Blog #29 - David Yang - Period 3 - 05/02/2020

Blog #29

David Yang

5/2/20

Sophomores 2020

Aim: How do George Orwell's themes of literary protest transcend time?

Do Now:

For the Do Now, we were supposed to find how elitism was fostered among the pigs in Animal Farm and if elitism still exists today. You can see elitism in Animal Farm because even though the animals are supposed to be equal, the pigs have more power. The pigs are the smartest out of the animals and they use this reason to get better treatment and power over the other animals. You can see this when the pigs are able to wake up later than the animals and when the pigs are allowed to sleep in beds. The other animals don't question the pigs because they are smarter and have more power over them. There is evidence that elitism still exists today. Elitism is believing that people who are smarter, have wealth or talent  should be allowed to have more influence and authority. You can still see this in schools where people who are smarter or have talent have a better chance to get into better schools and have more opportunities.

Situation Dilemma:

We are also asked what we would have done if we were to be put into a situation where a photo of someone spreads around and the person becomes upset about this in class and runs out the room. In the discussion, we had many responses. Someone says that they will try to find the person who ran out of the class and go to comfort him/her. There was someone else who said that they would not have done that. Instead they will try to figure out both sides of the story to decide for themselves who is guilty or not and then act. I largely agree with the second person as the student who ran out of the room could have done something bad to the person and that person did it in retaliation.

We also had a discussion board with 2 prompts:

1. How would George Orwell want to inspire your generation?
2. What is one thing you could do this week?

I answered saying that George Orwell would want our generation to think before doing what others tell us to. You can see this in Animal Farm when the animals listen to the pigs without much questioning even though the pigs are really controlling them for their own benefits. One thing I could do this week is think before accepting what I hear on the news.

Notes

Satire: A kind of writing that ridicules human weakness, vice, or folly in order to bring about social change.

Themes of Animal Farm:

• Unquestioning allegiance to authority invites abuse of power.
• Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
• Language can be manipulated as an instrument of control.

I really enjoyed reading Animal Farm as I believe the book teaches many important things. Overall I liked reading the book just for the story and the plot. Also, working at home is tough for me because I have a lot of trouble managing my time. This has led to me procrastinating a lot. As for my opinion on the situation regarding the virus, I just want this epidemic to end soon because of the trouble that I have doing work at home.

Reflection

I learned that corruption is very likely if you give one person too much power through the book Animal Farm. It is shown very clearly in Animal farm because you see that every animal trusts Napoleon their leader. This made the animals very easy to manipulate and do exactly what Napoleon wanted them to do or think. Learning this will be very helpful for me in the future because now I know about propaganda and not to fall into their traps. I will now be more careful with what I hear and not accept everything immediately when given to me.