Hello and welcome.

I'm Mrs. Butterworth and I'll be guiding you through the English lesson today.

So we're going to be focusing on the character of Mr. Jones in "Animal Farm", and we're going to be exploring his leadership style in comparison to some of the other characters.

Now, Mr. Jones can sometimes get a bit overlooked, but he's in fact a very interesting character.

So should we have a look? So by the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain the role of Mr. Jones and his presentation in "Animal Farm".

So before we have a look at Mr. Jones, there are a few key words we need to think about before we start the lesson, and these will help our understanding.

These are, ruthless, differentiate, astute, nuanced, and negligent.

In a moment the definitions will appear on the screen.

Give yourself a few moments to read these or jot them down.

You may wish to pause the video to give yourself time to do this.

So here are the definitions.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this.

So as I've said, we're going to be exploring the leadership of Mr. Jones in "Animal Farm".

So we'll start by asking, who is Mr. Jones? So we'll be really looking at who he is, and why he is in the novella at all.

And then secondly, we'll start thinking about writing about Mr. Jones.

So using all of those ideas and the information gathered, we're gonna start thinking about how we can make a really sophisticated response around Mr. Jones.

So let's start.

Who is Mr. Jones? So we have an image here.

How does this image link to Mr. Jones? So I'd like you please to mind map any adjectives and key quotes you can think of.

You can discuss this, or you can use a pen and paper to write this down or any other means to get your ideas down.

So pause the video just to give yourself some time to think about this.

Excellent.

So let's just share our adjectives first.

So we've got irresponsible, inept, cruel, drunken, negligent.

We've got one of our key words there, negligent, coming from the word neglect.

So we can see that Mr. Jones is negligent in the way he treats his animals.

Got lazy, oppressive, he's incompetent, and indifferent.

Hmm.

So now let's look at those key quotes.

So we have this quote, "But was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes." So Orwell establishes Mr. Jones at the very, very start of the novella as this kind of drunken, irresponsible farmer.

We get this idea says, "Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk at the Red Lion that he did not come back till midday on Sunday." So again, we can really see this linking to those adjectives we have just come up with.

"He had died in an inebriates' home." So by the end of the novella, Orwell again references Jones' struggles with alcohol.

"Jones ties a brick around their necks." So this is spoken in Old Major's speech, where he starts to list some of the terrible things that Mr. Jones does to his animals.

"The animals were still unfed." So we know that Mr. Jones basically falls asleep for two days and the animals are left unfed and starving.

And again, a quote from Old Major's speech where he says, that "Jones will sell you to the knacker." So interesting for me, it's actually the pigs in chapter nine that sell Boxer to the knacker, but at the very start, Old Major references Mr. Jones doing this very thing to his animals.

So we've got a really good first impression of who Mr. Jones is.

So we're now going to read this extract, and it's from the beginning of "Animal Farm", and it describes his negligent running of Manor Farm.

So what "Animal Farm" is originally called, and again that word negligent is there.

So let's just read the extract below.

"In past years, Mr. Jones, although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late, he had fallen on evil days.

He had become much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking more than was good for him.

For whole days at a time he would lounge in his Windsor chair in the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking, and occasionally feeding Moses on crusts of bread soaked in beer.

His men were idle and dishonest.

The fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected and the animals were underfed." So now we've read the extract, I'd like you to discuss, how is Mr. Jones presented? And another question, could it be argued that Orwell presents Mr. Jones as a sympathetic character, as well as negligent? Pause the video so you've got time to discuss those ideas or just consolidate your thoughts.

Excellent.

So really interesting discussions happening there.

So lots of you picked up on this idea that there's words and phrases that really emphasise how Mr. Jones is inept, irresponsible, and cruel.

So he's described as a hard master.

So we've got that adjective hard, and it talks about him even falling on evil days, which is quite a powerful word to use to describe the kind of life he's living, you know, evil.

He's described as drinking and that word is actually repeated twice, drinking, drinking, and it also refers to the people that work for him how they're idle and dishonest.

And we get this idea of neglect where the, you know, the fields are full of weeds, that imagery there, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected and the animals were underfed, so Orwell's really developing this image of a farm that is neglected by its farmer, Mr. Jones.

