Orwell Meets Egypt

There are a few connections I see between Animal Farm and the situation in Egypt itself. One connection is the rebellion of the audience. In Egypt, they were against their ruler who was unfair to them and their government. In Animal Farm, the animals were rebelling against Mr. Jones, their evil leader, also referred to as "the man". Both the people of Egypt and the animals of Animal Farm did not like the way the leaders treated them and the rules they made that were unfair.

Another connection I saw between Animal Farm and Egypt was how they looked up to people they can't trust. For instance, in Animal Farm, the animals look up to Napoleon, who is not innocent at all. He is basically another tyrant who does not show his evil side. In Egypt, they also look up to someone who is not very innocent as well (can't think of the name of the person).

Other connections between Animal Farm and the upheaval in Egypt are being under military rule. The animals had to obey the seven commandments which did not give freedom to any animal living in Animal Farm. The government and the leaders of Egypt did the same type of thing, which led to rebellion of the people. In Animal Farm, the animals were the ones who were in charge. Also, this may not seem like a big connection but both are historical events. Animal Farm talked about communism and used animals to portray the soldiers or the people living in the Soviet union or who were in the army to fight in World War II. The situation with Egypt will be a historical moment and both this and Animal Farm share significant facts and the importance of history.

Animal Farm Essay

The Concept of Bad English

In George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”, he talks about how bad English was at the time and how it refers to politics. He says that bad English is a problem but not something we can really solve. People are always going to have bad English because they may not be thinking at the time or did not pass an English class. One interesting thing Orwell points out is that “underneath this lies the half- conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we can shape for our own purposes.” This quote sounded interesting to me because it rather explains the whole idea of how incorrect grammar is used. Language is a natural growth but we do not always use it properly.

The other main points of Orwell’s essay are that bad language has political and economic causes, which he must explain later but does not introduce in his first two paragraphs. He is probably saying that bad language affects those who are in politics and economics because their speeches and written work needs to be clear to the audience. Orwell includes an example that relates to the effect of bad English in the second paragraph. He says, “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks.” What Orwell might be saying is that people use incorrect grammar because they do not think about the smart thing to say. If they continue to use incorrect grammar, then they will not succeed in writing nor would people take them seriously.

Some of the stuff that Orwell writes in his essay I agree with and then some of it I question. According to Orwell, the main reason why we have incorrect grammar is that “our thoughts are foolish, but slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” I do agree that our thoughts can be ‘foolish’. This is because we do not normally think about what we are saying before we say it. There have been times where I, or people around me, have said things like “She been did…She been had… I is…” Usually the reason why this happens is because I do not really think about what I am saying- I am more focused on expressing my feelings or trying to get my point across. The things I have to question are his ways of that thinking clearly and politics go together. He does not really explain in these two paragraphs, but he has strong points and interesting data on English.

Is America Corrupt by Political Power?

So Thursday, Mr. Sutherland had us answer the question "Does political power corrupt the people who attain it?" I had a hard time answering  this question so most of this wont make sense.

In my opinion, political power corrupts the people who attain it because of the fact that they may not agree with what the government is saying. Political power corrupts people when they do not know when they are being tricked by laws or by the government. I think George Orwell would answer the same way but would have more points about how political power controls people and has a lot of effect on those who are following the powers of politicians. George Orwell wrote "Animal Farm" to help support his points about how political power has a major effect on people, but in the book he uses animals to represent these people. He uses pigs to be the main p=oliticians who are in charge of goats, horses, and other animals in the farm to be Republicans or Democrats. The quotes he use that help support his points are:

"We are born,we are given just so much food as will keep the bretah in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength ... no animal in England knows the meaning of happiness and leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: this is the plain truth," (28).

This quote relates to politics and how the government has laws about people and these laws control people. It also relates because political power is corrupting people. However, in the story power corrupts animals. There are other quotes like on pg. 43 which is the list of Sevn Commandments. These commandments are laws obeying the animals from any type of freedom.

And this is all i wrote...  : D