Analisi Animal Farm, Orwell, Prove d'esame di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Analisi Animal Farm, Orwell e più Prove d'esame in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! OLD MAJOR'S SPEECH SUMMARY Orwell wrote animal farm as an allegory of the Russian Revolu�on in the form of animal fable.The main theme of this novel is that all revolu�ons fail because the leaders forget the ideas of revolu�on. They are interested in taking the power in their hands and keeping their privileges.Tyranny is evil, regardless of its poli�cal nature. The protagonists are animals, but they are connected to historical and poli�cal events.In the novel, the animals are described as a simbols, but they also possess the trait of their species. Old major stands for a mixture of Marx and Lenin, He is the oldest pig of the farm who talks about the dream he made about all animals being free from the control of human race, so able to decide for their own des�ny. But three days a�er his discourse he dies, such as Lenin who won't be able to see the revolu�on he inspired.Farmer jones is zar Nicolas II, Orwell describes him as a drunk farmer who does not care about his animals; The three pigs are Snowball, Squealer and Napoleon. Snowball represent Trotsky ; Napoleon is Stalin who used terror and force in order to assert and maintain his power over the animals; Squealer represent the propaganda. Boxer is the Animalism; the dogs are the metaphor for the terror state.The book is a short narra�ve set on a farm, where a group of oppressed animals , capable of speech and reason, rebel against their farmer Jones and set up a revolu�onary government. The pigs lead and supervise the enterprise under Napoleon's leadership. At first the life of the animal is guided by seven commandments based on equality. But these are altered by the pigs who become dictatorial and they take the place of the men and all the original principle of Animalism are not respected anymore. At the end the seven commandments are abandoned and only one remains: “ all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. ANALYSIS Orwell uses rhetoric to show what it can do and how powerful it is. Through these methods of persuasion, Old Major effec�vely gets through to his companions. this speech led the animals to take control of the farm. The author uses a variety of techniques in order to link language with power. Orwell always uses a combina�on of techniques which makes his speech unique than others. There are many ways in which Orwell uses rhetoric in order to persuade and manipulate the crowd (the farm animals). Old Major wants to create an animal utopia, and in order to do this, encourages rebellion within the farm, he tells them that Man is the enemy, and a rebellion is inevitable, just as Marx and Lenin, who he represents, did during the Russian Revolu�on. Techniques such as pathos and rhetorical ques�ons are used effec�vely with a wide variety of other techniques e.g. an�thesis, anaphora and ethos being used, though perhaps not as widely or as well as the two devices men�oned previously (pathos and rhetorical ques�ons). The other main persuasive method was via structure, which was also used successfully. Pathos and emo�ve vocabulary is used extensively in the speech. The powerful rhetorical strategies are in fact key to Old Major’s speech because he relies heavily on that to gain credence and convince his audience. The speech reflects actual historical events; such rhetoric was key to the success of the Russian Revolu�on. Marx and Lenin, both represented by Old Major were able to convince en�re countries through powerful rhetoric, subtly u�lizing such strategies. As the saying goes, language is power. It is a sa�re, a genre that exploits the use of humor to expose or cri�cise human or individual vices, follies, abuses and it is also a form of persuasion, since the author wants his readers to pay more a�en�on, to be cri�cal and be resistan listeners to poli�cian's speeches, infact there is a a con�nuous reference to historical events. So this novel is a poli�cal sa�re, throught which the empowered ones are sa�rised and indirectly a�acked. The parody here consists of comparing the poli�cal figures to animal, precisely pigs. Its main purpose is his moral aspect, since the author wants to inspire an improvement in his reader's life, who has to recognize the aspects of the real world being called into play through the prism of the invented, fic�onal one. Old Major, a boar(=cinghiale), is a persuasive speaker. He tells the other animals he is going to describe a dream he had last night, and describes a dream of a be�er future for the animals. Many of the animals are not very intelligent, so Old Major's ability to state an oversimplified solu�on in simple words is persuasive: their problems are all due to mankind. This is easy for the animals to believe him and Old Major lays out the reasons why mankind is to blame: men force animals to work to "the last atom" of their strength and then send them out to a "hideous" slaughter. Words like "hideous," "last atom," and "miserable" depict