Old Major's Speech - Animal Farm
Old Major’s Speech
In the first chapter of the novel, Old Major gave a speech that lingered in the mind of the farm animals. His choice of words was very precise in expressing what he meant. He amalgamated quite a number of different language techniques in order to convey his ideas. The speech made the other animals understand the situation they were actually in and eager to do something to make Old Major’s dreams and hopes for all of them a realization. Old Major was very old; old enough that he hasn’t many days left to live. They other animals, who were younger, must have deemed him to be wise and knowledgeable enough about the life he has had. His speech contained many assertions because logically, if he were to declare certain things, like when he said:” only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own”, the animals would most likely agree with him. His assertions were effective not only because the animals do look up to him, but also because he was somewhat ‘equal’ with the other animals in terms of their role in the farm; which is to produce for Man. Old major was sure of what he was trying to convey to the rest and getting his main idea across was the first step in getting the others to understand what his actual plans were. Another simple but powerful and emotional language technique used was exclamation. Old Major used quite a number of exclamations in his speech. For example, he asked a rhetorical question: “Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!” Although his question didn’t require an answer, the placement of an exclamation mark instead of a question mark changes the context and emotion of his statement. His vehemence towards the beliefs he was holding onto became clearly conveyed. Old Major’s usage of oversimplification, such as in the sentence ‘only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own’, made it seems like his idea of a rebellion was very easy to execute.
In the first chapter of the novel, Old Major gave a speech that lingered in the mind of the farm animals. His choice of words was very precise in expressing what he meant. He amalgamated quite a number of different language techniques in order to convey his ideas. The speech made the other animals understand the situation they were actually in and eager to do something to make Old Major’s dreams and hopes for all of them a realization. Old Major was very old; old enough that he hasn’t many days left to live. They other animals, who were younger, must have deemed him to be wise and knowledgeable enough about the life he has had. His speech contained many assertions because logically, if he were to declare certain things, like when he said:” only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own”, the animals would most likely agree with him. His assertions were effective not only because the animals do look up to him, but also because he was somewhat ‘equal’ with the other animals in terms of their role in the farm; which is to produce for Man. Old major was sure of what he was trying to convey to the rest and getting his main idea across was the first step in getting the others to understand what his actual plans were. Another simple but powerful and emotional language technique used was exclamation. Old Major used quite a number of exclamations in his speech. For example, he asked a rhetorical question: “Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!” Although his question didn’t require an answer, the placement of an exclamation mark instead of a question mark changes the context and emotion of his statement. His vehemence towards the beliefs he was holding onto became clearly conveyed. Old Major’s usage of oversimplification, such as in the sentence ‘only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own’, made it seems like his idea of a rebellion was very easy to execute.