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Conflict Chart - Animal Farm

CONFLICT CHART - WAY TO UNDERSTANDING THEME

The chart BELOW is a conflict / theme chart which can be used as a way to arrive at the theme of any given text. Students are asked to fill in the columns as shown and then do the following

For example, if the student circled ‘power - its manipulation and abuse’ s/he will then ask themselves ‘what is the novel saying about the abuse of power in our society or in society/context of the novel’? And with guided teacher discussion, depending on the year level, they will say - "the abuse of power can only be sustained through brainwashing" or a host of other reasons.

Whatever the student circles, they will be able to come up with a theme and then put that in the theme column. Of course some of the themes will seem very obvious or simple but you will obtain invaluable material. Some will be interrelated and as a result of this students can then participate in a ranking exercise where they decide which of the themes can be related to each other and which are the most important

A couple of potential answers students can give after completing the exercise on Animal Farm below.

CHARACTER AIMS AIDS TO ACHIEVING AIMS -

PEOPLE, EVENTS, QUALITIES

 OBSTACLESTO ACHIEVING AIMS-

PEOPLE, EVENTS, QUALITIES

 RESULT ( IS THE AIM ACHIEVED ) ? THEME
Napoloen

To gain supreme power

 People
  • Squealer's rhetoric
  • Boxer's example - loyal and obedient despite his obvious strength to overthrow the dictatorship.
  • Napoleon's own lack of scruples - jealousy, greed
  • Jones' own poor example

Events

  • demonstrations
  • indoctrination
  • violent revolution
  • Major's influence and the 7 Commandments

Qualities

  • Ability to terrorise
  • Foresight in training dogs to be loyal
  • Fear of others
  • Gullibility of others
  • Lack of conscience
  • Napoleon's own lack of linguistic skills force him to use Squealer and fear through the Cheka dogs.
 People
  • the animals who question on occasion
  • Snowball's intelligence and natural superiority
  • Other farmers at the end - they are depicted as beginning to provide a challenge

Events

  • Death of Boxer, chickens which creates some apprehension (but this is not a threat for long)
 YES

(Although becoming human COULD lead to an end to the dictatorship - Through drunkenness and so on - Perhaps Orwell leaves us with the belief that the sequel to Animal Farm, MAY in the long term see another revolt. However this is difficult since the new generation is mostly indoctrinated. And perhaps we use our own contextual knowledge of the break up of Soviet Russia to make that judgment, which would be erroneous for this texts.

  

 

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