Hannah A. Krynicki

Thanks @spradlin. 🙂

@dbhgpdreigns Exactly. I was thinking it sounded like the Hitler Youth, too, but pretty much every totalitarian society begins by brainwashing the kids.

@overcomer I do agree that pigs aren’t the smartest people, but I think Orwell used then as a metaphor; dictators=pigs. I do think that there is a lack of intelligent…[Read more]

@spradlin Great questions once again! I’ve always believed that it is the duty of the writers to remind the people of their country what is true and alert them to potential dangers- basically, to encourage people to think. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe perhaps did more to fight slavery than Lincoln or any other lawmaker. As to an allegory of the…[Read more]

Ah! I’m finally caught up.

Okay, @hannah-olsen, I’m beginning to see what you mean about the humor, especially with Molly learning to decorate her name and leaving work early.

I’m also seeing more serious warnings from Orwell, most noticeably, when Napoleon takes away all the calves from their mothers for the sake of “education,” claiming it…[Read more]

Sorry @daeus, it’s a matter of busy-ness. I can join in later this week. Thanks for checking up, though.

@sarah-h You can probably find a classic like Animal Farm at your library. Check there first, and if you can’t find it, you might locate one at Half-Price books or some other popular bookstore.

@spradlin Orwell is telling the story for his audience. If he was writing for himself, he would vent his own opinions a lot more- think of Victor Hugo’s dissertations in Les Miz. I also believe that he’s slowly working in an allegory. @daeus You’re right that a person who hadn’t heard of communism before would not recognize it, but I think he’s…[Read more]

@daeus Ha, yeah, that’s also true from a logical perspective. It sounds like what Thomas More said at the end of Utopia: that his socialistic ideas would be perfect in an unfallen society, but it is not likely that they would ever work in the real world.

What about the use of imagery or metaphors in the story? I haven’t noticed much of that yet,…[Read more]

@daeus That’s true. So do you think he is speaking out against the absolute power of totalitarianism- that is, rule by a few when it should theoretically be rule by all?

@hope, you’re onto something there. Orwell was a socialist but not a communist (I know, right?), so I think he is emphasizing the sound reasoning behind socialism that goes wrong only under communist totalitarianism. Come to think of it, Orwell does occasionally throw in an opinion- but only in the form of the animals’ speech.

@dbhgodreigns That might be true, or maybe the rebellion is the key event. In K.M. Weiland’s diagram on the topic, the inciting event starts off the the events of the story, and the key event drags the protagonist(s) into those events. Old Major’s dream might be the inciting event, while the rebellion is the key event that brings in the farm…[Read more]

Thanks, @daeus! The first thing I noticed while reading the chapters is the POV. I think Orwell intentionally kept himself limited to objective third-person so that he wouldn’t come across as “biased” against communism; this way he simply relates the events as they play out and lets the reader decide for him/herself. It wouldn’t have been the same…[Read more]

Got it!

Wow, plenty of good options. My top three would be:
1. The Hobbit
2. The Witch of Blackbird Pond
3. The Great Gatsby

Hey @daeus, great idea! Sign me up. Suppose we decided to dissect the entire History of Middle-earth series…? 😉

@hope, it really depends on whether you’d buy anything else like that for $50. For me, usually I use image searches (think Pinterest or Bing) to find story inspiration, but then I bought a replica of a shield from the 1290s for something like $70. Will I ever wield the thing in battle? Probably not. Yet do I enjoy having the shield on my wall?…[Read more]

Well, that helps a little bit. 🙂

@anna-brie And you come up with that solution in the middle of the night when you can’t do anything about it…

Ooh, @kate-flournoy, I think you’re onto something. If there is a way to turn the birds against the good guys and take away their powers from singing, then the king is obviously weakened. What about the rest of the kingdom- do they have anything to do with birds, and would the fall of the birds (ha, that would make a creepy title) directly cause…[Read more]