Blog #30 - Sabina Torchinsky - Period 7 - 05/05/2020
Sabina Torchinsky
Blog #30
Period 7
May 5, 2020
Sophomores 2020
Aim: How can the perception that Animal Farm is a Fable be demonstrated in our original fable visual representation & oral presentation project?
Presentation Day - Over the course of a two hour video class meeting, the students presented their fable projects by condensing an original fable, inspired by the infamous Aesop’s fables, into a three minute time span while simultaneously telling the story and providing the explanation of how the moral that the student chose was evident in the aforementioned story. We have spent approximately two months reading the novel “Animal Farm” and digging below the surface to adhere to what message George Orwell, the author of the novel, was successfully getting across. “Animal Farm” is a fable because it is a morality tale using anthropomorphism, or animals that act like humans, to tell a cautionary tale about communism using the Russian Revolution as a backdrop. This project clearly connects back to the novel because the students took their own twist on fables and created an original story that has a moral, or a lesson, that is evident in each of the students’ everyday lives.
History behind Aesop and his fables - Aesop was a storyteller who lived in Ancient Greece around the time between 620 and 564 BCE and his stories descended to modern times through word of mouth and through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted as times change. The fables covered religious, social, and political themes and some of the more famous and well-known ones include The Hare and the Tortoise and The Fox and the Crow , and their morals are “Slow and steady wins the race” and “Do not trust flatterers”. Below are two links to provide an example of what the two fables are characterized by and how the mortal connects to the events in the story.
Project Presentations
The rubric calls for consistency in focus and timing, organization and logical order of oral presentation, and superb execution of the creativity and scope of the project. Below is a list of presenters along with their fable and a short recap of the story and its moral.
Fable #1 : The Foolish Fox by Annie Liang
Two close friends who are secretly rivals and always find the chance to compete against each other decide to make a bet to who would finish the race first while balancing eggs in a basket and the winner would receive gold coins. The race began and one of the animals decided to stock up his basket with the most eggs to show his superiority but felt weak and his legs gave out; he tripped and his legs started shaking. Without a doubt, the other friend won the race smoothly since his basket wasn’t overflowing. The moral is not to rely on a certain outcome or event. Annie created a painting for the visual part of the project of the two animals racing.
Fable #2 : The Lonely Chicken by Brian Wu
On a farm, there was a chicken coop where Pecker lived with his mom and their relationship was ever so close and connected. One day, his mom disappeared and due to his naivety and young age, he didn’t realize his mom died. He began asking other chickens where she was, to which they replied that she was looking for food and that she’ll come back soon. Pecker approached a wise owl and he explained that his mom isn’t looking for food and actually died and Pecker felt betrayed by everyone who lied to him. The moral is that people tend to believe the first thing they hear without evidence. Brian illustrated the scene where the owl and the chicken meet and is told the truth as the visual aid.
Fable #3 : The Fate of the Pig by Caroline Seifen
The farmer states that the biggest pig will be chosen for a special task and Eli decided to take up on that challenge and devoured all the food he could get. Marvin the goat warned him against doing it but the pig protested and continued doing so anyways. Farmer Roberts separated Eli with the next biggest pig on the farm but realized that he was going to be taken to the slaughter house. The moral is that those who act insufficient and don’t think through a situation will find themselves in harmful situations. Caroline portrayed the scene where the pig is taken to the slaughter house with an air bubble that stated “Danger? Safety? Good? Bad?”.
Fable #4 : The Griffin and the Forest by Ryan Desnick
Griffin went north to his friend’s house and on his way to the house, he was stopped and approached by an old hare who needed his help. Griffin decides to help him and they start walking, but are interrupted by a tortoise, who needs help to cook a meal. Griffin didn’t want to disappoint either of them so agreed to help them. When he arrives at the house, it’s already dark and his friends are mad that he showed up late and betrayed him. The moral is that he who tries to please everyone please no one. Ryan showed a drawing of the scene of Griffin on his long path home with distractions surrounding him.
Fable #5 : The Sad Worker by Kyle Chen
In a busy city, a worker faces the consequences of an unfulfilling life and finds a shop near his pathway and asks for a cure for his oldness. He was given pills and ran out of the shop and took two; the birds started talking to him, so he took three more, to which the dogs started talking to him. He took more pills and the birds started talking to him as well. Since he wasted his money on the pills, he couldn’t pay rent anymore and popped the rest of the pills and died. The moral is don’t take a cure that’s worse than the poison. Kyle presented a container of pills as symbolism for his fable.
