Understanding Orwell's Language Techniques in 'Animal Farm', Lecture notes of English Literature

Download Understanding Orwell's Language Techniques in 'Animal Farm' and more Lecture notes English Literature in PDF only on Docsity! { Written by experienced teachers and examiners { Guides you to the best understanding of the text { Get your best grade Kevin Radford Series Editors: Sue Bennett and Dave Stockwin Animal Farm by George Orwell study revise a n d for GCSEYour year-round course companions for English literature Read, analyse and revise your set texts throughout the course to achieve your very best grade, with support at every stage from expert teachers and examiners. Each Study and Revise guide: ▸ Offers accessible and stimulating coverage of all aspects of the text, from plot and characterisation to themes and language ▸ Challenges and develops your knowledge and understanding so you reach your full potential ▸ Builds the skills you’ll need to succeed, with plenty of opportunities for exam- focused practice and reviewing your learning ▸ Helps you prepare for the exam and remember examples from the text using the dedicated section on Top Ten Quotations Additional grade-boosting features include: ▸ Build critical skills ▸ Grade booster ▸ Grade focus ▸ Key quotations ▸ Review your learning For a full list of titles in this series, see the inside front cover. I S BN 978-147-1-85354-8 9 7 8 1 4 7 1 8 5 3 5 4 8 Animal Farm by George Orwell Anim al Farm stu d y a n d r evise fo R G CSE Radford 853548_Animal_Farm_V4.indd 1 25/04/2016 11:35 63 Language All authors choose their words carefully and purposefully for maximum effect, even when the language appears simple, as is the case with Animal Farm. This appearance can be deceptive as Orwell uses many language devices to tell the story. The straightforward prose style is appropriate for a fable or fairy story (see below) and Orwell deliberately uses some of the methods we associate with those forms of story. In an exam answer you may wish to consider the possibility that if Orwell is criticising people’s unquestioning beliefs in political ideologies that can be reduced to simple slogans, then can’t the same criticism be levelled at Animal Farm? Exploring alternative interpretations like this is a great way to gain the higher levels. GRADE BOOSTER With his use of an external narrator, Orwell provides us with a traditional storyteller who unfolds the story for us. He opens the story with a focus on character and setting, before moving on to events which, as we have seen, relate to history. The narrator signals time passing and events for us in a simplified way: ‘Three nights later old Major died peacefully in his sleep’; ‘All through that summer’; ‘By the late summer’. Apart from Chapter 10, which takes place after ‘Years [have] passed’, the events in the novel span four years: ● Summer, Year 1: Chapters 1–4 ● Autumn, Year 1: Chapter 4 ● Winter, Year 1: Chapter 5 ● Spring, Year 2: Chapter 5 ● Winter, Year 2: Chapter 6 ● Spring, Year 3: Chapter 7 ● Autumn, Year 3: Chapter 8 ● Winter, Year 3: Chapter 8 ● Summer, Year 4: Chapter 8 Language, style and analysis Target your thinking ● Why is Orwell’s use of language important? (AO2) ● How important is the setting in Animal Farm? (AO1, AO2) ● How does the author use language, style and structure to convey his message? (AO2, AO3) 9781471853548.indb 63 4/8/16 3:12 PM Animal Farm 66 rhetorical questions, lists, choices of inclusion and omission and personal pronouns are all tools that help to pacify the animals and maintain the pigs’ power. The animals all have their own distinctive voices. For example, Orwell often has Squealer pose a number of rhetorical questions, causing the animals to question their own memories and suspicions of the pigs. He uses personal pronouns such as ‘you’ repeatedly in an accusatory way, inferring that the animals are in the wrong to want the pigs not to have a proper rest or sleep in beds. Orwell has Squealer refer to the animals as ‘comrades’ and uses the personal pronoun ‘we’ to suggest that he is on their side. His reference to the animals’ absolute need for the pigs and their ‘brainwork’, along with Orwell’s use of the emotive word ‘surely’, provokes guilt and instils a fear in the animals that without the pigs, Jones would come back to rule the farm. By mentioning Jones, Squealer ensures that the animals’ fear of a past master keeps their present one in control. It is noticeable that while Orwell frequently uses direct speech when the animals are talking, Napoleon’s speech is always written in reported speech and never given in direct speech. This has the effect of making Napoleon seem a more remote figure, distant and aloof from the rest of the animals. The personality cult that has been built up around him is also emphasised when he never gives direct orders himself but always uses one of the pigs, usually Squealer, to convey his orders: he is seen by the animals as being too important actually to talk to them. Realistic detail Orwell writes very concisely, often using multiple adjectives to give the reader a lot of information very quickly. For example, Mollie is a ‘foolish, pretty, white mare’ and Clover a ‘stout, motherly mare’. He often adds precise realistic detail, for example the effect of the seasons on the farm, which Orwell often uses to highlight the difficulties the farm faces: ‘the autumn producing thirty-one young pigs’ (which would have to be fed), or the description of Boxer and Clover setting down their ‘vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animal concealed in the straw’. The effect of such detail is, ironically, to add realism to what is a fable not a realistic story, helping us to suspend our disbelief and so be more receptive to the story and its message. Imagery and symbolism The vocabulary and sentence structure of Animal Farm is very simple, as is fitting for a novel that Orwell subtitled A Fairy Story. The simplicity of the story’s style does not lend itself to an abundance of imagery, meaning that when Orwell does introduce imagery it is all the more effective. Key quotation ‘Even Boxer was vaguely troubled … but in the end he could not think of anything to say.’ Key quotation ‘He was always referred to in formal style as “our leader, Comrade Napoleon”’ 9781471853548.indb 66 4/8/16 3:12 PM language, style and analysis 67 A good example of this is the beginning of Chapter 6: ‘All that year the animals worked like slaves.’ This is a common image but in the context of this novel it is a powerful ironic comment: actually the animals are not like slaves – they are slaves, although they do not know it. If you are asked about symbolism in the text, you could discuss Animal Farm’s flag, with its image of hoof and horn. Mentioning that this is similar to the Red Banner’s image of the hammer and sickle (used by the Bolsheviks as a symbol of their ideological commitment to placing all authority in the hands of workers and peasants) may gain you extra marks in an exam. GRADE BOOSTER Of course the entire novel is rich in symbolism, but it can be useful sometimes to consider some of the symbols that are also potent images, for example the flag. Flags are symbols of patriotism or loyalty to a geographical area, an organisation or a particular ideal. The hoof-and- horn flag is particularly interesting. Its background is green, perhaps suggesting the peace and tranquillity of pasture. It is therefore ironic that after the Rebellion the animals work just as hard and are treated as badly as in Jones’s day. The flag later comes to represent the absolute control of the pigs when the hoof and horn are removed and it becomes a plain green flag. Similarly, the whip is used to symbolise the cruel oppression of the animals by Jones. The destruction of the whips at the birth of Animal Farm is a triumphant moment for the animals – ‘All the animals capered with joy when they saw the whips going up in flames’ – but Clover is terrified towards the end of the novel when she sees Napoleon walking on his hind legs with a whip in his trotter. There is little point in being able simply to identify or list various aspects of language, style and structure. You need to be able to comment on how they add to the novel and help Orwell get his message across to the reader. GRADE BOOSTER Finally, the apples and milk can be seen as symbolic of the luxuries that the animals believed they would all share after the Rebellion. The fact that they are taken away is the first indication of the pigs’ greed and their belief that they see themselves as superior to the other animals. 9781471853548.indb 67 4/8/16 3:12 PM Animal Farm 68 Style If the characters in a novel tell us who, the plot tells us what and the themes tell us why, then the style of a novel tells us how all these elements knit together to produce the text. The style of Animal Farm is particularly important in conveying Orwell’s message. The story may be told in a straightforward way – but don’t be fooled by its apparent simplicity. Animal Farm has a clearly defined style that is crucial to the author’s purpose. The most obvious aspect of the style is that the novel is written as a story with talking animals, like many children’s stories. Orwell originally subtitled his novel A Fairy Story and there are clear aspects of fairy tales in Animal Farm: the simple plot and setting, the struggle between good and evil and the stereotypical characters. In this novel, however, good does not triumph over evil and the novel does not end with our heroes and heroines living ‘happily ever after’. Instead of utopia being achieved, we have a dystopian world being created. The advantages of using animals is that the storyline, and characters, are kept simple, allowing Orwell’s message about corruption and abuse of power to be all the more clearly seen. This simple, easily understood nature of the story makes for wide audience appeal and easy translation into other languages. Contrasting styles At the text level, what appears to be a simplicity of the language can, on closer inspection, become ambiguous and the effect of this simplicity is sometimes deliberately reversed. Orwell, mostly through Squealer, resorts to jargon and ‘scientific’ explanations to convince, confuse and manipulate the animals. There are numerous examples in the text of the way in which language is used to maintain power. Most of the animals (with the exception of Benjamin) are unable to understand concepts and ideologies, and Squealer is able to exploit their inability to think in the abstract. Snowball also resorts to similar methods. As early as Chapter 3, we see Snowball’s superior linguistic ability when he uses words such as ‘propulsion’ and ‘manipulation’, which the birds do not understand, to convince the animals that a wing is a leg. Later we see Squealer using language as a device to maintain the pigs’ power, when he talks of ‘tactics’ in Chapter 5, which the animals do not understand, and when we are told that he refers to ‘mysterious things’ called ‘files’, ‘reports’ and ‘memoranda’, with the implied suggestion that these are unintelligible to the animals. Don’t be afraid to consider any negative aspects of a text’s style. In using the form of a children’s story, is there a danger that the message will be lost in the story or that the novel will not be taken seriously and seen only as a children’s book? Gulliver’s Travels is today regarded by most people as only a children’s story but when it was written (in 1726) it was regarded as a clear political satire. Build critical skills Key quotation ‘Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig.’ 9781471853548.indb 68 4/8/16 3:12 PM