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SavannahYear 8
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EnglishAnimal Farm: power and allegory26 min★★ difficulty

Allegory: how a fable becomes politics

Animal Farm looks like a children's story about talking animals. It is actually a knife aimed at tyranny. The disguise is the point: a fable can sneak past defences that a speech cannot.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Reading: Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning

Key learning points

  • • What an allegory does
  • • Why a fairy story
  • • The corruption of the rules
  • • The ending mirror

This lesson at a glance

  • 26 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

criticallyknowinglanguagefigurativevocabulary

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Allegory: how a fable becomes politics

An English teaching video on this topic from Liam Out Loud. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · What an allegory does

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

What an allegory does

An allegory tells one story on the surface and a second underneath. The Rebellion of the animals stands for the Russian Revolution of 1917; the pigs stand for the Bolshevik leaders; the dogs for the secret police. But you do not need to know the history to feel the injustice — the allegory works as a story first.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

Why a fairy story

Orwell subtitled the book 'A Fairy Story.' The simple sentences and barnyard cast lower the reader's guard. Horrors arrive in the language of a bedtime tale, so they land harder. The gap between gentle form and brutal content is the engine of the book's power.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

What does the Rebellion of the animals allegorise?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Why is the 'fairy story' form effective for Orwell's purpose?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · The corruption of the rules

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

The corruption of the rules

The animals write Seven Commandments on the barn. Across the novel the pigs secretly edit them — 'No animal shall sleep in a bed' gains 'with sheets', 'No animal shall drink alcohol' gains 'to excess'. Tracking the rewritten commandments is the clearest way to see how power changes language to excuse itself.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

The ending mirror

The final scene has the pigs and humans around a table, indistinguishable. Orwell's famous line is that the creatures outside looked 'from pig to man, and from man to pig' and could no longer tell which was which. The form — a single held image — delivers the thesis: tyranny ends by reproducing what it overthrew.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

What do the rewritten commandments mainly show?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

What is the thesis of the final 'pig to man' image?

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Horrors arrive in the ____ of a bedtime tale, so they land harder.

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Allegory: how a fable becomes politics

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. What does the Rebellion of the animals allegorise?

  2. 2. Why is the 'fairy story' form effective for Orwell's purpose?

  3. 3. What do the rewritten commandments mainly show?

  4. 4. What is the thesis of the final 'pig to man' image?

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Extract

The last bus

The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.

She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.

Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.

Original extract written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
  2. How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
  3. Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.

  • Reading response

    Reading

    Read the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.

    2 paragraphs (PEE)

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Write your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.

    250–350 words

  • Reading log

    Reading

    Note the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.

    20 minutes' reading

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Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

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    Read critically, knowing how language, including figurative language, vocabulary choice, grammar, text structure and organisational features, presents meaning

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