Animal Farm

Chapter 6

Irony What is the irony behind the chapter’s opening line?“All that year the animals worked

like slaves.”

What type of irony is it?“But they were happy…They did it for the benefit of themselves… not for a pack of idle thieving human beings.”

Chapter 6 Key Events #1 Voluntary work on Sundays

• If you did not, your food rations were cut

Animals eager to take more work b/c it’s for their own benefit

Hens called upon to give their eggs

Chapter 6 Key Events: #1 Cont.

Boxer emerges and the most important animal on the farm

“Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer…” (p67)

He works more than any other animal Only Benjamin refused to get

enthusiastic about the windmill Represents the people who were

cynical and skeptical about the rebellion

Chapter 6 Key Events #2 Mr. Whymper-Human solicitor

• Used to obtain needed goods • Iron, nails, oil, machinery for the windmill

Caused concern among the animals who believed such actions were a violation of Animalism

Allegorical Connections Agent of the Communist

International (Comintern) worked with Russia and the outside world

Mr. Whymper serves the farm while making a profit as well

Napoleon uses himto spread rumors that all is still going well

Allegorical Connections Whymper is also an allusion to Westerners

that catered to Soviet interests and helped spread the Soviet myth

“There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be.” -- Walter Duranty New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931 Words spread by journalist

about the state of Soviet Russia The reality was much different

"There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be.” --New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931, page 1

"Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda.“ --New York Times, August 23, 1933

"Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please. Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin's program, believes it worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding.” --New York Times, December 9, 1932, page 6

"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.” --New York Times, May 14, 1933, page 18

"There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.” --New York Times, March 31, 1933, page 13

Walter Duranty Walter Duranty (1884 – October 3, 1957) was a

controversial Liverpool-born British-American journalist who served as the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times from 1922 through 1936.

A series of stories written in 1931 on the Soviet Union won Duranty a Pulitzer Prize.

Duranty has been criticized for his denial of widespread famine

Many years later there were calls to revoke his Pulitzer

The Times acknowledged that his articles constituted “some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.”

Chapter 6 Key Events #2 Cont.

“Never to have dealing with humans” “Never to engage in trade” “Never to make use of money”

“All the animals remembered passing such resolutions: or at least they thought that they remembered it.” (p63)

For legs good, two legs bad.

Chapter 6 Key Events #2 Cont.

Squealer suggests it’s something that the animals “dreamed”

“Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written down anywhere?” (p64)

Targets the animals illiteracy

Chapter 6 Key Events: #3 Pigs now live and sleep in farm

house Commandments changed

“No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”

Squealer said it was necessary for the pigs who did the brainwork

Uses fear, “Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?” (p67)

Chapter 6 Key Events #4 Storm destroys windmill

• It was built with walls too thin• The humans would “meet in the public houses and prove to one another by means of diagrams that the windmill was bound to fall down.” (p65)

Napoleon accuses Snowball Snowball is given a death sentence

Chapter 6 –Analysis Elements of Oppression in Action1. Overworked working class

• Educational psychology says that people who are kept very busy are easily controlled

2. Rewriting history3. Propaganda as a means of control4. A common enemy

• Ex: Communist Russia vs. Trotskyism

• Ex: U.S.A. vs. Communism

The Common Enemy

Chapter 6 –AnalysisThe need for a Scapegoat

Many psychologists say humans need something to love and something to hate

1. It aides in building a group identity– “US”

You can’t know happiness without sadness.You can’t know YOU without THEM

“..self-definition is impossible without reference to the other.”

2. It allows us to project our own negative qualities onto others

3. It aides in building group cohesiveness

Chapter 6—Analysis Cont. Snowball is blamed Unites the comrades against a

common enemy What is the irony behind this ?

Napoleon’s Leadership:

His changes are small and incremental so that there appears to be no change at all

He changes:• The commandment• Their workload• The view of Snowball’s influence on the farm

The Hypocrisy of Tyranny

Emerging Themes “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”