Animal Farm

Research Activity & Analogy Map

Homework: This is a homework assignment.
You will bring in the annotated article to
class with you on Wednesday, October 19th. You will work on the sample summary in
class. The completed summary is due Thursday by midnight, October 20th, and the
analogy map is due on Friday, October 21st
Objective: Students will research a historical figure and compare that figure to a
character in the novel by creating an analogy/bridge Thinking Map.
Your task: Research and find a credible article on one of the following figures below.
Read and annotate the article. Write a reflection following the model below. Explain how
your person or idea is similar to the corresponding concept in Animal Farm. Create an
analogy/bridge map to represent the similarities.

Karl Marx / Old Major

Czar Nicholas / Mr. Jones
Communism / Animalism
Leo Trotsky / Snowball
Napoleon / Joseph Stalin
Squealer / Propaganda department of Lenins government
The Dogs / KGB and Secret Police
Moses the Raven / Religion in Russia during the Communist Regime

How to Write a Reflection:

Write a five sentence summary addressing each of the five prompts below:
1. I learned
2. A novel idea I encountered is
3. I like
4. I discovered
5. I still wonder

Sample Reflection:
I have learned that in 1847, Karl Marx, a German philosopher,... wrote a plan called
The Manifesto of the Communist Party which was used as a map for communism in
Russia. I learned this from reading A Brief History of Communism in Russia written by
an anonymous writer. A novel idea I encountered is that the goals of the communist
system was to destabilize the current capitalist system which resulted in workers who
labored 14 to 18 hours a day under unsafe conditions to increase the wealth of the
business owners. I like understanding the history that was going on at the time the
satirical novel Animal Farm was written because it helps me to better understand the
theme, the authors attitude towards politics, communism, totalitarianism and key figures
emerging such as Leon Trotsky. I discovered that communism as we know it today, is
nothing like what Karl Marx originally had in mind. In fact, the article reports that [t]he
idealistic goals of Marx had turned into a system that was in many ways more terrifying
than the rule by the Czars. I still wonder how the ending of Animal Farm would have
been altered if the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima had been dropped just a
few months earlier.
I have learned that Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR) from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. The article, Joseph Stalin, reveals
Stalin as a cruel, brutal, corrupt leader because the article states, Millions of farmers refused to
cooperate with Stalins orders and were shot or exiled as punishment, which shows him as an
evil dictator who is self centered and only cares about his own ambitions. He expects the rest to
follow him happily. I like to know this information because it tells me that Napoleon was based
on Stalin since there are a lot of similarities between them. I discovered that he was responsible
for the deaths of 20 million people during his reign.I still wonder that if Stalin would have been a
fair ruler and not a dictator, would Napolean be the same.