the animals' lives in the worst possible terms. The animals work by laying eggs, giving milk, and �lling the fields, but humans collect all the profits. Old Major uses heightened language to describe the behavior of men; Old Major claims that men don't just take some of the milk, but all of it, so "Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies." Of course, it's probable that the baby calves get some small part of the milk, but Old Major exaggerates for effect. This kind of language is meant to arouse and inflame the emo�ons of the animals and to cause them to feel deprived of their rights. Old Major then draws a contrast, an an�thesis between the hard life the animals currently experience and the good life they could have without mankind, when he says "almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!", he compare the chance to live in a wealthy condi�on instead of working for the men, to the real condi�on they live, as slave of the enemy that is the man. Using heightened language and the starkness(=rigidità) of the contrast helps persuade the animals that man is the enemy and the animals should rebel when the chance arises. It is an example of language as discourse, in which words are selected to spread a certain idea, proving that texts are not neutral but they are instrument of persuasion. In fact, he ends on that black and white note: man is the "enemy," and all animals are friends. Old Major's language allows for no nuance(=sfumatura), no possibility that any human Perora�on(=A wide and commi�ed speech, mo�vated by patronage or propaganda) is also quite relevant, it is rela�vely easy for Old Major to reject a pro-human argument because the animals have only experienced Mr Jones (he uses his ignorance about all the human race to make them believe that they are all like Mr Jones) and so already hold an an�-human view. We can say that in this argument about the cruelty of man kind the speaker uses the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" a causa�on model of persuasion which is actually a fallacy, since he says that just because Mr Jones is bad and exploits his animals in a terrible way, therefore also any other living human being is as bad as he is, but this is a fallacy since he doesn't know neither another single man, so he can't prove what he's saying, but he exploits the ignorance of the audience to make himself look credible, since nobody has the instrument to deny his words. Then, the model of the tricolons is used: '...our lives are miserable, laborious and short...' this phrase is very good because he (Old Major) refers to himself as one of his audience which makes them listen to him. This is also an example of emo�ve vocabulary because Orwell could have wri�en 'our lives are sad, �ring and short' but he didn't he used his vocabulary to make the reader really think about what he was saying(LANGUAGE AS DISCOURSE). So he uses rhetorical devices to make his speech memorable and producing a striking effect, he exploit the "poe�c" func�on of language. Major convinces animals and makes them confident by using words such as “Freedom” to prepare them for a rebellion to achieve what they wanted for years. He manipulates the animals’ emo�on by telling their current nature of their lives. He talks about words such as ‘starva�on, slavery’.All these words boost the animal’s spirits which makes it easier for Major to achieve his goal. Old Major asks the animals ques�on which are some�mes unanswerable or he answers them by himself which stuns the listeners and make them accept what he says. He ques�ons them ‘What’s the nature of our lives? He also answers them ‘… Laborious and short. ‘ He uses these rhetorical ques�ons to convince his listeners to prepare for a rebellion. Before Old Major makes any actual arguments, he appeals to ethos. The first paragraph is en�rely dedicated to establishing credibility with the audience. This is further reinforced later on through implica�ons of great knowledge and experience. It is evident that before Old Major gave his speech he already had great authority, since everyone gathered to hear him speak, but his introduc�on emphasizes that further. He emphasizes that he “has had a long life… had much �me for thought” and “understand[s] the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living.” These statements about his age and wisdom lend him more credibility as well as give him more weight in convincing the other farm animals. This is also a way to mark the importance of what he's going to say, for example when he says the just men�ont sentence, and also when he says "let us face it", "it is summed up in a single word" and "that is my message to you" he is indirectly invi�ng his audience to put more a�en�on of what he's going to say next or when he says "that is the plain truth" to what he has just said. In addi�on to the use of ethos, Old Major also employs the strategies of rhetorical ques�ons to further aid in appealing to pathos. In the fourth paragraph of his speech in par�cular, he asks, “You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk…? And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens?