotation marks, even if you are just quoting one word.• Do not use a quote that just repeats what you have already written,

it should develop your point.• Fit the quotation into your sentence.

Language:

The way the story has been put together

• It parallels the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: it is a political allegory. The farm represents Russia; Napoleon represents Stalin; the Battle of the Windmill is when Germany invaded Russia. The book charts the corruption of Major’s ideals in stages; making complex political events easy for the reader to understand.

• Narrative Voice: Third person; omnipotent; detached; trustworthy; acts as a typical storyteller, unfolding the story for us.

• Cyclical Structure: Life ends up just as bad as it was at the beginning.

Structure:

IN AN EXTRACT BASED QUESTION Your answer should consider these points:• What is significant about this particular moment in relation to the whole story?• Does the extract hint at something yet to happen in the story?• What is revealed about a character, relationship or a theme and how is it revealed?

The novel’s narrative structure

The type of story it isIt is an ALLEGORY: a story with two different meanings. A

straightforward surface meaning is used to reveal a deeper political meaning underneath

It is a POLITICAL SATIRE: an attack on dictatorships and the way in which they seized and held onto power. A satire works by attacking an idea to make it look stupid and ridiculous.

Form:

Other ideas you can write about:A FAIRYSTORY: Orwell subverts the expected form of a fairystory. Good is punished and bad is rewarded, there is no happy ending.A BEAST FABLE: Animals used to teach moral points to children. Ambiguous ending – we don’t know how life will turn out for the animals.

An Extract Based Question

Just like in an ‘Journey’s End’ you need to show that you are able to analyse in detail a key moment in the story and comment on its significance to events and themes in the rest of the novel.

Answering an exam question• Choose a question - there will be a choice between an extract based and a discursive

question.• Underline the key words in the question. Keep using these key words in your answer, at

least once per paragraph, this will help to keep you on track; make sure everything you do focuses on these key words. The wording from the question should feature at the start of each paragraph.

• Aim to write at least 5 developed paragraphs – a purposeful opening in which the focus of the question is introduced and, in an extract based question, you ground the extract in the novel; 3 developed PEARL paragraphs; and a relevant and well-reasoned conclusion.

• Spend 10 minutes planning your answer: what will you write about? – If there is more than one strand to the question, try to address each equally. Depending on the

question, try to answer with 2 points per strand.– Make a list of the key points (no more than a few words per point) that will help you answer the

question.– Select relevant textual detail to illustrate EVERY one of your points.– For each significant moment in the novel you are analysing in detail, mindmap the context of the

‘moment’.– In an extract based question Consider the context of the extract within the novel: what has just

happened/what will happen next; which characters are in this extract; what the characters know; how the characters are feeling; what the reader knows; what the reader is likely to be feeling.

– Focus on the READER and the ways in which reader reactions are influenced (the R of PEARL).– Avoid over-simplified character analysis – try to explore alternative interpretations of the

characters and the ways in which the author uses the character.

Key Point Reference Link to the rest of the novel

Your answer must be organised. Remember the PEARL structure for each of your key point paragraphs.

Key points can be organised by:•Chronological order•Character (one at a time)•Method (e.g. one section on structure, one on language, one on form OR one of characters, one on themes, one on style...)

A reference can be a direct quote, a paraphrasing of a quote or a brief description of the structure/action/ plot.

Even if you are focusing on a few key moments from the novel, you must also bring in other parts. When completing your plan, try to think of where you can use other parts of the novel to explain/ justify/ provide further evidence/ contradict your key point.

In a discursive question: Don’t do this for every key point – only where it is relevant.

In an extract based question: The key points based on the extract will form the spine of the answer – and must account for 4/5 of your response. However you must also bring in other parts of the novel. This should account for 1/5 of your answer. Don’t write this as a separate paragraph but integrate this into your key points.

AIM TO HAVE 3-4 KEY POINTS.

In what way does Orwell powerfully depict the

relationship between the pigs and the other animals in this

extract?

Plan your answer to this extract-based question

In what way does Orwell powerfully depict the relationship between the pigs and the other animals in this extract?

