Lesson video

Hello again, and welcome to lesson two of Animal Farm.

So, we found out in lesson one, about George Orwell.

And we learned about his background, and colonisation, and liberty.

I'm sure all of that new vocab is coming flooding back into your head as I am saying it, which is wonderful.

Today's lesson, we are moving on to looking at George Orwell's writing.

So, what that means I that we will find out more about what he wrote.

But perhaps more importantly, why he wrote.

And really excitingly, we're going to start to make that link between why he wrote, with Animal Farm itself, and explore the background of the story in a lot more detail.

So when you're ready, let's get started.

Excellent.

Now if you need to pause this video, just to find a quiet space, or somewhere you can concentrate, please pause it now.

Make sure you grab a pen or a pencil, and a piece of paper or something to write on.

And then when you're comfy and ready to get started, then press play, and get ready to learn a lot.

Brilliant.

So now we are all ready.

I'm going to talk a little bit about how the lesson is going to go today.

We need to begin with a recap about Orwell.

It's very important when we start learning something new, that we can attach that new learning onto something that's already in here.

So we should already have some information about Orwell.

And we're going to recap that before we start learning more.

We'll then talk about what he wrote.

So as well as Animal Farm, there are some other really important things that he wrote, that will be helpful for us to know.

And then we're going on to the really exciting bit of why he wrote.

And we're going to look at the Russian Revolution, because the Russian Revolution is really, really important, when we are talking about exploring thinking about Animal Farm.

So let's have a look at our recap.

Okay, so here is our recap question.

And our recap question is asking, what did George Orwell think about liberty? We have three options that you can see on the screen.

So, number one is, that Orwell felt very passionately that all people should have liberty.

Option number two is that Orwell thought everyone having liberty would be dangerous.

And then option number three is that Orwell did not think or write about liberty at all.

Now, I want you to take your time, and read through the three options.

So press the pause button that you can see right next to my head.

And then when you've decided on your answer, please press play when you're ready.

Brilliant.

How did you do? Hopefully, most of you, if not all of you, managed to get number one correct.

So Orwell felt very passionately that all people should have liberty.

And if you remember from our previous lesson, we did speak about that quote, where he argued that everyone should be free to say what they think, and what they feel, and share that with the people around them.

So he didn't think it was necessarily dangerous, and most importantly, number three is definitely incorrect, because he thought, and he wrote about liberty an awful lot.

So, now let's move on to the main chunk of this lesson.

We're going to have a look at what George Orwell wrote.

And here, our title for this slide is, from Eric Arthur Blair, to George Orwell.

Now, Eric Arthur Blair was George Orwell's name when he was born.

So this might get a bit confusing, so listen carefully.

George Orwell was not called George Orwell when he was born.

Eric Arthur Blair is George Orwell's real name.

So, when he was born, when he was at school, when he was a policeman in India, when he was living as a homeless man, et cetera, his name was Eric Arthur Blair.

However, when he became a writer, he didn't want to embarrass his parents.

His parents and his family were very keen to be seen as part of the upper class in society.

And they didn't want to be associated with all of the things that George Orwell was doing.

So, he was living amongst the homeless people, he was writing about how everyone should be equal, and that colonisation wasn't a good thing.

So, he decided, to avoid that embarrassment, to change his name, and he became George Orwell.

And he was known as George Orwell for pretty much his entire life, once he started writing.

So, just keep that in your heads, okay? George Orwell, fake name, real name, Eric Arthur Blair.

So Orwell wrote novels, he wrote essays, and he wrote articles.

But we're going to focus on these three main things that he wrote.

So, firstly, in 1933, he wrote something called Down and Out in Paris and London.

Now, this was a piece of work written to expose, or reveal the poverty in Paris and London.

And it was aimed at the middle and upper classes of society.

So Orwell knew that people who were up here in society, maybe with lots of money, or with a very high status, they had no idea about the lives of homeless people, or of people having to work three jobs just to be able to eat a meal.

So the purpose of him writing this was to draw attention to how bad some people were forced to live.

Their lives were not all wonderful and rosy like the people in the upper and middle classes.

So, Animal Farm, the book that we'll be looking at together, he wrote that in 1945.

And it was written during World War Two.

He found it very, very difficult to get published.

So even though he had written this amazing novel, it took a very long time for anyone to be willing to print it, and to sell it.

