3rd Quarter Book Portfolio

Animal Farm

Outline

I. Introduction

A. Title, author, and Publication Date
B. Book Summary
C. Theme Statement
D. Significance of Theme

II. Theme of Book

A. Thematic Statement for Book
B. Mr. Jones
C. Napoleon and windmill
D. Napoleon and Mr. Jones
E. Significance of Theme for Book

III. Theme in History

A. Restate theme
B. Napoleon and Stalin
C. Mr. Jones and Nicholas II
D. Stalin and executions
E. Significance of theme in history

IV. Conclusion


A. Restate Theme
B. Significance of theme in book
C. Significance of theme in history
D. Effectiveness of book in showing theme
E. Importance of understanding theme

The book Animal Farm by George Orwell published on the 17th of August 1945 was a very interesting book that uses an English farm to depict a Stalinist Russia. The farm is run by Mr. Jones who is an alcoholic and not very good at running the farm, the animals rebel and take over the farm and make 7 commandments to live by. Two pigs that are the smartest eventually begin to fight over leadership and one takes over, changes the commandments and starts to dictate the farm and act like the humans. The theme of this book is "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"(Quote by Lord Acton). This theme is important because anyone that comes into a form of power may become corrupt and anyone could be you.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"(Quote by Lord Acton). In the book Mr. Jones is in power and is corrupt because he doesn't treat the animals kindly, is an alcoholic, doesn't feed them very well and the animals don't like him so they rebel. When Napoleon sees the plans for the windmill he forces snowball from the farm and says the idea was his own and that snowball had stolen it from him. Napoleon changes the commandments to suit his needs and the other pigs needs, he even becomes worse than Mr. Jones was. These are some of the reasons for this theme, because when they were in power they were corrupt.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"(Quote by Lord Acton). Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin during the Russian revolution, Spanish civil war and the Russian civil war, because he takes over Russia as a dictator and is very corrupt. Mr. Jones represents Nicholas II of Russia because he had been facing severe financial difficulties. Which lead up to the Russian revolution. Joseph Stalin had mass executions of his political enemies by having them tortured and forced to falsify confessions. This shows that having power can corrupt anyone and that corruption is not good and it helps no one but yourself.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"(Quote by Lord Acton). This theme is important because anyone that comes into a form of power may become corrupt and anyone could be you. Having power can corrupt anyone and corruption is not good and it helps no one but yourself. The author did a very good job in showing the theme by relating actual people and ideas with characters in the book. This theme is very important to understand because you might come into some sort of power and make you change your mind about something that you wouldn't have before, because I don't think that anyone wants to be corrupt.