So there's another element to this, and this is where I think it starts to become really interesting because yes, absolutely, Mr. Jones is presented as being irresponsible and negligent.

But if we look a little bit closer, there are a few phrases that we could argue present Mr. Jones almost sympathetically.

So what it is alluding to is the idea that his negligence and drinking are a result of a lawsuit and hard times.

So we almost start to feel sorry for him that he's had this hard time, but also within this, it highlights his competence as a farmer.

So it says that he had been a capable farmer.

So again, we've got these contrasting adjectives, the hard master, to show that side of him that's negligent, harsh, brutal, compared to that adjective, capable.

So again, Orwell is showing that nuance in Mr. Jones, how there's almost two sides to him, it's not as simple as him just simply being bad.

And then it describes him losing money in a law, he's disheartened, which again is quite a sympathetic word to use, because we almost feel sorry for him, he's, you know, lost all this money he's feeling down on his luck, which has kind of driven him to drink.

So it's interesting what Orwell is doing here.

So to summarise, on the one hand, yes, Orwell has presented Mr. Jones as negligent and irresponsible.

However, this is contrasted with a description that emphasises his previous capabilities as a farmer, and arguably evokes sympathy.

So it's not as straightforward, arguably, as it first sees.

True or false time.

Mr. Jones is presented as a capable farmer.

Well done.

I can hear loads of you shouting, "It's true, it's true." Yes, we've got that adjective capable there, showing us a different side to Mr. Jones.

Okay, now justify your answer.

Well done everyone that spied A, yes, absolutely, Orwell's primary presentation of Mr. Jones is as a negligent farmer, however, there is this implication, it is implied, that he once was effective.

Well done everyone.

Now I want us to consider this statement.

So even though Mr. Jones flees the farm, he is continually referenced throughout the novella, it's almost like he never left.

So why do you think Orwell chooses to do this? Before I send you off to discuss, I just want to show you some quotes where we see Mr. Jones being referenced throughout the novella.

So we've got that quote from Squealer, "Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back." So this is talking about the dogs and Napoleon, "They kept close to Napoleon.

It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones.

If they had no more food than they had in Jones' Day, at least they did not have less." And then that quote from those show trials of Napoleon's, "The air was heavy with the smell of blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones." Then we have, "Napoleon wearing an old bowler hat of Mr. Jones's", and then finally, "Took Mr. Jones's clothes out of the wardrobe and put them on." So, use these quotes to help you formulate your arguments.

So to remind you of the statement, even though Mr. Jones flees the farm, he is continually referenced throughout the novella, it's almost like he never left.

Why do you think Orwell chooses to do this? So over to you, pause the video so you can discuss your ideas or you may prefer just to jot your ideas down.

I really can't wait to hear your answers.

Well done everybody.

Now let's just explore those quotes and have a little think about what Orwell is doing with this constant referencing.

So, this quote by Squealer, we know that Mr. Jones is constantly used to incite fear and manipulate the animals.

So his presence is almost felt.

So even though the whole rebellion is about getting rid of him, the pigs still use his presence as a threat.

So it's almost like he is still there.

This idea about the dogs.

So it's really interesting the way Orwell's described the animals responding to Napoleon.

It's almost exactly the same as Mr. Jones.

And it isn't just the dogs who respond in the same way to Napoleon.

If you think about how the animals are quite scared of Napoleon, how the animals labour for Napoleon and the pigs, it's really quite similar to Mr. Jones.

And Orwell has done this to emphasise that continued cycle of oppression that he wishes to reveal.

We get this reference as well to the food they had in Jones' Day.

And Mr. Jones is always used as a comparison.

So everything, you know, it's not as bad as it was as Mr. Jones' time.

Now the problem with this, is actually Mr. Jones' time was a really low standard.

So this continued comparing isn't actually that helpful because it's almost like anything would be better.

So they constantly compare to Mr. Jones, but actually, yeah, the standard's so low, anything would seem better.

And then that quote from the show trials with that smell of blood, again, Orwell is using the comparison to Jones to demonstrate the decline in ideals.

And again, it shows this inevitability of violent hierarchies.

So that shocking moment when Napoleon executes all those animals, it links it back to Jones again.

They haven't seen this since Jones' time.

So again, we get that sense of the continued cycle of oppression, this idea that a hierarchy will always emerge and ultimately how violence will be used in this type of regime.