And we're going to come into why that is, and look at that in a lot more detail very shortly.

And then finally, we have 1984, which is the title of his 1949 book.

This was the final book that he completed in his lifetime.

And 1984, super duper famous.

A lot of people will study it at school, and if they don't study it at school, it's very likely that they will have heard about it, or read it anyway.

George Orwell used this book to explore and examine truth and facts in politics.

So this was the first time that someone had looked at politicians and politics and said, hmm, do they always tell us the truth? How do they lie to use, and why do they lie to us? How do they do that? So it's a really powerful book.

Bear in mind it was written in 1949, okay? So, like I said, this is not everything he wrote.

But these are the three main things that I think are important for us to understand.

Down and Out in Paris and London, Animal Farm, which is our book that we'll be looking at, and then 1984.

So here, I would like you to take this opportunity to make some notes.

Some of you may have been doing that already, as I've been talking, which is amazing.

But if you haven't, that's not to worry.

You can now pause the video here.

And all of the bits that are in black bold writing are bits that I think are really important for you to have down.

So don't worry about copying everything you can see.

It would take you forever, and it's really not necessary to have every single word.

But the words that are in bold, they're the points that I think will be very useful for you to remember, and for you to have in a notebook for us to kind of talk about as we go through the lesson.

So if you need to make those notes, please pause the video here, and then press play when you're finished, and you're ready to move on.

So, quick multiple choice question for you to have a go at.

Why did Orwell change his name? We have three options: Number one, Orwell changed his name because he was embarrassed about his real name, Eric Arthur Blair.

Number two, Orwell changed his name because he was worried about getting into trouble with his writing.

And number three, Orwell changed his name because he did not want to embarrass his family.

So, as you've done before, take your time to think about his, press pause, select the correct answer, and then press play when you're ready.

How did you do? I would imagine all of you managed to get this right.

So, a huge well done if you did.

Orwell changed his name because he did not want to embarrass his family.

So, he wasn't embarrassed by his real name.

It was more that he didn't want his family to feel like they had to explain his behaviour, or try and explain why he felt like this.

They wanted to remain part of society, the middle classes, the upper classes.

They didn't want everyone to know that their son was writing about homeless people, and the inequality in the world.

So, it was important to him that he didn't embarrass his family.

So, we've looked at what he wrote, and hopefully you've got those notes down about the three really important ones that we'd like to talk about.

And now, we're going to move on to why he wrote.

Now we do need to look at a new piece of vocabulary for this.

And this new piece of vocabulary is challenging to say, and challenging to spell, so take your time with this.

Repeat after me: totalitarianism.

Okay, let's have another go.

Totalitarianism.

All right, I reckon once more.

Yeah let's do it once more.

Totalitarianism.

Excellent.

Now I would recommend writing it down a few times, just to get a feel of how you write it, because it is a long word.

But, we do need to know what it means as well.

So totalitarianism.

This is a noun.

And what totalitarianism is, is a system of government that is centralised and ruled by one person.

So government, all of the decisions are centralised.

They're made in one place, and by one person.

Society has to follow all of the rules that are set by that government.

So, let's imagine, in the country that you're in, there is a group of people who are ruled by one person at the top, and they make all of the decisions with no input from anyone else.

They don't ask anyone's opinion.

They decide what it is, and how everything goes.

And society has to follow that.

You have to do as you're told.

And all of these rules are set by one person, essentially.

It all happens with one person, and one group that follows that person's rule.

So let's look at some examples of the word, 'cause I think sometimes that makes it easy to understand.

So number one, the word totalitarianism was first used in Italy in the 1920s.

Some of you may, in history, have studied the world wars.

And if you have, you will know a lot about this.

If you haven't studied the world wars, I would recommend having a chat with your history teacher, and showing off this new word, 'cause they'll be super impressed that you know what this is.

Number two, Animal Farm is a story warning of the dangers of totalitarianism.

So let's just think about George Orwell.

He believes in liberty.

He doesn't like the inequality of people who are poor and in lower classes being treated badly.

And he wrote Animal Farm.

So, he wrote a story to warn everyone about how dangerous totalitarianism is.

And then finally, totalitarianism is the opposite to democracy.

So if democracy is everyone getting to vote, and having their say, and sharing their opinion on what they rules are, totalitarianism is the exact opposite.

People do not get to vote.

They do not get an opinion.

They cannot share their opinion on what the rules should be.

