Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← English
EnglishAnimal Farm: power and allegory24 min★★★ difficulty

Squealer and the corruption of language

If Napoleon is the muscle of the farm, Squealer is its mouth. Orwell's sharpest idea is that tyranny needs not just force but persuasion — and that persuasion can be a kind of violence.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Reading: Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

Key learning points

  • • Squealer as a character
  • • The weapon of statistics
  • • Memory and 'Surely you remember…'
  • • The collapse of meaning

This lesson at a glance

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

Words to know

settingcharacterisationeffectsreadersquealer

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Squealer and the corruption of language

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

In a nutshell

Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Squealer as a character

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

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

Squealer as a character

Squealer is named for his voice. He has 'twinkling eyes' and 'nimble movements' and he is sent out whenever the pigs need to make an ugly decision sound reasonable. His character is the gap between what he says and what the animals suffer: that gap is the satire.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

The weapon of statistics

Squealer recites figures — rations are 'up by 200 per cent' — that the animals cannot check. The numbers sound objective, so they silence doubt. Orwell is warning that data without transparency is a tool of power, not truth: a number is only as honest as the person allowed to count.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

What is Squealer's defining power?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Why does Orwell make Squealer recite statistics the animals cannot check?

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 · Memory and 'Surely you remember…'

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

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Memory and 'Surely you remember…'

Squealer's repeated move is to tell the animals what they remember: 'Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?' By invoking the old enemy, he shuts down criticism in the present. The tactic — frightening people with the past to excuse the present — is how the farm forgets its own revolution.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

The collapse of meaning

By the end, 'All animals are equal' has become 'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.' A phrase that contains its own contradiction is Orwell's image of a language broken by power: when words can mean anything, they mean nothing, and force can do the rest.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

What is the purpose of Squealer's 'Surely you don't want Jones back'?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

What does 'more equal than others' reveal about language on the farm?

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.

____ is named for his voice.

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Squealer and the corruption of language

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

  1. 1. What is Squealer's defining power?

  2. 2. Why does Orwell make Squealer recite statistics the animals cannot check?

  3. 3. What is the purpose of Squealer's 'Surely you don't want Jones back'?

  4. 4. What does 'more equal than others' reveal about language on the farm?

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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    Study setting, plot and characterisation, and the effects of these on the reader

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