Penlighten Staff Last Updated: Feb 10, Did You Know? Although Aesop is widely recognized as the original composer of the many fables in the Aesopica, in truth, there is no record that these fables were written by Aesop himself. It is believed that he orally narrated his stories, and thus they traveled to Greece, several centuries after his death.
Table of Contents Context George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, a British political novelist and essayist whose pointed criticisms of political oppression propelled him into prominence toward the middle of the twentieth century. Born in to British colonists in Bengal, India, Orwell received his education at a series of private schools, including Eton, an elite school Aesop fable summary England.
His painful experiences with snobbishness and social elitism at Eton, as well as his intimate familiarity with the reality of British imperialism in India, made him deeply suspicious of the entrenched class system in English society.
As a Aesop fable summary man, Orwell became a socialist, speaking openly against the excesses of governments east and west and fighting briefly for the socialist cause during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from to Unlike many British socialists in the s and s, Orwell was not enamored of the Soviet Union and its policies, nor did he consider the Soviet Union a positive representation of the possibilities of socialist society.
He could not turn a blind eye to the cruelties and hypocrisies of Soviet Communist Party, which had overturned the semifeudal system of the tsars only to replace it with the dictatorial reign of Joseph Stalin. Orwell became a sharp critic of both capitalism and communism, and is remembered chiefly as an advocate of freedom and a committed opponent of communist oppression.
His two greatest anti-totalitarian novels—Animal Farm and —form the basis of his reputation. Orwell died inonly a year after completingwhich many consider his masterpiece. A dystopian novel, attacks the idea of totalitarian communism a political system in which one ruling party plans and controls the collective social action of a state by painting a terrifying picture of a world in which personal freedom is nonexistent.
Animal Farm, written indeals with similar themes but in a shorter and somewhat simpler format. Certain animals are based directly on Communist Party leaders: Orwell uses the form of the fable for a number of aesthetic and political reasons.
To better understand these, it is helpful to know at least the rudiments of Soviet history under Communist Party rule, beginning with the October Revolution of At the end of October November 7 on current calendarsKerensky was ousted, and Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Russian Revolution, became chief commissar.
Trotsky was a popular and charismatic leader, famous for his impassioned speeches, while the taciturn Stalin preferred to consolidate his power behind the scenes. In the following years, Stalin succeeded in becoming the unquestioned dictator of the Soviet Union and had Trotsky expelled first from Moscow, then from the Communist Party, and finally from Russia altogether in Stalin used his former opponent as a tool to placate the wretched populace.
Trotsky became a common national enemy and thus a source of negative unity.
He was a frightening specter used to conjure horrifying eventualities, in comparison with which the current misery paled. These and many other developments in Soviet history before have direct parallels in Animal Farm: Napoleon ousts Snowball from the farm and, after the windmill collapses, uses Snowball in his purges just as Stalin used Trotsky.
Similarly, Napoleon becomes a dictator, while Snowball is never heard from again. Orwell was inspired to write Animal Farm in part by his experiences in a Trotskyist group during the Spanish Civil War, and Snowball certainly receives a more sympathetic portrayal than Napoleon.
Historical Context Russian society in the early twentieth century was bipolar: They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx.
In Das Kapital CapitalMarx advanced an economically deterministic interpretation of human history, arguing that society would naturally evolve—from a monarchy and aristocracy, to capitalism, and then on to communism, a system under which all property would be held in common.
The dignity of the poor workers oppressed by capitalism would be restored, and all people would live as equals. After a politically complicated civil war, Tsar Nicholas II, the monarch of Russia, was forced to abdicate the throne that his family had held for three centuries.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin, a Russian intellectual revolutionary, seized power in the name of the Communist Party. The new regime took land and industry from private control and put them under government supervision.
Stalin, a crafty and manipulative politician, soon banished Trotsky, an idealistic proponent of international communism. Stalin then began to consolidate his power with brutal intensity, killing or imprisoning his perceived political enemies and overseeing the purge of approximately twenty million Soviet citizens."After Earth" is a lovely surprise, a moral tale disguised as a sci-fi blockbuster.
This movie from producer-costar Will Smith and director M.
Night Shyamalan, about a father and son marooned on a hostile future earth, is no classic, but it’s a special film: spectacular and wise.
When his fiancee is kidnapped by human traffickers, Roman (Ashton Holmes) and his ex-military brothers set out to track her down and save her before it is too late. Full online text of The Tortoise and the Hare by Aesop.
Other short stories by Aesop also available along with many others by classic and contemporary authors. Fables. Mid to upper elementary. Summary This book is Aesop's fables with contemporary title and style. Modern print and gentle nature illustrations require the reader to imagine the specifics of each fable.
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In Greek mythology Pandora was the first mortal woman who was formed out of clay by the gods. The Titan Prometheus was once assigned the task of creating the race of man. He afterwards grew displeased with the mean lot imposed on them by the gods and so stole fire from heaven.
Zeus was angered and commanded Hephaestus and the other gods create the first woman Pandora, endowing .