Context;

The context of a text refers to the circumstances at the time the text was written, in other words, the
historical, socio-economic and political circumstances at the time , as well as the author’s beliefs about
those circumstances.
The events in animal farm can be seen to relate to those in russia between the 1917 and 1943.
For centuries, russia was ruled by tsars, and under their reign, the ruling classes lived in luxury while the
rest of the population suffered in the same way that, in the novel, jones lives happily while the animals
suffer.
However, it was not until 1917 and the shortages and other hardships of ww1, that increased the
dissatisfaction and rebellion led to the February revolution. There the Bolsheviks forced tsar Nicholas lol
to abdicate his position as leader of russia in similar way to jones being ousted from manor farm.
Shortly after, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin launched a successful takeover against the
provisional government. After that, a new government based on the tenets of communism was founded,
in the same way, the animals in the novel establish a farm based on the ideals of “animalism”.

Russia’s former privileged classes as well as its working classes became dissatisfied with the new
government and sought to enlist foreign support for their cause, as a result the white and red army
were formed, in the novel, jones alliances with neighbouring farmers ans the animals’ battles against the
humans mirror these events.
Lenon’s death left Trotsky and Stalin to battle for Russia’s leadership in the same way in the novel,
snowball and napoleon are seen to battle over the leadership of animal farm..
In hunger for power, Stalin exiled Trotsky and later had him assassinated in Mexico, In a similar way,
napoleon gets snowball expelled in order to rule the farm.
Russia suffered long-standing economic deficiencies and many losses as a result of World War I. In an
effort to improve the situation, Stalin launched several Five Year Plans.
He began series of purges in which he killed anyone suspected of harbouring ideas that went against his
own.
Russian people were terrified of being imprisoned, tortured of send to work in the soviet labour camps,
so they spied on and turned in their co-workers, neighbours and even family.
the final section of Animal Farm represents the conference that took place in Tehran to negotiate this
aid. Despite harsh battles and the loss of more than 20 million citizens, the Soviet Union managed to
drive the Nazis out and continued marching westward, seizing control of Berlin in May 1945.
A few months later, George Orwell published Animal Farm, allegorically recounting much of this history.
George Orwell's real name was Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in India in 1903. India was part of the
British Empire at the time, and his father worked there as an agent in the Indian Civil Service. Orwell
came from a middle-class family and led a relatively privileged life.

Structure;
The most significant aspect of the novel’s structure is its circular nature. The novel starts with manor
farm and ends with manor farm, the ideals of animal farm having been distorted. The novel starts with
the animals being enslaved by a cruel master and ends sighs the animals being enslaved by a cruel
master. Note that mr jones is a heavy drinker and napoleon and the rest of the pigs are also heavy
drinkers.
Orwell achieves this circular structure in several different ways:
1- The name of the farm. It starts out with the name manor farm; the animals change it to animal
farm but at the end of the novel napoleon announces that it will be changed back to manor
farm.
2- By changing the seven commandments, the pigs gradually become more and more like their
former masters. By the end of the novel the pigs are acting exactly as jones and his men did
before the rebellion, carrying whips, wearing clothes, reading newspaper, sleeping in the
farmhouse, drinking alcohol and generally behaving like humans in all aspects of their lives.
3- The most telling moment is at the very end of the novel when the rest of the animals look into
the farmhouse and unable to distinguish between pigs and humans. The humans have become
pigs and the pigs have become human: nothing has changed for the rest of the animals.

Characterisation;

Old major; Orwell describes major as a majestic looking pug suggesting his status among the other
animals as reveres and respected..
He is presented as powerful persuasive speaker with a gift for rhetoric, he inspires the animals to
believe in a golden future time when animals will be free.
Old Major is optimistic in his hopes for the future and is enthusiastic about the Rebellion and all it
promises. It is evident that he is an intelligent and perceptive animal as he is able to assess the state
of England at the time.
He seeks to pass on his wisdom before he dies, telling the animals of his dream and teaching them
the song 'Beasts of England'. He urges the animals to remember their duty of 'enmity towards Man
and all his ways'. He can be seen to represent Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in particular, but can
also be seen as any visionary and inspirational political thinker.
Marx was a German philosopher who believed that capitalists exploited the workers/proletariat in
the same way that the humans are described as exploiting the animals in old Major's speech. Marx
worked with Engels to create the Communist Manifesto in 1848, in which he called for workers to
unite against their chains and to revolt against the capitalists.

