Preview

How effective is Old Major's speech: Animal Farm

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1422 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How effective is Old Major's speech: Animal Farm
How effective is Old Major’s speech in chapter one?
In Chapter one, Old Major gives a speech about how the animals should rebel against Mr Jones, the human and leader of the farm in order to please all of the animals by having satisfactory amounts of the essentials. This rebellion would lead into Animalism. Animalism represents communism and how all animals should be equal. Old Major symbolizes Lenin. Lenin was a revolutionary thinker who came up with the basic concept of the Russian Revolution.
During Old Major’s speech, a wide variety of persuasive techniques are used and this is very noticeable. He creates a number of ideas that he discusses to the animals to persuade them that the rebellion is right.
The use of emotive language is easily noticed and the most effective persuasion technique used. For example, Old Major says “Before I die I feel it in my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired”. This makes the animals feel sad as he is going to pass away, yet he is very noble and respected character. Also the animals would feel grateful that Old Major is sharing his wisdom among them. Furthermore, the animals would be listening very attentively, as they are aware he won’t be alive for much longer, so they want to preserve all of his actions and words. This would cause the animals to believe almost anything Old Major says because he is old and wise.
Old Major in his speech presents the idea of man as an enemy, a lazy and weak being who ‘consumes without producing’. However, he does not reveal it all in the beginning of his speech. Instead Old Major intrigues the animals by saying “But I will come to the dream later”. This creates suspense and keeps the animals paying full attention to him. Old Major is known to have lived a long life on the farm so he knows a lot about Mr Jones. During his time, Old Major watched Mr Jones, and realised that he is evil. This sets up the central theme of unfair treatment and injustice. This is reinforced when

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the tale the pig’s convince the others animals to act and think a certain way as a result of the propaganda that occurs through the entirety of the tale. Old Major brings together the animals and protests the human leadership the animals are under. The pigs take advantage of Old Major’s death and use his speech as the first building block in their series of propaganda. The Pigs then use the song “Beasts of England” their rally cry and later destroy this ritual because it is no longer necessary. Squealer successfully uses his body language to put on a performance that convinces the animals to act in favor of the pigs. The first major piece of propaganda to be implemented is the commandments written by the pigs, which are eventually all broken. The ideas of Old Major are simplified once again with a motto the pigs create which moves the animals away from the desired results of the revolution. Napoleon then drives Snowball off of the farm and turns him into a scapegoat. After this event takes place Napoleon is able to establish himself as a heroic leader. The motto the sheep’s chant is used to drown out any chance of protest. The donkey Benjamin notices afterwards one of the commandments on the wall has been changed. Life on the farm continues in the same terrible way with no sign of hope for the animals. The strong presence of deliberate tactics to assist a leader…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, the use of glittering generalities significantly effected the opinions of animals. For example when Squealer said “ Vote for Napoleon and the full manger”(46) that way he trying to stir up their favorable emotions and their needs. In addition he covers up the fact that manger is never going to happen, but Napoleon needs votes in order to win election.…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Old Major shows a connection to the Russian Revolution through him representing Karl Marx in the story. Old Major taught Animalism, the idea that all animals are equal and that human weren’t needed for them to run the farm. He inspired the animals to over throw the humans and live equal lives, uniting to create an equal government and…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    animal farm chaper 2

    • 1487 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Old Major dies three nights after the meeting that united the animals. Over the next three months, the more intelligent animals begin to approach life differently. They now anticipate the Rebellion, for which they assume the task of preparing. The pigs take on the task of organizing and teaching the other animals because they are “generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals” (35).…

    • 1487 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    These two quote show the start of the influence of the animal Rebellion. It started with the persuasive language of Old…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The primary issue that Old Major has with the principle of working for man is that the animals do the work for no benefit, while Mr. Jones lives a life of excess. Old major is disgruntled by the fact that the man barks orders at his animals, and the animals remain malnourished and neglected even though they do the bulk of the man’s work. Soon after Napoleon and Snowball seize control of Animal Farm, as the animals work tenaciously in the fields, the pigs “…did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others” (50). The pigs’ integrity continues to decline as the story unfolds; the reader sees that they become more akin to the parasitic man which they had sought to be liberated from than diligent leaders they portrayed themselves to be. The pigs, who have taken the place of man at the farm, now begin to reap the benefits of the other animals’ work.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But, every speech Sqealer made appealed to all the animals emotions because then he knew that they would all agree with him and all the choices that Napoleon had made, in the end. George Orwell uses ethos in mainly Squealers speeches, but also Old Major, to all the animals on the farm. Ethos means to convince by the character of the author, because we tend to believe people that we respect. At the beginning of the book, Old Major gave a speech about his dream from the night before, and he told about how he saw the farm of the farm and that he was not going to live for much longer. When Old Major passed away a few days later after his speech, Snowball took place of him and tried to achieve all the goals that Old Major had talked…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Another aspect that Old Major has fulfilled is his directness. I feel that he can quickly and clearly direct his message to the animals quickly, and all the animals understand what he says and means. As for Squealer, he plays with the animals, leading them in a maze that goes round and round. Only the smartest of them understood what he really meant. After he…

    • 626 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Old Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He tells them of a dream he has had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. He tells the animals that they must work toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called “Beasts of England,” in which his dream vision is lyrically described. The animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm. When he dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger pigs, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. Late one night, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves to achieving Major’s dream. The cart-horse Boxer devotes himself to the cause with particular zeal, committing his great strength to the prosperity of the farm and adopting as a personal maxim the affirmation “I will work harder.”…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Old Major used emotional appeal to change the animal’s feelings. In the speech, Old Major addresses the fellow barnyard animals as comrades to establish unity and to show that they are in this together. The song, “Beasts of England,” urges patriotism and rebellion. In the speech, hate and fear is talked about and how they are going to end up because of man.…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They sit around chanting without a clue as to what they are actually saying. The sheep involuntarily convince the other animals to believe anything and sadly the other creatures buy into Napoleon’s propaganda minions.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book most of the animals are uneducated and are not very smart, and if you are not educated you can be easily convinced such as the sheep. Napoleon had taught them easy and simple cheers such as “Four legs good, Two legs bad”. But at the end of the book when the pigs start walking on two legs he easily gets them to change their slogan to “Two legs good, four legs bad.” In the book “Animal Farm” the sheep resembled the common Russian people. During the Russian Revolution these were the people that were easily persuaded by the government and their leaders.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Animal Farm Quotes

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    • Old major was “so highly regarded on the farm” all the animals “were willing to lose an hours sleep to hear him speak"…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Fidel Castro once said, “A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” George Orwell throughout his novel Animal Farm demonstrates this idea. The animals represent the people in the Russian Revolution. Struggling for freedom, but not being able to see past the wants of their leaders. The animals and the Russian citizens don’t realize the rights that are being taken from them. Both, the Russians and the animals never questioned authority. In the novel Animal Farm, the farm comes full circle post revolution demonstrating the consequences of having a leader-follower society.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays