GCSE · English Literature · AQA · Spec 8702

Animal Farm: revolution and propaganda

The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white. Let's catch him at it, line by line.

English Literature · Close reading

Watch a con in slow motion

The pigs have taken the milk and apples for themselves, and Squealer has to make that sound fine. Tap each underlined phrase and ask two questions every time: what do the animals hear, and what is really being said?

It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back!
Squealer justifies the pigs taking the milk and apples.

Part of the speech is not quoted here: Squealer also refers to science, which makes him sound authoritative and credible. Add it to your list of tricks: pleading, collective pronouns, science, a rhetorical question, a threat.

Focus each underlined phrase in turn: the reading appears underneath.

Reading “YOUR sake”

Pleading, with the stress on YOUR

What to notice

The animals hear: the pigs are doing this for me. Someone is looking after my interests, and it is costing them.

Effect

Squealer cries out and speaks pleadingly, but the pleading is not genuine. A selfish act is dressed up as a sacrifice made for the animals.

Focused phrase “YOUR sake”. technique Pleading, with the stress on YOUR. The animals hear: the pigs are doing this for me. Someone is looking after my interests, and it is costing them.. effect: Squealer cries out and speaks pleadingly, but the pleading is not genuine. A selfish act is dressed up as a sacrifice made for the animals.

Exam line: Name the device, then say what the animals hear and what is really going on. Spotting the device on its own is only half the job.
Watch out: 'It is persuasive' is too thin. Say who is being persuaded, how, and what is being hidden from them.

Same toolkit, opposite job

Old Major's speechvsNapoleon's windmill speech

Read across each row: what has stayed the same, and what has changed?

Focus

In their own words

Old Major's speech

"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short."

Napoleon's windmill speech

"SNOWBALL!" he suddenly roared in a voice of thunder.

The insight

Old Major's first words invite the animals to look at their own lives. Napoleon's accuse. Old Major's speech also uses a rule of three, which emphasises the emotional content and magnifies the plight of the animals.

The toolkit

Old Major's speech

The collective pronoun comrades, a rhetorical question and a rule of three.

Napoleon's windmill speech

Comrades, two rhetorical questions in succession, repetition and imperatives.

Delivery and tone

Old Major's speech

Passionate.

Napoleon's windmill speech

Aggressive and angry: it begins quietly and conspiratorially, then turns aggressive.

What it is for

Old Major's speech

To incite a rebellion for equality. It echoes Marx's Communist Manifesto and is the catalyst for all the action that follows.

Napoleon's windmill speech

To blame Snowball as a traitor and pronounce the death sentence upon him. It persuades because it is terrifying.

What happens to the devotion

Old Major's speech

Arguably a cult of personality: the animals follow him without question, and even after he is gone treat his skull like a sacred object.

Napoleon's windmill speech

The pigs are able to use that devotion to maintain power over the animals.

How the dream decays

The events in the order the story tells them. For each one, ask: how far is this from Old Major's dream?

The allegory and the image-making

Animal Farm is an allegory: Orwell uses the style of a fairy story and the people and events of the Russian Revolution, which happened between 1917 and 1923, to comment on power, class systems, propaganda, corruption and totalitarianism. Orwell was critical of communism. He believed it led to totalitarian regimes and that its ideals were utopian and would only ever be corrupted, so he wrote a cautionary tale. Each row pairs the real thing with its version on the farm, and one row shows what a cult of personality looks like.

English Literature · Control

Which tool of control is it?

Sort each action into the method of control it shows.

Still to sort

Control of education and information (0)

Deciding what the animals can learn, know and think for themselves.

Where the line is: About what the animals know and can think now, not about what the past is said to have been.

Manipulation of history (0)

Changing the story of what happened.

Where the line is: About what is said to have happened before, not about what the animals are able to know or work out.

A culture of fear (0)

Threats, terror and punishment that keep the animals from daring to dissent.

Where the line is: About what the animals are made afraid of, not about what they are told or taught.

7 of 7 still to sort.

Rhetoric is only part of how the pigs keep hold of the farm. Decide where each action belongs before you read the reason.

Exam line: Naming the method is the skill: education, history or fear, then say what the pigs gain from it.
Watch out: Easy trap: blaming Snowball for the windmill and claiming he sided with the humans are both about history. One is a scapegoat, the other a smear.

English Literature · Rhetoric

Is it just clever arguments?

Old Major, Snowball, Squealer and Napoleon all talk their way into the animals' hearts and minds. Someone in your class says, 'It's just who has the best argument.'

