Blog #29 - Tyler Wong - Period 3 - 05/01/2020

Tyler Wong

Blog #29

Period 3

5/1/20

Sophomores 2020

Aim: How do George Orwell’s themes of literary protest transcend time?

Do Now: 

• Elitism is consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.

Elitism is shown in the pigs and the dogs because they are shown as the rule makers. This allows the pigs and dogs to become like a totalitaristic society and government. The pigs and dogs are viewed as superior. They show their elitism every time they change the rules or decide to bend rules to their benefit.There is evidence that elitism still exists in our society showing that in the 1900s, many countries and societies have implemented it into their ruling system. For example, in Nazi Germany, the German People and people who were not of Jewish descent had more rights than the Jewish at the time. The Nazis had swastikas that they wore around their arms. They used it to show superiority towards everyone who was not a part of their movement and the pigs in Animal Farm also did this when they started walking on their hind legs and wearing green bands around their arms.

• In today's society, examples of elitism can be based on the position of someone. An example of this would be a group of people or political insiders who enjoy the benefits of the nation, benefits of great wealth and all at the expense of the taxpayers.

Furthermore, along with the lesson, the class was given a discussion board with the prompts:

1. How would George Orwell want to inspire your generation?
2. What is one thing you could do this week?

• I answered the questions by saying that Orwell would want to inspire us to look at the bigger picture of what is going on at the moment seeing that everyone is focused on COVID-19 now and not how isolation can change and affect people’s well being and social life. Orwell in his many books shows how the government could go wrong in many ways and how people with too much power can always be corrupt. The quote “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” ~Lord Acton is a great theme for Orwell’s book Animal Farm. 
• One thing that all of us could do this week with the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 would be to look up and research the truth about the virus seeing that we are flooded with news. All of the news and information given could misguide or overload us clouding our judgement. Orwell would want us to see through what the media wants us to see and would want us to make our own deductions based off of our own research.

Student Reflection

Throughout this lesson, the themes of Animal farm and the purpose of the novel was to show that power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. The main reason of the novel was to show the flaws of the government at the time and it was to protest against communism and show how communism could take the turn for the worst. In the book, Napoleon became corrupt, changing rules and his present laws into laws and rules that benefit him and his kind of people. The book outlines and shows that leaders and important people are not always correct and it is important for the public to have their own opinion and to know what they want and what is good for them. It is necessary to hold checks and balances to make sure that a dictatorship will not erupt from a free country and so that no freedoms that should not be restricted are not restricted. This is shown in our government where there are three branches (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) which all hold checks and balances for each other making sure that no single branch is overstepping their boundaries.