Lesson 6: Animal Farm, Chapter III

Students discuss the actions taken by the pigs with a partner.

Turn and Talk

Have students take out their copies of Animal Farm and their homework from the previous lesson, including their annotations.

• Lesson 5 Homework: Students were instructed to read Chapter III (pp. 27–36) of Animal Farm, annotating for places in the text that describe how the animals act after the rebellion.

Say these Directions: Take out Animal Farm and your annotations. Turn and talk with a partner to discuss the following question:

• What are some actions the pigs take that show their power is increasing?

  • They plan and supervise rather than do any physical “work” (p. 27). For example, the pigs walk behind Boxer and Clover, giving orders. Snowball creates a flag to represent a future “Republic of the Animals” (p. 31). And pigs put forth all the “resolutions” at the meetings (p. 31). Snowball forms several committees to organize and educate the animals. Pigs interpret the Seven Commandments and reduce them to a single slogan for the duller animals. Pigs keep all the milk and apples for themselves in order to “preserve” their “health” (p. 35).

Connection to Today’s Learning: 

• Say: Today, you will continue to analyze how the pigs strengthen their authority through propaganda techniques that persuade the animals to act in certain ways.

Introduce New Words Using Morphology Target Words: parasitical, toiled

Introduce the Words: Present the words: parasitical and toiled and pronounce them.

• Ask: Have you seen either word before? What do you think the words might mean?

Identify Roots: Draw a line between the root parasit and the affix -ical and underline the root. Beneath the word, write the word parasite to show that on its own, the root ends with an e. Tell students that a parasite takes advantage of something or someone and gives nothing in return. It comes from the ancient Greek word parasitos, which meant “someone who eats someone else’s food.” In English, parasite originally referred to people who take advantage of others. It was later adopted by biologists to describe a life form that attaches to an animal and feeds off of it.

Then draw a line between the root toil and its affix -ed. Underline the root, and explain that it comes from the Latin word tudiculāre, which means “to crush with a hammer.” The word entered English as the verb toil, which means “to work hard for a long time.”

Identify Affixes: Circle the suffix -ical and tell students it means “distinguished by.” Circle the suffix -ed and remind students that it is used to change a root verb to its past tense.

• Ask: How do the root parasite and the suffix -itical combine to create the meaning of parasitical?

  • Combined, they form a word that means “something or someone distinguished by taking something and giving nothing in return.”

• Ask: How do the root toil and the suffix -ed combine to create the meaning of the word toiled?

  • Combined, they mean “worked hard for a long time.”

Language Connection: The Spanish word parasitario/parasitaria is similar in both spelling and meaning to parasitical. The Spanish word for toiled is trabajó.

Say these Directions: Read this text from p. 28 of Animal Farm:

• “Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. With the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat.”

Turn and discuss these questions with a partner:

• How is the word worthless a context clue to the meaning of parasitical?

  • It shows that parasites don’t contribute any worth.

• How is the first sentence of the text a context clue to the meaning of parasitical?

  • They are proud to produce the food for themselves.

Confirm or explain that parasitical people use others and give nothing in return.

Connection to Today’s Learning: 

• Say: Understanding words such as parasitical and toiled sharpens our ability to recognize unequal relationships. As you reread Chapter III, consider who is working, who is benefiting, and how language is used to justify that imbalance.

Part A: Analyze Animal Roles and Organization (RL.8.1, RL.8.3) (10 minutes)

Small Group Discussion

Organize students into small groups to engage with Chapter III of Animal Farm.

• Say: We’ve read about the Rebellion and the rules written by the pigs for the rest of the animals to live by. Today, we're going to focus on how the animals start to behave without humans present and analyze the propaganda the pigs use to make the rules sound appealing to the animals. Remember that we learned some background information about propaganda and rhetorical techniques in Spark Lesson 2.

Say these Directions: With your group, discuss how the animals behave after the Rebellion, using the following prompts. Use evidence from the text to support your thinking:

• Which animals are working the hardest on the farm after the Rebellion?

  • I think that the horses, and especially Boxer, are working the hardest. The text says that Boxer “seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders” (p. 29). The text also says that he gets up earlier than all the other animals to start working and that when there was a problem, his response was “‘I will work harder!’” (p. 29).