And then we get Napoleon in his bowler hat, and the pigs literally start wearing the clothes of Mr. Jones.

So by chapter 10, we cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the humans, and the pigs are literally embodying Mr. Jones by wearing his clothes, his bowler hat.

And this cycle of oppression is complete.

You know, Orwell uses Mr. Jones' clothes to show how the figs resemble him.

And it's not just physically, it's ideologically as well.

So those clothes kind of become a really important signifier of the pigs' transformation into oppressors.

Okay, time for a true or false.

After the rebellion, Mr. Jones is never mentioned again.

Yep, well done to everyone who said false.

You would think they'd want to forget about Mr. Jones, but actually he is continually referenced throughout the novella.

Now justify your answer.

Yep, well done.

He absolutely is not a ghost that haunts the animals.

It's this idea that the spirit of Mr. Jones lives because it represents the cycle of oppression that Orwell wants to reveal.

So that's a really lovely sentence there to describe how Orwell is using Mr. Jones to represent these themes.

So we are on to Task A.

So this is our first practise task.

So this is gonna be a discussion task.

So what I would like you to do is first of all you're gonna just think about your quick thoughts.

So your initial responses to the question, why is Mr. Jones so important to the plot? And then what I would like you to do is once you've thought about those initial ideas, is to use the discussion grid to help formalise your ideas.

So the discussion grid looks like this.

So you want to start drawing comparisons between Mr. Jones and other characters, and also comparisons between the different ways that Mr. Jones is presented, which we looked at at the very start of the lesson.

So words that will help you do this are although, whereas, whilst, and despite.

So an example of this is, "Despite rejecting Mr Jones's leadership, his presence is still felt through the pigs' actions." So I'm using that word there just to show those different representations.

Then I want us to think about developing our ideas.

So using words like more specifically, more precisely, in particular, or indeed, really encourage you to develop your argument further.

So "More specifically, the pigs start to resemble Mr. Jones and this is represented in the wearing of his clothes." So you can see how I'm using some of those ideas that we looked at previously.

And then we want to draw conclusions to these arguments.

Therefore, ultimately, as a result, consequently, becomes "Ultimately the presence of Jones is used by Orwell to show how oppression is always present." Okay, so now it's over to you.

Now remember being able to discuss your ideas is a really good way to develop your thinking, develop your vocabulary, and generally just develop how you can talk around a text.

So really give this task a good go.

So pause the video, I can't wait to hear all of those lovely discussions that you're gonna come up with.

Off you go.

Fantastic.

Gosh, there was some really lively discussions there.

I really love how you've started to use those phrases from the discussion grid, to make your arguments just sound more sophisticated and sound more constructed.

So really, very well done.

So let's just look at some of the things that we said.

So I'm gonna bring up that discussion grid again.

So although Mr. Jones is presented as harsh, it could be argued that he is a more sympathetic character than the pigs.

So you can see how I'm using that subordinate clause there, "Although Mr. Jones is presented as harsh", to then draw on the other alternative presentation of Mr. Jones, which is a really good thing to do.

Then I'm gonna develop this, so "More specifically, his bad leadership is a result of his hardship, whereas the pigs just want power and control." And then my conclusion to my argument, "Therefore, in some respects Mr. Jones could be considered a less ruthless leader than the pigs." So you can really see how using these phrases even in discussion, starts to develop your thinking and develop how you can talk about a text.

So we are working incredibly hard, so let's keep that pace up.

So we're going onto the second part of our lesson, which is all about writing about Mr. Jones.

So we thought about Mr. Jones, the character.

Now we wanna really develop our thinking and be able to write excellently about him.

So here's a little thought.

"Perhaps Mr. Jones is a less ruthless leader than the pigs." So pause the video and discuss, how far do you agree with this statement? Well done.

It's an interesting question, isn't it? And I guess one that's quite difficult to pin down, but here are some other students' responses to the question.

So here we have a disagree.

So Old Major clearly describes how cruel and violent he is.

And this is true actually, and it is why they have a rebellion.

So actually if we think back to that first chapter, Old Major pretty much lists all of the terrible things that Mr. Jones does.

So I can see why the student would disagree that he's a less ruthless leader.

Some of you may be on the fence a little bit because it is tricky because they are both examples of totalitarian leaders, and both oppress the animals.