They had won, but they were weary and bleeding. Slowly they began to limp back towards the farm. The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the grass moved some of them to tears. And for a little while they halted in sorrowful silence at the place where the windmill had once stood. Yes, it was gone; almost the last trace of their labour was gone! Even the foundations were partially destroyed. And in rebuilding it they could not this time, as before, make use of the fallen stones. This time the stones had vanished too. The force of the explosion had flung them to distances of hundreds of yards. It was as though the windmill had never been.

As they approached the farm Squealer, who had unaccountably been absent during the fighting, came skipping towards them, whisking his tail and beaming with satisfaction. And the animals heard, from the direction of the farm buildings, the solemn booming of a gun.

‘What is that gun firing for?' said Boxer.

'To celebrate our victory" cried Squealer.

'What victory?' said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe and split his hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged themselves in his hindleg.

'What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil - the sacred soil of Animal Farm?'

'But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!’

'What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel like it. You do not appreciate, comrade, the mighty things that we have done. The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon. And now - thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon - we have won every inch of it back again!'

'Then we have won back what we had before,' said Boxer.

'That is our victory,' said Squealer.

They limped into the yard. The pellets under the skin of Boxer's leg smarted painfully. He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the windmill from the foundations, and already in imagination he braced himself for the task. But for the first time it occurred to him that he was eleven years old and that perhaps his great muscles were not quite what they had once been.

PointEvidenceAnalysisReader responseLink back to question

In Animal Farm, Orwell powerfully depicts the relationship between the pigs and the other animals through their conversations on the farm. In this extract, when Squealer says ‘We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel like it’ we are shown how little he cares about Boxer’s injuries by not even acknowledging them. Squealer doesn’t mention how he, or any of the pigs, will be participating in rebuilding the windmill and his words are indicative of the growing divide between the ruling class and the workers on the farm. His repetition of the word ‘we’ is ironic, especially as Squealer himself did nothing to help the building of the windmill and was ‘unaccountably absent’ from the fighting. The reader is made to feel sympathetic towards Boxer’s situation as we know that the burden will fall on him to rebuild, and we begin to realise that his situation in life, and that of the other animals, is only going to get worse under the pigs rule. The relationship between the pigs and the other animals is quite clearly depicted as problematic.

In what way does Orwell powerfully depict the relationship between the pigs and the other animals in this extract?

Now you try:

Choose another part of the text that shows the relationship between the pigs and the other animals.

Construct a PEARL paragraph.

• Make a clear POINT• Remember to choose EVIDENCE that develops your

point.• Most of your writing should be in the ANALYSIS,

developing your point and commenting on the language used.

• Comment on the effect of this language and/or idea on the READER.

• Your last sentence should LINK back using words from the question.

PointEvidenceAnalysisReader responseLink back to question

How does Orwell vividly portray the importance of the sheep and dogs

in Animal Farm? Remember to support your ideas with details from

the novel.

Plan your answer to this discursive question

How does Orwell use language to show the differences or similarities between the

animals and the human beings?

Language analysis and PEARL Paragraphing

How does Orwell use language to show the differences or similarities between the animals

and the human beings?

“worthless parasitical human beings”

What does the word ‘parasitical’ suggest?

And ‘worthless’?

What other quotation could be used to support this one? – consider what Major said in his speech to the animals.

What is Orwell doing by describing the humans in this way?

How does Orwell use language to show the differences or similarities between the animals

and the human beings?

“worthless parasitical human beings”

Strong adjective

Provokes feelings of distaste and dislike

Living off other creatures!

Describing the humans using negative adjectives for impact.

PEARL paragraph

Orwell uses language to show the differences between the humans and the animals by describing the humans using negative adjectives for impact, “worthless parasitical human beings”. The strong adjective “parasitical” implies the humans are creatures who live off other animals and provokes feelings of distaste and dislike from the reader because a parasite is an insect that sucks the blood (or life) out of another creature. Orwell’s manipulation of language here is further reiterated through Major’s speech “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing”.

(Continue this analysis)

By using the adjective “worthless”, Orwell conveys his thoughts about the humans and paints a negative image for the reader…

Colour code your own PEARL paragraph, ensuring your paragraph is detailed and the analysis is thorough.

How does Orwell use language to show the differences or similarities between the animals

and the human beings?