Bradley Vaval, Blogger #27
Sophomores 2020, Period 3
4/29/20
Aim: How do George Orwell's themes of literary protest transcend time?
Today’s lesson started off with a Do Now that encouraged us to consider the definition of Elitism which is “leadership by a socially superior minority group” and apply it not only to the events we witnessed in our latest reading of George Orwell’s Animal Farm but also our everyday life. We reached the conclusion that the Pigs in Animal Farm were practicing elitism because of their apparent superiority over the other animals enforced by Squealer, Napoleon, and his dogs. Moreover, we agreed that elitism is still present in our society today evident by the advantages that being wealthy can have, such as better education, better health care, etc.
Notes For the Day:
We conducted a thought experiment where we were presented with a hypothetical situation and were asked what we would do in those circumstances. It aimed to gauge our immediate course of action in the event that one of our classmates became a victim of bullying and ran out the room because of it. The whole scenario is available below.
There was a wide variety of answers. Some include running out of the class after the student, telling the teacher to go check on them, waiting to further understand what had happened, and even confronting the perpetrator themself.
After reading some background on Richard Wright, an American author of many famous novels, short stories, and poems, the class was encouraged to share their opinions on a quote of Wright’s which reads, “All literature is protest. You can't name a single novel that isn't protest.” While we agreed that many pieces of literature contain elements of protests, including many works directed towards children, that it is not unlikely for an author to write simply for the fun of writing, without protest.
In the following slide were the links to two videos which covered the cyberbullying problem in today's technology-centered world and ways to combat it.
We then took a detour to a pdf discussing the ins and outs of Satire and Theme in Literature to gain a better understanding of these elements throughout Animal Farm. Satire is defined as, "A kind of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring about social change”. In the document, we are provided with a wide range of examples from the novel for both Theme and Satire as follows.
Finally, as we neared the end of the lesson, we were presented with a discussion board and were asked to respond to the two prompts. “How would George Orwell want to inspire your generation?” and “What is one thing you could do this week?” We’re also expected to comment on the response of a peer.
Reflection of the lesson:
In this cycle, I learned about the subliminal themes and satires in the works of authors and how they can even hold true to this day. While George Orwell wasn’t picturing the modern digital age full of online bullying within the youth when he wrote Animal Farm, many of the ideas that he presented in the book can be applied. The whole concept is rather eye-opening, as it forces one to realize that the words of an individual can go a long way. Orwell's words carried on through time and continue to leave their imprint on people’s minds decades after he had passed, in a completely different way that one harmful or hurtful comment on someone’s post can have disastrous effects as shown by the videos. Not only will I try to pay more attention to modern-day implications in older pieces of literature, but I’ll also be more cautious on social media in the future.
Personal Experience:
Regarding Chapter 10 of Animal Farm, I was surprised as to how the novel ends (Skip to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers!). I had expected the novel to close with the demise of the farm as a whole which would solidify Orwell’s position on the socialist ideology in the USSR during the time period. However, he chose to end the novel with the pigs of the farm forming good relationships with the other farmers not only due to their newfound humanity but also because of the sheer success of their farm. Animal Farm at the end is procuring more profit than it was under Jones, almost as if Orwell is predicting the technological and industrial success of the USSR because of their ideas during the Cold War’s Arms race and Space race.
Working from home has been a rather interesting experience. While we are allowed to work at our own pace and encouraged to do so, it is easy to fall victim to slacking off and procrastination. The only way around that is to be organized, manage your time well, and work efficiently, however, that is also a challenging seeing as how, at least in my experience, the home wasn’t originally a place of diligent work. Due dates tend to creep up on students if they aren’t paying enough attention to them and that’s an issue considering that they’ve been my only motivation to finish assignments. The school system has conditioned me to see due dates and rush to meet them because missing homework and zeros on assignments are inherently frightening. However, this feeling is slowly fading away, and if this carries on, lots of students can lose their drive to work and that's potentially even more frightening.
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