Fable #6 : The Basket of Fruits by Steven Mantello
A camel decides to lie down after a long day of work and sees a horse walking by and asks him if he minds if he can retrieve his basket of fruit which is located at the bottom of the cliff. The horse states that it’s too dangerous but the camel says that the only person to do it was him. The horse decided to take up on that challenge and is approached by a goat, who warns him against going down the cliff. He doesn’t listen and is never heard from again. The moral is do not put yourself in danger for the benefit of others. Steven created a 3D model of the horse, camel, and the goat for his visuals.
Fable #7 : Stolen Feathers by Jessica Hung Cen
A crow is hungry and notices a bluebird along with its beautiful feathers and the crow gets jealous and plucks its feathers off and places them onto himself. He then sees an eagle and gets jealous once again and snatches the bird and places its feathers onto himself. An owl came into contact and he wanted to be as wise as the bird so the crow once more placed the owl’s feathers on himself. He wanted to be as graceful, powerful, and wise as the three birds but a vulture attacks him and calls him an imitation. The moral is that fine feathers don’t make a bird fine and no matter what people portray themselves as, their character does not change. Jessica drew a bird with different feathers surrounding it to symbolize her fable.
Fable #8 : The Sneaky Fox by Ryan Sliger
A fox and a rabbit lived in a forest and the fox wanted to eat the rabbit so he told the rabbit to meet him by a tree at a certain time. The rabbit meets an owl who says not to meet up with the fox because he will eat him. The rabbit decides to go with the snow leopard to the meeting area to scare the fox but eats him. The moral is that the cold blooded possess the poisonous spite. Ryan illustrated the forest in which the events take place and that orchestrates the rest of the plot.
Fable #9 : The Greedy Fox by Kendi Wang
A fox was walking near a farm and saw a hole leading into a chicken coop and thought the farmer was asleep and grabbed a chicken and ate it. Later the next day he bragged to all his friends about the event that took place last night and decided to do it again. He came back to the farm and stole a chicken and ate it. The farmer realized that there was a hole and repaired it in the fence. The fox came back that night and saw the hole but didn’t give up but was caught by the farmer and he shot him. The moral is that the greedy never know when they’ve had enough. Kendi created a picture book depicting the key events in her fable along with illustrations.
Fable #10 : The Lion in the Well by Vincent Shi
A monkey was thirsty and began drinking from a well and fell down it because he slipped. A lion was going up to the well and the monkey called up to him. He called him weak and challenged him to fight in the well, but as the lion was approaching to the bottom, the monkey jumped from his shoulders and was rescued. The moral is to look before you leap. Vincent connected this to Greek mythology and showed an image of a lion that he drew to portray the character.
Thoughts on what’s happening in the world - During today’s vulnerable period of time, the most important thing that we as the younger generation can do to benefit our futures and the world that we want to live in is to stay inside, which can be seen as something simple but isn’t evident in the actions of some people all over the world. Two months into our new schedules and our new lives, some groups of people believe that since others can go outside and meet up in large groups, then so can they. It is important to spread the message of self distancing and not going outside, with limited exceptions such as food shopping or emergencies. Seeing teenagers act selfishly in the face of millions of people dying every minute just to spend a portion of their time with a friend makes me question how badly people want this to be over; the only way we can see our friends in the future is to suffer through this time and not see them at all. On social media, an image of hundreds of people not wearing a mask surfaced and created controversies due to the reason that it is visibly evident that those people decided to ignore the protocols and did what was best for them, not for the rest of the world.
Reflection of today’s lesson - After hearing the class’s fables and their explanations on how infamous morals connected to them, I understood how a simple lesson can be incorporated in every person’s life, regardless of differences in lifestyles or in general. Connecting back to Animal Farm, George Orwell successfully created an extended fable that had a long running moral throughout it that attained to communism and his warnings against repeating history and what could happen if it does repeat and what humans don’t notice what is going on around them. The animals serve as a mask for people all around us that could read the novel and see themselves in the eyes of the animals and learn from their mistakes or from their accomplishments.
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