Napoleon; in the novel napoleon proves himself to be one of the leading pigs, and later the most
dominant pig on the farm. He is presented as power hungry pig whose ruthlessness causes the exile
of snowball and who uses others to gain power for himself.
Orwell uses the character of napoleon to represent Stalin, a ruthless dictator who ruled Russia with
iron force. Just as Stalin did to the Russian people, napoleon uses clever tactics to gain and maintain
control over the animals. He uses food as both rewards and punishment. When he uses the threat of
half rations to force animals to work on a Sunday. Orwell contrasts him with snowball in his ability to
canvass support from others and its clear that he is ruthless when he removes the puppies, only for
the, to later appear as his trained assassins.

The sheep; Orwell presents the sheep as the most unintelligent sector of society.
Snowball simplifies the commandments to the maxim of 'Four legs good, two legs bad' in order to
help them understand Animalism, but they are easily manipulated by Napoleon, who succeeds in
canvassing their support. Their constant bleating of 'Four legs good, two legs bad!' interrupts
meetings and suggests their lack of understanding.
Subsequently, when they drown out Snowball's speech, we see the damage such blind support can
cause: they unknowingly stifle free speech.
Later, they are easily manipulated by Squealer when he teaches them the mantra of 'Four legs good,
two legs better. Orwell uses them to represent those members of society who are used as tools for a
cause and are manipulated for politicians' own ends.
 Propaganda;
Propaganda is an essential tool for any regime wanting to maintain its grip on the population.
Squealer is the organ of propaganda on the farm.
His first appearance in this role is in Chapter 3, when he explains away the pigs eating the apples and
milk as being because they are 'brain-workers' and need to protect the farm from Mr Jones. Later he
explains away Snowball's expulsion and rewrites history, stating that Napoleon was never really
against the building of the windmill and that Snowball was Jones's secret agent all along.
Squealer's persuasive and dramatic speeches help Napoleon justify his actions and policies by
whatever means seem necessary. He uses statistics to deceive the other animals, 'proving' that
production of food had increased 'by 200 per cent, 300 per cent, or 500 per cent, as the case might
be.' Because all the information that the animals get comes only from Squealer, they 'saw no reason
to disbelieve him'.

How does happiness partially rely on happiness:

Step one: for genuine thinking we need words
Step two: if we do not use words rightly we shall not think rightly
Step three: if we do not think rightly we cannot reliably decide rightly
Step four: if we do not decide rightly we shall make a mess out of our lives
Step five: if we make a mess of our lives we shall make ourselves and other people unhappy

Vocabulary is the science of what words mean

Grammar is the science of how words are used in order to convey thoughts
Grammar and Vocabulary are the necessary prelude to the science of thinking =( Logic
Logic is the necessary prelude to the science of communicating =( Rhetoric

Step six: on these four sciences, all other sciences depend

Grammar has two main divisions;

-syntax: arranging words correctly in a sentence to convey correctly the thought of the speaker/ writer
-morphology: how words change their form when they’re used for different purposes

The parts of speech

Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Interjections.

Nouns: it is the name of a person, place or thing

*common nouns: indicates the class of the person place or thing
*proper nouns: refers to an individual person or place
*materials can be: concrete things & abstract things
*collective nouns: example the audience, crowd, flock, collection ect.

Pronouns: is a word that stands in place of a noun

*personal pronouns: I, you, we, they ect.
*intensive pronouns: I myself can see it
*reflexive pronouns: he enjoys himself
*relative pronouns: who, which & that
*demonstrative pronouns: this & that, ex to be or not to be: that is the question
*interrogative pronouns: who, whoever, which & what
*indefinite pronouns: none, anyone, anything, someone, something.
*possessive pronouns: mine, yours, theirs, ours ect.

Adjectives: it is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun

*adjectives of quality: “of what sort”
*adjectives of quantity: “how much?”
*adjectives of number: “how many?”
*demonstrative adjectives: “which?”
*possessive adjectives: “for whom?”
*basic adjectives: positive adjectives- comparative-superlative
*articles: the, a, an & some