So, one more time, totalitarianism.

Excellent.

Let's move on.

Orwell and Animal Farm.

So, we've just seen that totalitarianism was present in Europe during the 20s and 30s.

So we're looking at just under a hundred years ago, it was present in Europe.

Orwell was fascinated by world leaders.

So he found it really interesting how world leaders seemed to get more powerful and more rich, while poorer and ordinary people got even poorer.

So he say, on one hand, the world leaders getting more power and more money, and everything that made them better.

And then while that was happening, he was watching ordinary, normal people get poorer, and poorer, and poorer.

And he was really interested by this.

But, most importantly, he wanted to fight the injustice of that.

So injustice is like unfairness, or inequality.

When something is injust, it's something that is not fair.

So he wanted to fight that injustice.

He studied the cruel leaders in Europe, and he saw that they were not to be trusted.

So he had a look at these leaders, and he thought hmmm, there's something that we shouldn't trust them.

And he recognised, he noticed, that ordinary people were being manipulated into obeying their rule, even though it made their lives miserable and difficult.

So, what Orwell noticed was that ordinary, normal people were being manipulated by their leaders.

So the leaders were being very, very intelligent, and getting the ordinary people to follow their rules, even though it was not for their benefit.

So even though these ordinary people got nothing for following the rules, there was no benefit to them whatsoever, they still did it.

They carried on following the rules, because they were being manipulated by their leaders.

So, Orwell used all of this real life knowledge, that everything that was going on around him, all of his thoughts and opinions, he used that to write Animal Farm.

And the novel shows how a powerful leader can control and hurt his people.

That is really the core part of the novel.

It shows the readers how a powerful leader can control people, and hurt people.

So, there are a few pictures on the screen now.

And what I'd like you to do, is try and take all of the stuff that we've been talking about, and just write down some bullet points, of what Orwell hoped to achieve with his writing.

So, you can see a picture, the first picture, you can see, of a homeless person, sat down with their hands out.

And then, in the middle, you've got a very, very empty wallet with nothing in it, and a very full wallet with credit cards and money.

And then, finally, we have the Statue of Liberty.

So most of you probably already knew what that was.

But there might be a few of us who don't.

So that is the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom around the world, a symbol of democracy, which is the opposite of totalitarianism.

So, please pause the video here, and just take your time.

Write down some of your ideas.

What did Orwell hope to achieve? What was he trying to achieve with is writing? Take your time, and then press play when you're ready to start again.

Okay.

So hopefully those pictures have given you some clues, some ideas.

And now we're going to have a go at this question.

There is more than one correct answer.

So, what did Orwell hope to achieve with his writing? Option one, he wanted to draw attention to the inequality in society.

Option number two, he wanted to draw attention to people, I'll start that again.

He wanted to draw attention to people in power abusing their position.

Option three, Orwell wanted to comment on the politics of the time he was writing.

And option four, he wanted to write to share his experiences.

There is more than one correct answer.

So pause the video, read through them independently, take your time, and then press play when you've selected the correct answers.

Good luck.

Okay.

So this was a bit of a trick question.

All four of those are correct.

So, even if you got one or two of them, that's amazing, and you should be proud of yourselves.

So, well done.

Option one, yes, he definitely hoped to draw attention to inequality.

That was really important to him.

He wanted to show everyone that not everyone was treated the same, and people had quite a big gap between their lifestyles.

Option number two, yes he definitely wanted to draw attention to those cruel leaders, and how they abused their power, so they used their power to do bad things.

And he definitely wanted to draw attention to that.

Option three, he used Animal Farm in particular, to comment on what was happening around him in Europe at the time.

And we're going to explore that in more detail next.

And finally, he wanted to write to share his experiences.

So again, his experiences are growing up in India, so a colonised place where people were treated very badly by the people in charge.

But also remember, when he was at school, he stood out because he was poor.

So he really did understand what it felt like to be so different.

And the people all around him had such a different experience of life, just because they had money.

So for him, writing about this was important.

He wanted to share what he'd been through as well.

That's our lesson complete for today.

Thank you so much for all of you hard wok.

If your parents or parent would like to share any of your work on social media, the tags and the twitter handle is on the screen for you now.

Alternatively, you can share it with friends, family, teachers.

We love to see work that people are doing outside of school.

Have a lovely day.

And I'm looking forward to seeing you for our next lesson.

Well done.