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Home Summer Reading Assignment Students

Given the nature of the 2011 summer reading program, you had significant autonomy in selecting the books you would read. While you were responsible for completing a proposal, you were not given other assignments to complete over the summer. As indicated on your proposal form, you are required to write a letter to your 2011-12 Language Arts teacher that demonstrates your thoughtful reading of your book. We have chosen to break this down further into three focused "Power Paragraphs" for two reasons, one, to introduce you to the idea of a power paragraph, and two, to assist you in covering all aspects of the assignment.

__ Prompt for Paragraph One - A Reflection of Your Choice __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Wednesday, 8/24 **

When Mr. Stotts gave a brief rundown of __Animal Farm__, by George Orwell last year, I was mildly intrigued. He described the book as a tough read, but very unusual and interesting. He didn’t go too much into details, but did say there was a lot of heavy symbolism in the novella. When he said something about pigs ruling a farm after overthrowing the humans, I thought he was just joking around. I was very wrong. The whole book was a symbol, let alone bits and pieces of it. The concept that Orwell employed, however, was very fascinating. After reading the book and brushing up on my history, I deducted that the book was a direct reference to the Russian Revolution, with the humans as the Russian royalty that was ultimately overthrown, and the pigs as the varying types of revolutionaries. This novella met my expectations of being extremely unorthodox (in a good way), and hard-hitting. Quotes like, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 109) really made me reflect upon the origins of democratic beliefs, and also the stark contrast from our own Declaration of Independence quote, “All men are created equal.” Reading __Animal Farm__ really made me use my knowledgeable brain- not just my imagination.

I'm glad you chose to tackle this book, it is a good read with strong symbolism. Please try to follow the power paragraph structure. I know it may feel strange at first, but it should help you to write more crisp, efficient responses.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Thursday, 8/25 **

As an allegorical book, George Orwell’s __Animal Farm__ definitely taught me about the Russian Revolution, but as a direct critical assessment of Napoleon the Pig/Joseph Stalin and how he asserted his power, the novella made me reflect upon the definition of power, and how easily humans can be consumed by power. I wasn’t really changed, but it made me consider the pros and cons of being a person in power, and how that applies to the world today. Old Major/Vladimir Lenin had good intentions for the animal revolution, but Napoleon, and even Snowball/Leon Trotsky twist the idea into pigs being the superior race, and absolutist power under the name of Socialism (which has been shown throughout history to lead to doom). Another two characters that really made me //reflect// are Boxer and Squealer. Boxer represents the submissive working class born from the Russian Revolution, who mindlessly follow whatever Napoleon says. Boxer has two phrases that sum up his unwaveringly obedient views about Napoleon and the Animal Farm, “I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right.” Squealer is a pig who represents the Napoleon’s manipulation of the media, who justifies Napoleon’s actions through brainwashing and confusing the lesser intelligences. For example, he teaches the sheep to bleat “Four legs good, two legs better!” repetitively after Napoleon inserts a policy for animals to walk on two legs, and Squealer also uses fancy words and false statistics to confuse and intimidate the uneducated. All these characters are simple examples of the corruption of power, and they all reinforced my belief that democracy is a better way of government, but also made me wonder if someday, someone would find a way to usurp democracy, as Napoleon usurped socialism.

Great insight and evidence from the novel, but again, part of your task is to make choices about what is truly important enough to include in your response and to avoid repeating yourself or including too much at the risk of diluting the power of your words.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Sunday, 8/28 **

The perfect reader for this book would be someone who can see past the unusualness of George Orwell’s plot. __Animal Farm__, definitely pushes the limits A typical reader would not be able to read __Animal Farm__ and like it, for it is extremely unorthodox; it takes the events and people of the Russian Revolution, which was a dark period of history, filled with cruel governmental secrecies and abuse of power, and portrays it with a children’s book theme. Russia becomes a farm, Leon Trotsky becomes a pig named Snowball… some readers would consider this change too eccentric, and thus shy away from it. For me, __Animal Farm__ was a smart read, and it definitely tickled my brain, and I liked that aspect. However, I understood the historical background of the book, and the political background. For someone who didn’t have to live through Global History and listen through Ms. Haye’s in-depth sermon about socialist Russia, this book could come off as confusing, or even ridiculous, regardless of gender. In other words, a historically-savvy reader who likes to think outside the box would be ideal for __Animal Farm__. Your last sentence is definitely the strongest in both content and wording. Think about using this line as a model for your topic sentence as well.


 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **

// An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: Good content, just work on efficient structure. //


 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence
 * Correct use of internal citations and a properly formatted MLA citation for your book (put this citation at the end of paragraph one)
 * Strict adherence to the Power Paragraph format
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning