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HONORS ENGLISH 1 SUMMER PROJECT
For Mrs. Myers & Mr. O’Malley
Your first project of Honors English 1 must be done independently over the summer. It is to be turned in (to either Mrs. Myers or Mr. O’Malley) on the first full day of school in August, regardless of whether you have English in the Fall or the Spring. In other words: even if you have English your second semester, you must turn in your project on the first day of the first semester. For your project, you will be reading the book Animal Farm by George Orwell and responding to it in three different ways. The responses required of you are outlined in this packet, and are to be written in the packet itself.
Part #1: Reading Journals
Obviously, you have to read this book. (In other words, you are not just researching the book or reading the summaries on SparkNotes…we will know if you do it that way. ☺) As you are reading, you are to write five journal entries – one entry for every two chapters. Each reading journal should consist of two paragraphs (5-7 sentences each). The first paragraph should summarize what you read, while the second paragraph should be your response to what you read. In other words, that second paragraph should answer questions like: Do you like or dislike the book at this point, and why? What do you think will happen next? What do you think the underlying meaning of the book is at this point, and why? That kind of stuff. There are no wrong answers, as long as you are providing your genuine opinion. Space has been provided on the following pages for you to write your journal entries.
Reading Journal for Chapters 1 + 2 Summary Paragraph Response Paragraph
Reading Journal for Chapters 5 + 6 Summary Paragraph Response Paragraph
Reading Journal for Chapters 7 + 8 Summary Paragraph Response Paragraph
Part #2: Historical Parallels
The subtitle of Animal Farm is “A Fairy Story” because it is told through talking animals, the likes of which are often seen in fairy tales. And you can read Animal Farm as just an entertaining story about animals. However, its author (George Orwell) also meant for the book’s characters to represent specific historical figures in order to make his book a critique of Russia’s Soviet Union after it’s socialist revolution. Orwell himself was a socialist who believed in many of the values of the revolution, but believed that the government put in place after the revolution had gone astray. For the second part of this assignment, you are required to research the historical parallels between the characters of Animal Farm and the major figures and institutions of Soviet Russia. Use Wikipedia.org to research each figure and institution before explaining the connection. You may have heard not to use Wikipedia for schoolwork, but Wikipedia is extremely useful for getting general overviews of complicated topics, which makes it perfect for this assignment. Mr. Jones = Nicholas II of Russia Explanation of how this character fits this figure Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) Old Major = Karl Marx Explanation of how this character fits this figure Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) Napoleon = Joseph Stalin Explanation of how this character fits this figure Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote)
Snowball = Leon Trotsky / Vladimir Lenin Explanation of how this character fits these figures Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) Squealer = Vyacheslav Molotov / Pravda Explanation of how this character fits this figure / institution Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) Mr. Frederick = Adolf Hitler Explanation of how this character fits this figure Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) Mr. Pilkington = United States of America (Search for “United States and the Russian Revolution”) Explanation of how this character fits this institution Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote)
Dogs = KGB Explanation of how this character fits this institution Text Evidence from Animal Farm (Quote) With these character connections in mind, it should be fairly easy to assume what George Orwell believed about the Soviet Union. In the space below, write an explanation of George Orwell’s argument was about the failures of the Soviet Union. Your explanation must address [1] what the initial ideals of the revolution were (and why George Orwell saw them as good ideals), [2] how the government put in place after the revolution failed to live up to these ideals, and [3] what / who were the causes of that failure.
Part #3: Fable Analysis Essay
We’ve established that Animal Farm can be read as simply an entertaining story or as a commentary on historical events, but there is yet another way you can read and interpret Animal Farm : as a fable. A fable is a short, simple story – usually involving talking animals – that exists to convey a universal message about how humans should and should not behave. Fables will be particularly important to this class, as they are generally the foundation of all storytelling. Over the course of the class, we will study mythology and fairy tales, all of which trace their roots back to fables. We will spend one of our first days of class reading and analyzing Aesop’s Fables , the most famous book of fables ever written. For your final step in this summer project, you are to write a short essay (at least 3 paragraphs – with each paragraph being 5-7 sentences) explaining what anyone could learn from Animal Farm, regardless of historical context. In other words: ignore all the Russia stuff. What is this story teaching us about human behavior or human society in general?
