Aim: How do George Orwell's themes of literary protest transcend time:
For today’s lesson, we focused on elitism in Animal Farm and its connection to the world we live in today. A focus that we’ve had for the past few days is George Orwell’s depiction of different themes and concepts through the characters of the story and how they clearly depict the Soviet era, and our current time and place. One of these concepts is the idea of elitism and the effect it has on the characters in the book. It is clear to see throughout the story that the pigs, specifically Napoleon, have and maintain a degree of power unparalleled to the other animals on the farm which gives them authority over all, and for Napoleon specifically, an indirect god complex. Orwell depicts that the pigs’ power, although not even deserved, overpowers and influences the rest of the animals on the farm, leading to the others working for a benefit that doesn’t directly affect them. To explain why the pigs did not deserve their power, the amount of pigs present on the farm at the last point we left off on in the book is around 300, yet the pigs are not obligated to work and are all top priority. Orwell includes this huge gap in prosperity of the animals to symbolize what the soviet people were working for: an oligarchy that abuses the people for their own benefit. Orwell’s clear-cut goal of this depiction is to show to the audience of the book that re-thinking what you are doing, where you are living, or who you are working for is vital for a prosperous and free life.
Do Now:
For the do-now, we answered two questions: Elitism is leadership by a socially superior minority group. In what ways is elitism fostered among the pigs of Animal Farm? Is there evidence that Elitism still exists in our society? If so, how? We started our discussion by asking ourselves what characters in Animal Farm represent elitism over the other animals on the farm. The answer was clear. On the farm, the pigs had all control over the actions of the other animals as well as their own individualized benefits. Not only was Napoleon praised by all the animals as their destined ruler, but all the other pigs, who gave a minor contribution to the development of the farm, were also given special benefits for simply being pigs. They were even given ribbons to signify their importance. Sound familiar? Officers of the Nazi party of the 20th century led by Adolf Hitler also wore arm bands, illustrated with swastikas, signifying their position and importance. We continued our discussion with the question of whether elitism is present in the world today. The first thought that appeared in my mind that is widely neglected, is that there have been several cases of the upper class committing federal offenses and various crimes that go “unnoticed” by the government. Although an example with little revealed evidence, this is a very serious problem in the United States specifically. This is a prime example of elitism in which the rich get unprecedented benefits that supposedly are not there simply because of government neglect and public unawareness.
Classwork:
For the rest of our classwork, we discussed a scenario in which elitism and personal thought would prevail, as well as two videos where these ideas are applied. Our first example was a discussion about what we would do if we are put into a scenario where an embarrassing picture of a classmate is shared across the class and the student frantically leaves the class due to humiliation. An answer that we all came across is that although the situation is bad, none of us could wrap our heads around why the student was so severely affected. We came to the conclusion that the variables of the situation such as what the other students were saying or the sensitivity of the victim would determine the true outcome of both the responders, being us, and the situation as a whole. This relates to the idea of elitism or personal influence in a sense of both the victim and the responders. The victim could vary in reaction to the stimulant and the class could respond differently as well by, for example, one student joins the side of the victim with the purpose of stopping the spread of the picture or stopping the reactions of the other students. After this discussion we had a very short conversation on sensitivity and moved onto the two videos. Video one was a girl who shares an anecdote of a soccer player who was accused of causing the team to lose every game. The girl speaking shares the movement that she and some other students started to stop the demeaning of the victim. This video was a clear example of how one person could change a lot. I related this video to the idea of a revolution. One person with an idea, can exponentially increase the speed of the spread of the idea. The second video was a Ted talk with a girl who created a program designed to stop cyber bullying. Her motto was to rethink and I think this can also be applied to Orwell’s message from animal farm: to rethink what you are doing, where you are, or who you are working for.
Takeaways:
I think it fair to say that I enjoyed today’s lesson. I learned about how Elitism is an important influence on the decision of both the individual person as well as large groups. I believe we learned this to be aware and educated on the importance of having an independent state of mind. Although this information isn’t new to me specifically, I believe that this lesson will encourage students to maintain their own independence and to stand up for what they personally believe is right, not what they are told to think is right.
Blog Content
My thoughts regarding our current lives are mixed. I cannot say I am enjoying my time that much honestly. I miss so much about our world, specifically people and swimming. Regarding schooling, I think this is a nightmare. All of our first thoughts when we heard schools are closing were “Hooray less work” or “Finally some rest.” I’ve been at my computer working for the past 4 days in a row with maybe 2 hours of rest in a day. I honestly cannot even pinpoint why this is so, but it just is. I believe that schools are taking advantage of everyone’s “free time” disregarding the importance of sufficient rest. I was looking forward to attempting some valuable skills over this time, like a coding language or taking an economics class. Sadly, my personal rest, after a day loaded with work I believe is often useless, is top priority. Also, working from the comfort from your bedroom sounds great until you realize you have a queen mattress tempting you to relax right next to your desk. I believe a school environment or any working environment is essential to quality production. Regarding the rest of the world, this pandemic has taught me a lot about people and the media. I think mass hysteria is a term fitting for the occasion, as well as stupidity. I would imagine that the public opinion and reaction to this virus would be a spectrum, however I’ve noticed that the reactions fall into two polar opposites. One being fright, and one being the exact opposite. Some people are truly fearless and do not see the consequences with being so. Overall, it has been an interesting month and I’m eager to see how this situation plays out.
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