Name______

Period______

“The Censors”

I. Plot Structure:

Exposition

  • Characters:
  • protagonist ______
  • antagonist ______
  • Setting:
  • Conflict:
  • external conflict ______
  • internal conflict ______

Rising Action ______

Climax ______

Falling Action ______

Resolution/Denouement ______

II. LITERARY TERMS: Be able to define each term and apply each term to the story.

Satire:______

  1. How does Valenzuela signal the reader in paragraph one that this story may be satire?

______

  1. How does Valenzuela use humor to satirize the censors?

______

  1. What is the object of satire in this story? What is Valenzuela Trying to illustrate by using satire?

______

Tone:______

III. QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions.

Personal Response

What feelings did you have about Juan at the end of the story? Did your feelings about him change during the course of the story? Explain.

Analyzing Literature

Recall

  1. What does Juan do as soon as he gets Mariana’s address? How does he feel?
  2. What was Juan’s plan in applying for a censor’s job?
  3. What accounts for Juan’s Promotion from Section K?
  4. Briefly describe Juan’s way of life by the time he’s promoted to Section B.
  5. What happens to Juan as a “natural” result of his censoring skills?

Interpret

  1. Why, do you think, does Juan feel so strongly about what he has done?
  2. At the beginning of the story, how does Juan feel about Censor’s Secret Command and the government of his country in general?
  3. “‘You don’t form a habit by doing something once,’ he told himself as he left his boss’s office.” What, do you think, is the “something,” and what has it got to do with Juan’s transfer from Section K to Section J?
  4. In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Juan’s new way of life?
  5. Valenzuela says of Juan, “Naturally, he couldn’t stop them…,” but she doesn’t say why. In your opinion, why can’t Juan stop them?

Evaluate and connect

  1. Think back to the list you made for the Reading Focus on page 217. After reading this story, what other advantages and disadvantages would you add to your list?
  2. What do you think accounts for the change in Juan over the course of the story?
  3. What parts of this story seem logical and believable to you? Are there any parts that are unbelievable? Use details from the story to explain.
  4. In your opinion, what does Valenzuela achieve by keeping the tone of the story so light and “natural”? (see page R13)
  5. Is there anything in this story that frightens you? Explain your answer.

English II Animal Farm – Orwell and Communism Jigsaw Activity

This is a partner jigsaw activity. Each of you will read a different text and answer questions based on the text. Then you will share your answers with your partner and your partner will share his/her answer with you.

George Orwell:

Please read the text provided and answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1.)What was Orwell’s real name?

2.)Where did Orwell grow up?

3.)Why did he “identify with the underdog and sympathize with victims of poverty”?

4.)What did Orwell do in 1936?

5.)What did he learn about how revolutions fail?

6.)How did he live when he returned to England?

7.)What did Orwell not like about working for the BBC?

8.)When was Animal Farm finally published?

9.)Why had it been rejected before?

10.)What was Orwell’s purpose in writing it?

11.)What conclusion did Orwell come to?

A Brief History of Communism in Russia:

Please read the text provided and answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1.)What were the conditions of the working class in the mid 1800s?

2.)What did Marx write in 1847? What was it about?

3.)What did Marx envision?

4.)What happened to the revolution Marx foresaw?

5.)What were the people called who followed Marx?

6.)Describe the two groups of Socialists?

7.)Describe the government of Russia. What is a Czarist government?

8.)What happened in Russia in 1917? Who were the leaders?

9.)What happened in 1926? Explain in detail.

10.)What were Marx’s idealistic goals?

11.)What is Totalitarianism?

George Orwell:

Although George Orwell requested that no biography be written about him, it is necessary to know a little about him if you are to understand his writings.