So maybe it's difficult to say if one is more or less ruthless because they're both as bad as each other, perhaps.

And then agree.

So this student agrees that Mr. Jones is a less ruthless leader because, and this is an interesting argument because Mr. Jones seems less driven by power and control.

The animals are mostly fed too.

So arguably that could make him seem like a less ruthless leader, although perhaps his ability to take his power for granted impacts that as well.

Okay, so I want us now to do a comparison of Mr. Jones and Napoleon as leaders.

So Mr. Jones versus Napoleon, who comes out as the most ruthless leader? So if we think about Mr. Jones, his bad leadership, is a result of hardship in his own life, which, versus Napoleon, who is more driven by the prospect of power and control.

Mr. Jones uses violence as a method of control.

Like I've said, Old Major lists some of these things.

He talks about the cruel knife, the bricks being tied around animals necks, so we know that Mr. Jones is also a cruel and violent leader.

And again, we know that Napoleon uses violence as a method of control, and it's not only the threat of violence.

We know in those show trials that he publicly executes animals to incite fear and to make an example of animals.

Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals.

So we know that this shows that he's negligent and irresponsible.

However, Napoleon uses food rations as a way to control the animals, and this is what differentiates him from Jones.

So this is the point of difference of Napoleon and Mr. Jones.

And perhaps this does make Napoleon more ruthless because it's more calculated, it's more considered, how he uses the rations to control and manipulate the animals.

Mr. Jones is quite complacent about his power.

So he, you know, he doesn't really need to do anything to maintain his power, it's just the way it is.

Whereas Napoleon is more politically astute.

I love the word astute.

So this idea that he's aware, Napoleon is playing the political game.

And Mr. Jones perhaps is a bit more passive.

You know, he doesn't actively go about maintaining his power or manipulating the animals, so he can just sit back and it all works out for him.

Whereas Napoleon is much more active and perhaps he has to be much more active in gaining and maintaining his power, his position at the top of the hierarchy.

So perhaps Mr. Jones is less ruthless leader than the pigs.

Thinking about those points, have you changed your mind at all? So this student has changed their mind, and she says that "I can now see how Mr. Jones and Napoleon share similar traits", which is true, they do.

And our other student here is staying in the middle, "I still think they're as bad as each other", but there's a better understanding now of the differences in their methods.

And I think that's a really key point, because perhaps they are as bad as each other, but there's these points of difference.

So Napoleon differentiates himself from Mr. Jones by controlling the rations of food.

There's a much more psychological element to the manipulation than there is with Mr. Jones.

And this student is sticking with where they are.

"I still feel the same, in fact even more strongly, that Napoleon is more ruthless." Now remember with this, there aren't right or wrong answers.

It's about finding the evidence and looking at what is written in the text to inform our arguments.

And what's interesting here is that Orwell doesn't offer a binary representation of Napoleon and Mr. Jones as simply good or bad.

And this is why we will struggle to say Mr. Jones is the worst or Napoleon is the worst.

It's a much more nuanced discussion.

So there's much more light and shade and variables to the discussion.

And this is what I mean about there not being a right or wrong answer.

We can only look at the evidence and make a judgement for ourselves.

Another true or false.

Both Mr. Jones and Napoleon use food rations as a way to control the animals.

True or false? Well done.

That was a bit of a sneaky question because it's false.

They don't use food rations as a way to control the animals.

Now justify your answer.

Yep, well done.

It's actually only Napoleon that uses the rations consciously and this is what differentiates him from Mr. Jones.

So well done everyone.

So what I want us to do now is I want us to think about writing about Mr. Jones.

Now a sophisticated essay will draw comparisons between characters and find the nuanced points of discussion.

So like we were just discussing with our disagree and agree line, it isn't about necessarily saying that this is good and this is bad, it's about finding the nuance in the argument.

So let's look at this example here and think about what it has done well, so let's read it through together.

"Unlike Jones who merely forgets to feed them, Napoleon strategically controls the food supply as a way of manipulating the other animals on the farm.

After destroying everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones, Napoleon leads them back to the store shed and served out a double ration of corn to everybody with two biscuits for each dog.

This is the first step that he takes towards establishing control of the farm.

