Reading Focus & Critical Questions
To truly delve into the concepts of Animal Farm, we will need to read with purpose and think about the
underlying themes Orwell exposes. At the start of every chapter, pay attention to the reading focus for guidance. At the
end of every chapter, answer one or more of the Critical Questions to process what you read. You will be given time in
class to complete some of the reading and writing, and you are expected to continue the process as homework should
class time prove to be deficient.
Reading
Reading Focus
Critical Questions
Assignment
Ch. 1
Ch. 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Get to know characters/setting.
Who’s in charge? How do the animals feel about this?
Power and Religion:
Religion in Animal Farm is used, as Karl Marx
famously said, as an “opiate of the masses.” The
animals are distracted from their horrible living
situation and life of labor with visions of
“Sugarcandy Mountain,” a supposed heaven.
Religion is also peripherally associated with
corrupt power. The government tolerates
religion precisely because its ability to placate and
to distract the lower-class animals. Pay attention
to how religion impacts the lives of each
character.
Rules and Order:
Rules are often thought of as a way to maintain
generally accepted notions of order. Traditions
might be thought of as a way of remembering
one’s debt to the past, or re-affirming one’s
values. Yet in Animal Farm, both function mainly
as political tools. The commandments and the
traditions set up immediately after the Rebellion
are meant to unite and energize the animals. Yet
both rules and traditions prove malleable (easily
changeable), and the animals can’t see that these
customs are being used to deceive and take
advantage of them.
Power and Control:
There is a gap between what the animals are
fighting for and what they believe they are
fighting for. The animals believe they are fighting
against protection, but they are unknowingly
consolidating the pigs’ power by defeating the
only threat to the pigs’ regime—the humans.
1. Why could Orwell choose a raven as the main
proponent of religion?
2. Why call the raven Moses? It sounds like a biblical
reference, yet Moses the raven doesn’t do
anything resembling Moses the man (leading a
great big horde of people out of oppression and
into freedom). What gives?
3. What’s going on with Moses and the Joneses?
They seem to have a closeness… and there seems
to be some connection between corrupt power
and religion. Notice how we said “seems,” so
you’ll have to argue one way or the other.
Cunning and Cleaverness:
At the very beginning of Animal Farm, it is easy to
laugh at Squealer’s professed ability to “turn
black into white”. Yet as time goes on, it
becomes clear that Squealer’s cleverness can be
used in very harmful ways. The pigs take
advantage of the other animals’ lack of
intelligence, and gradually brainwash, deceive,
distract, and dupe them into a life of hardship
1. One of the “coolest” things about Animal Farm,
besides the talking pigs, is the fact that we know
all these things the animals don’t. Our knowledge
as a reader puts us in a position to analyze the
text. This is generally how paragles work. It’s easy
to see how the pigs are taking advantage of the
other animals, but perhaps there are also things
going on in the real world, in our own big Animal
Farm, that we might not be recognizing?
1. The animals establish tons of traditions on the
farm, and certain routines become cyclic and
expected. Is the action of the plot itself—that is,
the cycle of oppression-rebellion-corruption, a
routine tradition? Could it be? Maybe Benjamin
hints at this when he says, “Donkeys live a long
time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.”
Then again, maybe he doesn’t.
2. What is Orwell saying about those who govern
others? Who wants to rule? Why do others not
want to rule? What are these animals (and
people) like?
1. What qualities allow the pigs to gain power in the
first place, and what qualities enable them to keep
power? Are these different?
2. How do you define power, anyway? What does it
mean to have power on Animal Farm? Is it
possible for leaders to have this kind of power
without abusing it?
Reading Focus & Critical Questions
and toil as short and miserable as their life before
2. The animals are really concerned about controlling
the Rebellion.
the image of their farm in the outside world. Is
this the same kind of manipulation that the pigs
perform within the farm? Are the working class
animals then also responsible, in some ways, for
the attempted deception of the outside world?
3. What is the single most important thing the
working animals could recognize that would stop
them from being oppressed?
Ch. 67
Lies and Deceit:
Like much else in Animal Farm, deception is used
to gain power. The pigs deceive the other
animals about the past, convincing them that
certain events did or did not occur. They deceive
them as to the present, pretending that their
situation is better than it really is. And they
deceive the farm animals as far as plans for the
future, ensuring them their dreams will come
true. We see that superior intelligence is often
used not to least justly, but to deceive.
1. What are the specific tools that Squealer uses to
deceive the animals, and why do they work so
well?
2. You might have noticed that several different
animals, and humans, use deception. If you didn’t
notice, go back. The question is, how is the way
the animals use deception different from the way
humans do? Maybe the motivations are different,
or the outcomes, or the style of deception, etc. Or
maybe there is no difference.
3. The animals are dumb, but they are not that
dumb. Well, the sheep are. But the rest have an
inclination that something is rotten in the state of
Animal Farm. So why don’t they do anything
about it?
Ch. 89
Control and the Intellectually Inferior:
We know that the pigs have taken over power
since the Rebellion because they claim they are
the most intelligent animals on the farm. Yet it
soon becomes clear that intelligence and good
intentions need not go hand in hand. The pigs
are reliant on the ignorance of the other animals,
and their inability to see how the principles of
Animalism are becoming corrupted. To the
extent that the animals don’t question the pigs,
they become complicit (partly guilty) in the
corruption of their ideals.
1. You might be thinking what we’re thinking, namely
that the sheep are completely useless. And you
might be right. But at the end of the day, do we
actually need these less intellectual workers to
support everyone else?
2. While the sheep are extraordinarily inept, do they
also have a certain power? You know, the kind of
power that only a numerous group of brainwashed
and brainwashing individuals can have?
3. What about those animals who are intelligent and
do speak out against the sheep? Why is their
intelligence weak in comparison?
Ch. 10
Back to Power and Corruption:
The cycle comes full circle—the pigs wholly
consolidate their power into a communist
dictatorship, not unlike the human farmers. The
animals remain naïvely hopeful up until the very
end. That power corrupts is the inevitable
conclusion.
1. We’re back where we started, so how do you
define power now? What does it mean to have
power on Animal Farm? Is it possible for leaders
to have this kind of power without abusing it?
2. The final distillation of the Seven Commandments
comes down to this: “animals are equal, but some
are more equal than others”. How do you feel
about this statement? How does this statement
relate to our society?