He was born Eric High Blair in India in 1903, the middle child of an English government official stationed there. At the age of eight, he was sent to an expensive prep school in England. He was accepted at a reduced tuition rate, and this caused him to be treated as a sort of “charity case” by his snobbish peers. Because of this, his life was marked by a constant sense of failure, and a feeling that the rich and powerful made all the rules in life. These feelings caused him to identify with the underdog and sympathize with victims of poverty.

In 1936, at the age of 33, Orwell went to Spain to write newspaper articles about the Spanish Civil War, but instead he joined a military group that was trying to revolt and overthrow Spain’s government. This group was backed by Trotsky-ite Communists. He was wounded severely, and was discharged from the hospital just in time to escape from the country. He was lucky to get away, because the Communists had outlawed the military group that he had been a part of. Feeling let down by the Communists, Orwell figured that all revolutions fail because those who get the power are corrupted by it. This theme is found in all his writings.

When he returned to England, Orwell and his wife lived in a small village where they kept chickens, geese, and goats, and grew vegetables and fruits. His friends recall that he had a great sense of responsibility for the well-being of the animals, and was especially fond of horses.
Orwell’s health prevented him from serving in the second world war, but he ended up working for England’s British Broadcasting Company (BBC) , which used propaganda to make “our side” look good. In World War II, Russia was on “our side.” During the war, England gave orders to the BBC to speak out in favor of Communism and make it sound really good. Of course, George Orwell was not very happy about doing that.

Orwell wrote Animal Farm during the closing years of the war, and finally got it published in 1945. It had been rejected by four publishers because of its theme. Publication of the book was timely because it was just at this point people were beginning to find out about the true aims and methods of the Russian Communists.

It is generally agreed that Orwell’s purpose in writing Animal Farm was to warn the world about the dangers of totalitarianism and well as to poke fun at (satire) people who think a perfect society is possible.

From his own experiences, Orwell developed this idea: Power always corrupts, and therefore revolutions always fail. New masters are always corrupted by new power. In other words, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.

A Brief History of Communism in Russia:

A Brief History of Communism in Russia

Terms:

capitalist system free enterprise - if you work hard you can get ahead; you can start your own business and become a millionaire, or lose every penny
socialist - a person who wants to change society
communist system - everyone works to his or her ability and receives according to his or her need; totally economic
equality; no one gets ahead, but no one starves either.
Czarist government - a government ruled by a Czar, who had absolute powers similar to a king
Deported - sent away from a country into exile
Idealistic - overly optimistic thinking
Totalitarianism - a one-party-rules-everything type of government

In the mid 1800’s, the capitalist system was going strong in Europe and America. But, the profits of businesses came at the expense of workers who labored 14 to 18 hours a day under unsafe conditions. There were no child labor laws, and wages were barely livable for the common worker.

In 1847, an international workers’ group asked Karl Marx, a German philosopher, to draw up a plan for their organization. The group was called the Communist League. Marx wrote a plan called The Manifesto of the Communist Party.

Marx envisioned a workers’ revolt followed by a kind of paradise where each person would work according to his or her ability and receive according to his or her need. Marx saw the final stage of his communist system being total worldwide economic equality.

About this time, labor laws were passed in Western Europe and America that made the work place safer and more tolerable of workers. The worldwide revolution that Marx foresaw never came to pass.

The people that followed Marx’s thinking were called Socialists. The Socialists split into two groups. The milder group wanted to bring about communism slowly by passing new laws. The other group (we’ll call them Communists) stuck to Marx’s original idea of a major worker revolt. The Communists were a small extremist group compared to the total number of Socialists. They formed a political party called the Bolshevik Party , which was led by a
man named Nikolai Lenin .

Russia at this time was being poorly managed by a Czarist government, ruled by Czar Nicholas II . Most of the Russian people were still underpaid workers on land owned by a small number of wealthy landlords.

In 1917 a revolution occurred in Russia. The Bolshevik Party successfully overthrew Czar Nicholas II. Besides Lenin, there were two other men who were leaders in the Bolshevik party: Leon Trotsky , a man who believed in using terrorism, and Joseph Stalin, a strong ruthless man.

