Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Napoleon vs Snowball

Animal Farm is prospering.  Despite some setbacks with animals trying to use human implements, they are harvesting, planning, meeting, and living quite well. Looking at some of the student comments, seems like they are enjoying this novel for the most part, despite the personification of the farm animals.  It is rather creepy to imagine pigs sleeping in beds and horses discussing farm politics. 

Nonetheless, we're about halfway through the book already and should be building replicas of the farms as early as next week.  Dollar stores, beware!  We usually clean them out of craft sticks and plastic animals.

Consider:
  • Do Napoleon and Snowball resemble current or historical political leaders?
  • Are the pigs effective leaders?
  • Are you satisfied with the reactions of the other animals to recent events?
  • Can you draw any parallels between leadership styles and tactics in the novel and your life or our world at large?

16 comments:

  1. This book truly upsets me. It's supposed to display personification, I'm aware. But the fact that the book is so dead on with the flaws of human greed is really terrific.
    The pigs are like the leaders of our current government. They only have interests in their own agendas and show no pity for the public.
    And the animals are like the citizens of our country by not doing anything about it

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  2. I am completely and udderly (hahaha) disgusted with how the other farm animals are reacting to how the pigs are taking over the whole farm. I became extremely angry at the fact that the animals didn't do much in response to the litter of puppies that had been taken away from their mother and used as "henchmen" for Napoleon's regime.

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  3. I'd say the pigs are pretty legit leaders. They're epic at delivering speaches, the other farm animals are getting used by the pigs, but atleast its orderly up in there.

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  4. I agree with Erica. The pigs are like our own goverment who only have interest in themselves and people like them. They make our lives horrible and confusing they the pigs do in Animal Farm. And we citizens have to sit back and take it just like the animals do. Ridiclous if you ask me.

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  5. I was not satisfied with the animal reactions to recent events. When snowball was run off the farm, I thought that maybe the other animals would be more concerned about this, but they were not. I was dissapointed that no one stood up for snowball. All the animals are failing to see that Napolean is turning into a dictator like leader, and I am worried for their futures on animal farm

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  6. All of the pigs remind me of nazis, with Napolean being the ultimate leader (Hitler). The pigs do get the other animals to follow them, so they are good leaders. I think the animal should all be equal, and that the other animal need to do something about the power hungry pigs.

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  7. I am not sarisfied with the reactions of the animals in the farm. Napoleon has too much power and the animals need to do something about it. They need to make sacrifices in order to prosper in the farm.

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  8. The pigs are effective leaders because they were able to get all of the animals to follow them. I do think that they have bad intentions though, and only care about their own well being.

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  9. This book angers me. if your not brainwashed, then you'll see how much this book resembles our government. I will say the author does a very good job so far portraying our govt. and pretty much all the other ones. Id like to witness an up-rising in my lifetime.

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  10. Snowball's a total nerdski, Napolean is the one with the cahones.

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  11. The pigs aren't effective leaders because they care more about their own situation instead of all the animals. I believe that the pigs started the whole rebelion just to stop the humans from slaughtering pigs for bacon. A leader must not be selfish, a leader must be caring and willing to help every animal benefit.

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  12. Yes, the pigs are effective leaders. They might be a bit controlling but none of the other animals are fit for the job.

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  13. I am suprised that all the animals on the farm listen to the pigs. There is more of them, they should kick out the pigs and run the farm the right way.

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  14. I'm not satisfied with the reactions of the other animals to the recent events because they didn't do anything about it, they just went along with it. I think this book represents our government really well. The government tells us what to do and almost every one follows by those rules and doesn't do anything about it. Napoleon represents the government now a days and the other pigs represents the enforcers and we represent the rest of the animals.

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  15. I am disgusted with the way that Napoleon acts. I was appaled about what happened to Snowball. He was the only thing that was keeping the other animals' choices. Now they are like slaves to the pigs they are kept in line by the dogs and they are being brainwashed on top of it.
    In my mind Squealer is the worst pig of them all. He is the enabler. He just swishes his tail at the other animals and they believe his lies. It is gross.

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  16. I am not satisfied with the reactions of any of the animals. They are all acting like power hungry nazis. The farm is going to fall apart and fail like the nazis. I believe the farm will become a place of chaos because everyone wants to be in power.

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