• Which animals seem uninterested in working on the farm?

  • The text says that Mollie the mare was “not good at getting up in the mornings” and left work early with excuses (p. 29). The text also says that “when there was work to be done the cat could never be found” (p. 30). Benjamin the donkey seems like the only animal that hasn’t really changed at all. The text says that he “seemed quite unchanged…he did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones’s time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either” (p. 30).

• Why do you think the animals begin reading and writing classes?

  • I think that the animals recognize that reading will give them access to new knowledge. The pigs use their new reading skills to read books on topics like “blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts,” which would all be helpful in the operation of a farm (p. 31).

• Snowball and Napoleon have differing ideas about organizing and educating the animals. What do their differing tactics tell you about what they think is important?

  • Snowball starts organizing “what he called Animal Committees” that organize each group of animals into smaller groups (p. 32). He is also the one who starts reading and writing classes. These actions demonstrate that Snowball thinks it is important for all the animals to be organized and for all the animals to be literate. Napoleon “said that the education of the young was more important than anything,” and he takes all the puppies born on the farm and isolates them in the loft, saying that he is “responsible for their education” (p. 35). These actions show that Napoleon believes more in youth education.

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Part B: Analyze How Rhetorical Techniques Influence the Plot (RL.8.3, RL.8.6) (20 minutes)  

Students work in pairs to close read Squealer’s speech in Chapter III and discuss how he uses rhetorical techniques.

Think-Pair-Share

Remind students that propaganda is created for a purpose - it is intended to influence how people think, feel, or act.

Organize students into pairs to re-read Squealer’s speech in Chapter III, discussing the following questions, and completing a 3 Column Chart identifying dialogue that demonstrates the rhetorical techniques used by Squealer to convince the animals that the pigs should have all the milk and apples.

Say these Directions: Re-read the text from p. 35 to the end of the chapter and annotate the text for rhetorical techniques. When you have finished reading and annotating, work with your partner to answer the following questions and to complete a 3 Column Chart analyzing Squealer’s use of propaganda. Title your columns - “Squealer’s Purpose,” “Passage from Text,” and “Rhetorical Technique.”

• What is the purpose of Squealer’s speech?

  • Squealer wants to convince the other animals that it is important for the pigs to have all the milk and apples.

• What rhetorical techniques does Squealer use to explain why the pigs need milk and apples?

  • Squealer uses several rhetorical techniques in his speech. First, he uses an emotional appeal and symbolism to the animals in that he says, “Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig” (p. 36). He is appealing to the other animals that the pigs are the “brainworkers” and need sustenance in order to run the farm. Another appeal that Squealer uses is fear. He tells the animals, “Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!” (p. 36). With this appeal, he is making the other animals believe that something bad will happen to them if they do not agree to let the pigs have the milk and apples.

• What early warning signs suggest that the farm is shifting from shared leadership toward centralized control?

  • The pigs stop doing physical labor, keep the milk and apples, and use persuasive language to justify the inequality of not sharing the milk and apples with the other animals, showing that power is becoming concentrated with the pigs rather than shared with the other animals.

Quick Write

Transition students into reflecting on their learning from the lesson by completing a Quick Write response. Prompt students to revisit Squealer’s argument (pp. 35–36) in favor of reserving the milk and apples for the pigs.

Say these Directions: Reread Squealer’s argument about the milk and apples (pp. 35–36). What might have led Orwell to include this incident in the novel? What is Orwell expressing about the relationship between leadership and persuasion? Write two to three sentences explaining your analysis, using the words parasitical and toiled accurately.  

• Orwell is showing the reader that propaganda can convince people to accept a parasitical relationship with their leaders. Since the Rebellion, the animals have toiled for the benefit of the pigs, and Squealer’s job is to make sure they keep doing so. For example, Squealer persuades the animals by saying that the farm depends on the pigs to function because they are the ones behind the “whole management and organisation” of the farm (pg. 36).

Students read their independent reading book for 20 minutes and complete a reading log entry.

Read your independent reading book for 20 minutes. In your reading log, record the date and pages you read, write 1–2 sentences about what happened or what you learned, and respond to this week’s prompt using evidence from the text.