Which is closest to what you think right now?
How sure are you?

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

How the speeches that start a rebellion become the speeches that keep it betrayed.

What you need to know

  • Animal Farm is an allegory: Orwell uses the style of a fairy story and the people and events of the Russian Revolution to comment on power, propaganda, corruption and totalitarianism.
  • Old Major's speech starts the rebellion and Squealer's speeches help keep it betrayed: the same rhetorical devices serve opposite purposes.
  • Rhetoric is the art of persuasive communication. Every pig uses it, in different ways linked to their purpose and intention.
  • The pigs control the animals through education and information, manipulation of history and a culture of fear.
  • Napoleon and Squealer ultimately rely on fear in controlling the animals.

The big picture

In Animal Farm the revolution is lost through language. The devices that inspire the animals in Old Major's speech are turned by the pigs into propaganda that makes a selfish act sound like a sacrifice. Orwell links this to Stalin's methods: control of education and information, manipulation of history and a culture of fear.

Key points

1Squealer is described as a brilliant talker who could turn black into white, and Orwell uses him to represent the power of propaganda. He is an allusion to Molotov, Stalin's right-hand man, who was very skilled in propaganda.
2In the milk and apples speech Squealer pleads (not genuinely), uses rhetorical questions and collective pronouns, refers to science to sound authoritative, and threatens the return of Jones.
3Old Major and Napoleon both use rhetorical devices and persuasive speeches. Old Major's delivery is passionate; Napoleon's is aggressive and angry.
4A cult of personality is absolute devotion to a charismatic leader, the result of a carefully constructed persona spread through propaganda and other means.
5Stalin compared education to a weapon, and totalitarian regimes do not want people educated or fully informed because they might challenge or even rebel. The pigs recognise the same power in education and information.
6Context sharpens interpretation: link each Animal Farm event to its Russian Revolution parallel to explain what Orwell is saying about power.

⚠ Watch out

Spotting a device and stopping. 'Squealer uses a rhetorical question' is only half an answer: say what the animals hear and what is really going on. And do not make the pigs simple villains with one trick; every pig uses rhetoric.

🧠

Memory hook

Teach it, rewrite it, scare them: the pigs decide what the animals know, what happened and what to be afraid of.

✓

Check yourself

Without looking back: name the three methods of control the pigs use besides rhetoric, and give one action from the story for each.

Flashcards

(14)
What is an allegory, and why is Animal Farm one?
A story where characters and events stand for real people and events. Animal Farm uses the style of a fairy story and the Russian Revolution (1917 to 1923) to comment on power, class, propaganda, corruption and totalitarianism.
Why did Orwell write Animal Farm as a cautionary tale?
He was critical of communism: he believed it led to totalitarian regimes, and that its ideals were utopian and would only ever be corrupted by the inevitability of hierarchy and power.
Who invents Animalism?
Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer, not Old Major. They elaborate his teachings into a complete system of thought.
Who does Old Major represent, and what does his speech do?
He represents Karl Marx. His speech echoes the Communist Manifesto and is the catalyst for the rebellion.
What is rhetoric?
The art of persuasive communication. All the pigs use it, in different ways linked to their purpose and intention.
What does the word comrades do?
It is a collective pronoun that creates a sense of unity, as if all the animals are in the rebellion together, even though they are not.
What is an imperative?
A direct command that sounds authoritative, for example "No argument must lead you astray." The commandments are full of them.
What is Squealer an allusion to, and what does he represent?
Molotov, Stalin's right-hand man, who was very skilled in propaganda. Orwell uses Squealer to represent the power of propaganda.
How do Old Major's and Napoleon's speeches differ?
Both use rhetorical devices to persuade. Old Major's delivery is passionate; Orwell presents Napoleon's as more aggressive and angry.
What do Napoleon and Squealer ultimately rely on to control the animals?
Fear.
Define a cult of personality.
Absolute devotion to a charismatic leader, the result of a carefully constructed persona spread through propaganda and other means.
What did Stalin compare education to, and why does it matter?
A weapon: a tool that can be wielded by those in control. Totalitarian regimes do not want people educated, because they might challenge or rebel.
How do the pigs manipulate history?
They use Snowball as a scapegoat for the windmill's collapse though they know the walls were too thin, and Napoleon later claims Snowball was on the humans' side at the Battle of the Cowshed.
What do Napoleon's public confessions and executions mirror?
Stalin's show trials during the Great Terror of the 1930s: highly publicised showpieces with predetermined guilty verdicts that cultivate a culture of fear.

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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