… And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore…?” The answers to these rhetorical ques�ons elucidates the injus�ces the animals have endured for far too long. By taking his claims to an individual and more personal level, Old Major further strikes resentment and fury into the hearts of those listening. Old Major con�nues to appeal to pathos in his rousing speech through the use of heavily connotated words and imagery. His dic�on is in fact instrumental to his success in convincing his audience. He says, “no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are si�ng in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block… To that horror we all must come… [italics mine]” This subtle use of graphic word choice makes for horrific imagery in the animals’ minds, further genera�ng even more hatred (=odio) and resentment against Farmer Jones. Old Major expounds on the many grievances the animals have suffered, even lis�ng the gruesome fates of individual animals, sta�ng that Boxer will be sold to the knacker, who will “cut your throat and boil you”, and that Jones “�es… a brick round [the dogs’] necks and drowns them.” Thus, he turns the animals against Man through exposing the tyranny of Man and lis�ng numerous inherent lackings and vices. Old Major’s selec�on of heavily connotated and illustra�ve words makes for a vivid and compelling speech. Furthermore, Old Major u�lizes hyperbole in appealing to the pathos of the animals. He claims that “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure a�er he is a year old. No animal in England is free.” even though he knows that is not en�rely the case. He uses exaggera�on in order to work everyone up into a fit of indigna�on and rouse their sense of injus�ce so that they will listen to whatever plan he proposes, since they can't reply knowingly. Old Major also uses asyndeton mul�ple �mes throughout his speech. For instance, he says, “[Man] does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits.” The omission of the coordina�ng conjunc�on generates a sense of incomple�on. Thus, Old Major implies that there is no end to the innumerable ways the animals have been mistreated and exploited by Farmer Jones. To underline how obvious his concept his he uses a figure of speech, a metaphor, "crystal clear" in a rethorical ques�on, to make people more aware that what he's saying is true. The basis of the resemblance of this metaphor is the obviousness and vividness of his speech, the source is the appearance of a crystal which is clear and limpid, the target is that the message he's saying is true and the evalua�on can be both posi�ve and nega�ve, since he's posi�ve for him who is demonstated to be trustworthy and nega�ve for the animals who realize how terrible their condi�ons are. Another metaphor is used when Old Major says that the man is the "lord" of animals, it is a metaphor because he's not officially a lord but he acts like he is, so the source is the a�tude of lords and tyrants( si legge tairants), the target is the Man, the basis of resemblance is the despo�c behaviour and the evalua�on is really nega�ve. He uses several binomials, like "rich and free", "night and day", "body and soul", to underline the terrible condi�ons lived the animal of that farm, and to create a stronger emo�onal response When Old Major points out that the only solu�on to solve their condi�ons of life is "Rebellion", "Only get rid of the Man" he is actually developing a false dichotomy or binary opposi�on, crea�ng a "false dilemma" since he assumes that there are only this two op�ons, totally rebelling against human kind or keeping that standard of living in misery and cruelty, so he unconsciously refuse any other alterna�ve, but there are probably many other solu�ons that he avoids to tell. At the same �me, he is using a simple-problem-solu�on model, since he first gives the problem, man kind exploi�ng animals, and then he offers his solu�on, posi�vely evaluated, rebellion. But we could also say that it is also used the "straw man techinque" all over the text, since he first describes the terrible condi�ons animal are forced to live with, and then he promotes the solu�on which involves a radical change of their behaviour, to rebel, (here the world rebellion is considered as a hooray word so with a posi�ve evalua�on), using this structure to underline to superiority of the alterna�ve idea he is ispiring other people to share. In the just men�oned sentence, "the Man", wri�en with the capital le�er is a metonym, since a single en�ty, the one of one single man represents all the human race. In the final sentences Old Major is more impressive and he uses words with posi�ve evalua�ons in order to create a sense of unity and brotherwood between animals, taking for granted that they are all friends and "comrades", but it is another logical fallacy since he can't prove that all the animals have the same interest, as it will be shown at the end of the book, when other animals take the control of the crowd just as human had made before them.