Napoleon makes the animals believe that he is far more generous and fair with the distribution of food than Mr. Jones." So what this essay has done well is from the outset, they have used comparisons to draw out those nuanced points.

So "Unlike Jones, who merely forgets to feed them, Napoleon".

So using that "Unlike Jones", is a really good way to start drawing out those nuanced points.

So other phrases are, although, whereas, whilst, despite, and on the other hand, so you can use these phrases again to make those really lovely comparisons.

So this response also uses a specific example from the text.

So they're talking about that food supply and the manipulation, and this is a good thing to do actually, throughout the novella there is this constant comparison between the characters methods of control, and it's a really good way to interrogate their leadership styles.

So focus on those methods of control as your examples.

And the end is really good because it focuses on another difference between the characters, and how even though they both use food as a method of control, it achieves different results.

So Napoleon makes the animals believe that he is far more generous than Jones.

So we can see how Napoleon is using the character of Mr. Jones to make himself seem better.

So it's really clever this response and how it explores those characters.

Question time.

"Which word best describes Mr. Jones's attitude towards leadership?" Yeah, well done everyone that said complacent.

This is the best word to describe him because up until the rebellion in chapter two, Mr. Jones never has had to worry about his status or his power on the farm.

So we are now on to our second and final practise task, so well done everyone.

I really like how we've drawn out those lovely nuanced comparisons of Mr. Jones.

I told you he was an interesting character.

So we're gonna look at this statement, "Life under Napoleon is no better than under Mr. Jones." I want us to think about how far do you agree with this statement? You are going to write your argument in response to this question and you're going to use the sentence starters to help you.

Also think back to that initial discussion we had as our first practise task, and all of the evidence we've looked at and the model responses, using everything that we've looked at in this lesson will really help you write this question.

So you will need to make sure you include comparisons of Mr. Jones and the other characters, just like the model we have looked at, use comparative phrases to draw out nuanced comparisons, and then include specific examples, focus on their methods of control and attitudes towards leadership.

So that's a real top tip there.

So in order to argue this, think about the similarities and differences between their methods of control, and their different attitudes towards leadership.

These will really help you to draw out those nuanced comparisons.

So there's your sentence starters, pause the video so you have plenty of time to answer this question in full and I can't wait to hear your arguments.

Well done everyone.

And it's really hard to make a decision, isn't it, about how far you agree or disagree? But I really like how you're using that evidence from the text to support those arguments.

And also really just drawing out those nuanced comparisons.

It makes for such an interesting read.

So well done.

So there's an example here of how you could have approached the task.

Now you may have something completely different, which is absolutely fine.

It may even be better than what you read here, but just use this to compare to your own work and maybe improve it, or think about what you could do next time.

So let's read it together.

"Whereas Jones takes it for granted that he will maintain power over the farm, Napoleon combines physical intimidation, psychological fear, and propaganda to maintain an iron grip over the other animals.

Napoleon even uses the power and control that Jones once had to his advantage.

In particular through his mouthpiece, Squealer, he makes the animals so afraid of Jones's return that they convince themselves their lives at present are better than when Jones was in control.

Therefore, this, coupled with the animals' lack of intelligence, becomes an effective method of manipulation as they simply assume that the answer is no." So this is a really great response in showing how Napoleon even uses Jones's power to assert his own.

So again, Orwell is really clever at just drawing out those different representations and presentations of characters.

I find it really interesting.

So here we are, we have reached the end of the lesson.

Excellent work everybody.

I really hope you enjoyed exploring Mr. Jones as much as I do.

As I said, he's very often a character that gets overlooked and then when you start to go into depth, you see how interesting he is and how Orwell, all of his characters have a purpose.

They're not just in there for the sake of it.

So I really love deconstructing all of the characters to see what Orwell's trying to get us to think about them.

So hopefully you found some fun in that too.

So let's just remind ourselves of everything we have learnt.

So arguably Mr. Jones is a more sympathetic character than Napoleon.

Through the pigs' behaviour, the spirit of Mr. Jones is always present on the farm.

Orwell does this to suggest that oppression is ever present.

Napoleon uses rations of food to differentiate himself from Jones.

And Orwell offers a nuanced perspective on leadership and power.

Well done everyone.

I look forward to seeing you again soon in another lesson.

See you then, bye-bye.