Analysis of Prose Passage #2

Passage #2 From Novel (Re-type or photo copy the passage in this column) George Orwell Animal Farm

Analysis of Close Reading (Essentially a prose passage or poetry essay; synthesize the texture of the passage to the left.)

"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He 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. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. 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 which should have been breeding up sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies. And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall? "And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all must come--cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond. "Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. 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! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious. "And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades" (Orwell 4-6).

·         Cynicism expressed toward Man o       Epitomizing all of mankind as callous, incapable of producing any material commodity with the fruits of his labor ·         Evidenced by the excerpt: “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing” (Orwell 4). ·         Contrasting the useless of the human race with the indefatigable work completed by the members of the Animal Farm, the pigs undermine the status of Man as “lord of all the animals” (Orwell 4). o       On the archetypal hero’s journey, this would be considered to be a call to action ·         The pigs, the natural revolutionaries, will lead the animals in an attack against Man, who engage in conspicuous consumption, limiting the animals to “bare rations and a stall” (Orwell 5). ·          Proposition made that the standard of living could be improved o       Contrasting the present with the potential for change in the future ·         With Mr. Jones as the owner of Manor Farm “no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end” (Orwell 5). ·         A need for change is presented through Old Major’s speech, a pig who will reach his expiration date soon     ·         Comparing the animals based on their inability to escape their mortality o       Old Major acknowledges that our mortality is “horror we all must come” (Orwell 5). ·         We are capable of changing our own fate o       Although “the evils of this life…spring from the tyranny of human beings,” the animals propose that the removal of Man would ensure that “the produce of [their] labor would be [their] own” (Orwell 5). ·         The solution is to “get rid of Man” immediately in order to change the outcome for future generations of animals (Orwell 5). ·         The animals, in order to govern themselves in the name of equality, speculate that “Rebellion” is the course of action that will initiate change (Orwell 6). ·         With “the short remainder of [their] lives,” the animals would be doing a great disservice to the future generations of animals to be passive, unopposed to the oppressive leadership of Man (Orwell 6).