Diwakar Rizal
November 29, 2019
Abstract
The writing explores the
summary of two pieces of literature and their influences, purpose for liking,
teacher’s point of view for assigning and for re-assigning a new piece of
literature for students and at last providing the other students with a new piece
of literature and the purpose for doing so. Every aspect of the literature is
explained by identifying the setting, the plot, the climax and the falling
action which leads to better understanding of the story as a whole. Both of the
stories are from the same writer George Orwell which has resulted in analyzing
of the similarities and differences in both of the pieces easy as well as
difficult at the same time.
Keywords: literature,
story, reading, analyze, influence
Literature is a piece of writing having excellence of form
or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest that have
a long lasting effect in the mind of the reader (Merriam-Webster, 2019) . It reveals the
facts and imageries present in the world in the form of words so that even a
person who has not seen the place can imagine it in his/her head and enjoy the
art. Literature can also be regarded as a third eye through which the normal
things in the life can be presented in such words and feelings such that other
person can visualize the same things but in different perspective. It is the
beauty and uniqueness of literature to make the visualization possible only by
reading the words and art portrayed. Personally, I have been influenced by many
of the pieces of literature and among them I can regard ‘1984’ as the piece
that I connected while not so much with ‘Animal Farm’.
‘1984’ was written by Eric Arthur Blair, better known as
George Orwell which was published in 1949 as a dystopian novel about the
totalitarian regime of the Party, an oligarchical collectivist society where
the life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war,
persuasive government surveillance, public mind control and the voiding of
citizen’s rights (Orwell, 1949) . In detail, the
story has a plot of such a time in the world in 1984 when there is total
control over citizens by government and every action of citizen’s is monitored
by telescreen and thought police. There are basically three classes of people
who are the people of government, working class in the same government and the
outcasts who are neglected by the government. The whole country is in regular
war with the neighboring countries and the person named ‘Big Brother’ is an
idol or god like figure for all the people in Oceania. The rising action of the
story sets off when the main narrator of the story Winston Smith falls in love
with girl named Julia which is forbidden in whole country. They both find their
mutual ground as they both hate the current system of government and its rules.
The story reaches its climax when the third person they found who they believed
to have same thoughts about the government betrays them and reports to the
thought police. Falling action of the story starts when they both are tortured
in such a way that they change themselves as a person and kill their original
self and they embrace ‘Big Brother’ as their sole leader from their inner
heart.
‘Animal Farm’ is an allegorical novel written in 1945 by
George Orwell which portrays the life of animals in a farm who live with a
farmer along the country side in a rural area far from other neighbors. The
whole plot of the story is based on the lack of co-operation and understanding
and how a totalitarian regime can result in horrific ending. The story reaches
its turning point when pigs rise in power by eating most of the food supply,
giving work to other animals while watching television and acting as humans.
Further there is tension between two pigs which leads to the expulsion of
Snowball the pig as a source of problems in the farm. The falling action in the
story arrives when other animals are treated very poorly and are accused of
being in contact with the Snowball the pig and they too are forced to leave the
farm.
I
really liked reading ‘1984’ by George Orwell as it is an dystopian novel
portraying the future of the world and in a sense it has represented the
history of the world and the consequence of having a totalitarian regime and
its affect in the lives of the people. It requires a detailed reading as it has
many references that connect it so well with the time today. Its resonance with
the political status of the world has influence many people in the world who
regards it as ‘Bible’. On the other hand, I didn’t like reading ‘Animal Farm’
by the same author George Orwell not because it was not good piece of
literature but due to the fact that it constituted of characters as animal who
are portrayed as being able to express themselves on the same level as human
beings just to make their characters appealing which gave it a tag of being a
children’s book when it’s an adult book portraying political and historical
references. Similarly, it has drawn its story line on the basis of cultural stereotypes
of animals such as Pig have a bad name for selfishness and gluttony, Horses are
slow-witted and Sheep are brainless and behave as a flock without individual
initiative including the plain language, straightforward plot and
one-dimensional characters restricts me from enjoying the read (Rodden, 2003) .
Teacher’s
purpose in assigning this piece of literature was to expand thinking, to
explore and issue and to analyze and argument in the sense that ‘1984’ and
‘Animal Farm’ were both critical for me to get an overview of the writing
styles used in the story, the setting, the plot, the rising action, climax and
falling action which expanded my overall concept of what’s it like to read a
complex piece of literature. Similarly, to find the common ground about the
story and to find the difference of perspectives in moving the story forward
helped to explore the issue in a greater way by replacing myself in the place
of the narrator (James Merickel, 2017) . In addition to
that, identification of those issues and their reflection in the overall story
helped to analyze and argue.
If
I could put myself in teacher’s place to assign the piece of literature, I
would definitely recommend 'Animal Farm’ even though I didn’t like it, it would
be really easy for my students to get into as it has plain language,
straightforward plot and one-dimensional characters that would make the read
simple and the symbolism used in the story to portray the autocratic rule and
its knowledge is very important in the world today. Since, there is also a
movie re-make of the story; their first piece of literature could be helpful
for them to get a better understanding of the subject and its beauty.
References
James Merickel, L.
P. (2017). Reading Literature and Writing Argument. New York, USA:
Library of Congress.
Merriam-Webster.
(2019, 01 27). Database. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literature
Orwell, G. (1949). '1984'.
New Delhi: Maanu Graphics.
Rodden, J. (2003).
Appreciating animal farm in the new millenium. Modern Age; Wilmington,
Vol. 45, Iss. 1, 67-76.
Sahi ho
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