March 11th, 2020
Annie Liang
Ms. Peterson
Period 7
Aim: How can a comparison of speeches reflect the continued relevance of ideas held in society today?
Today, the majority of class time was spent working on two assignments from Google Classroom with our groups. One of the assignments was the chart that we had to finish under the “What’s in a Name” classwork. In this chart we evaluate the effects of naming and how it helps shape the reader’s impression of the character. In particular, George Orwell created his characters with specific people in mind.
For example, Mr. Jones is described as negligent and careless. He didn’t take care of the animals and resembled Tsar Nicholas the second who was overthrown in the Bolshevik revolution.
Old Major, on the other hand, rallies the other farm animals to unite together to take power from Mr. Jones into their own hands. He is a skillful orator that knows just how to incite anger and passion into the animals. He symbolizes the beginning of communism, most likely modeled after Marx and Lenin.
The following characters take on roles representing the different figures in the USSR society
Clover is described to be a middle age horse with four foals. She is the motherly figure in this novel giving off the impression of caring. She is going to be the one that takes care of the other animals throughout the plot and supports the others.
Boxer’s name takes a more literal stance as his name points to the literal career of a boxer. They are not the most intelligent and can endure pressure. He stands at 18 hands tall showing immense physical strength. He represents the working class of soviet society.
Benjamin is a donkey that is old and stubborn. He is the oldest among the farmer animals and cares the least about treatment. He feels that it doesn’t really affect him so he represents the aged population or elderly. They don’t push for change as they feel they’re going to die soon anyway.
Mollie represents the middle class or bourgeois. Her primary attribute is vanity as she tends to relate to humans the most. They plaited her hair and she liked bows and clothing.
Moses off the bat is a religious name. Therefore, he represents the Russian Orthodox Church. Orwell describes him as Mr. Jones’ special pet. For example, when Tsar Nicholas flees the church follows. Eventually the church returns but they were the tsar’s ally.
Then we moved on to the next assignment where we compared the “I have a Dream” speech to Old Major’s speech.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Old Major both include five elements into their speeches. They first indicate who benefits and suffers from the current conditions. For Martin Luther King Jr., this was the white men that suppressed the blacks. Old Major states that the humans are benefiting from the system without any labor put in themselves. Of course, the ones suffering in both speeches are the people that the speakers represent.
Their method of gaining better conditions contrast at this point. King speaks of peaceful protests to gain their rights. These rights would be the ability to live freely just as their white counterparts do. Old Major, on the other hand, has a more violent approach. He rallies the animals to overthrow Mr. Jones and his family as their way of gaining control over themselves. He speaks of how they could run their farm themselves without needing to serve under the humans. They could be free and act as they please, which did resemble some of King’s hopes.
Lastly, King and Old Major both use ethos, pathos, and logos to aid in spreading their message. Ethos relies on the reputation and credibility of the speaker. Old Major uses his reputation of an old and wise pig to gain the attention of the animals, while King recites part of Abraham Lincoln’s speech while standing in front of Lincoln’s memorial. Logos is the logical part of an argument that both speakers use to explain how their conditions could be better with their method of gaining power. Pathos relies on their orating skills. The way they deliver their message affects how well they captivate their audience. Good orators often have a magical effect on the crowd as it tends to be silent while they speak. This leads on to the second part where we began to analyze the different types of figurative language to see how they captivate their audience.
Reflection:
In short, Orwell’s novel heavily uses figurative language to develop the plot. His way of naming cleverly alludes to different historical characters and figures. These different characters all point to Orwell’s stance and view of communism in the Soviet Union. His novel can be described as a satirical reference to the USSR as it criticizes them. Furthermore, words can be a very powerful tool as speeches have been used to incite revolutions and major changes in history. Leaders with significant orating skills are seen to incite passion and support for their cause with specific concepts such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Such leaders would include the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler. Overall, these speeches provide a key insight into how many leaders in history gained traction and followers.
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