In 1926, Lenin died, and there was a power struggle between Trotsky and Stalin. Stalin gained control and Trotsky went to Mexico and was later assassinated. As the new Russian leader, Stalin deported to Siberia all those who did not agree with him. His secret police also used random arrests, torture, and mass executions to maintain his dictatorship. Anyone could be a victim of these killings, or “purges” for no apparent reason.

The idealistic goals of Marx, had turned into a system that was in many ways more terrifying than the rule by the Czars. There was no freedom in the new system, which was based on military rule. Forced labor created wealth for a limited few, while the lives of most people changed very little or got worse. Terrorist police prevented uprisings by unhappy people.

The communist type of government that came about after the revolution in 1917 was “totalitarian”. Totalitarianism is when one party or group has total control of everything.

Animal Farm Literary Termsand Background Notes:

1.) Allegory

______

2.) Symbol

______3.) Satire______4.) Irony______

  • ______
  • ______
  • ______

5.) Fable______

WhyAnimals?

In explaining how he came to write Animal Farm,______

______

What is Animal Farm?

A masterpiece of political satire, ______

The tale of the society the animals form into a totalitarian regime______

SHORT ANSWER STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS - Animal Farm

After reading each chapter in the novel, answer the following questions in your journal. Please make sure to answer all parts of each question in complete sentences! Some journal responses will be longer than others.
Chapters 1 - 3
1. Identify Old Major, Boxer, Clover, Benjamin and Mollie.
2. For what purpose did Major call the meeting of the animals?
3. After they vote and decide rats are comrades, Major summarizes his points for the
animals to remember. What are they?
4. What is "Beasts of England"? For what does it stand?
5. Why did the pigs get the job of teaching and organizing?
6. Identify Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer and Moses.
7. What actually brought about the rebellion?
8. What were the Seven Commandments?
9. Who gained leadership of the animals? Why?
10. Describe the animals' flag.
11. What happened to the milk and apples? How did Squealer rationalize that?
Chapters 4 - 6
1. What was the Battle of the Cowshed?
2. What was Snowball's role in the Battle of the Cowshed?
3. Describe the relationship between Napoleon and Snowball.
4. What topic divided the animals? Which pig was for and which was against?
5. How did Napoleon get rid of Snowball and gain full control of the animals?
6. What changes did Napoleon make first?
7. How did Squealer justify Napoleon's take-over to the others?
8. What two maxims did Boxer adopt?
9. Why did Napoleon in fact change his mind and decide to have the animals build the
windmill?
10. For what purpose did Napoleon begin trading?
11. Why did the pigs say they had to move into the house?
12. Who did Napoleon blame for the windmill disaster? Why?
Chapters 7 - 8
1. Why did the hens have to give up their eggs?
2. How has Snowball's role been changed by the end of Chapter 6?
3. Why did Napoleon begin executing animals?
4. Whom did Boxer blame for the executions? What was his solution?
5. Why did the animals sing the "Beasts of England" song slowly and mournfully as they
were gathered on the knoll?
6. Why was the singing of "Beasts of England" banned?
7. In what ways has Napoleon set himself apart from the other animals?
8. How did Frederick cheat Napoleon?
9. What moved the animals to attack Frederick and his men at the Battle of the Windmill?
10. Why was Comrade Napoleon "dying"?
Chapters 9 - 10
1. What special treatment did pigs and piglets get?
2. What happened to Boxer?
3. The animals on the farm worked hard. What was their consolation?
4. What was Clover startled to discover?
5. What commandment took the place of the Seven Commandments?
6. What did the other animals see when they looked in to the farmhouse?

DIRECTIONS: Find instances of rhetoric from the novel to complete the chart.

Quote/Paraphrase + Page # / Appeal? (Ethos, Logos, Pathos) / Rhetorical Device + Explanation / Effect/Intended Effect