The Common Good is TopMarks’ free interactive journey through chapters I–X of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Follow the rebellion, explore the farm and investigate what happens to the animals’ shared hopes. Use this guide to connect the events you remember with an argument about how power works.
Track a promise and what happens to it
A useful revision question is not just ‘What happens next?’ Ask what the animals are promised, who benefits from each change, and how the change is explained. Keep a small evidence table with three columns: the original promise, the later action, and the language used to justify it.
- Equality: compare shared ideals with unequal access to food, comfort and decision-making.
- Propaganda: consider how Squealer’s explanations make questionable actions seem necessary.
- Memory: track the gap between what animals remember and what they are told happened.
- Loyalty and exploitation: consider whether Boxer’s commitment gives him influence or makes him easier to use.
A 20-minute revision routine
- Choose one theme. Power or propaganda is a useful starting point. Write a question you want the chapter to help answer.
- Play one chapter. Move around, read the learning activities and notice a decision that changes life on the farm.
- Describe both sides. Write what the leaders say the decision achieves and what actually changes for the other animals.
- Check the novel. Find a short piece of evidence in your own copy, checking the speaker and context.
- Compare another chapter. Explain how a repeated technique becomes more powerful, or how a promise has changed.
Try an interpretation
How can a slogan help a group gain power while making it harder for others to question that power?
Reveal a worked explanation
A slogan makes an idea easy to remember and repeat. That can unite the animals, but repetition can also replace careful discussion. If a slogan is used to drown out questions, belonging to the group becomes linked to agreeing with its message. An analysis should connect this effect to a particular moment in the novel, then consider who gains when disagreement becomes difficult.
This is a starting argument, not a model paragraph to memorise. Add the evidence and context that your chosen chapter supplies.
Characters as different responses to power
Compare Napoleon’s control, Squealer’s persuasion, Boxer’s trust and Benjamin’s scepticism. A useful question is whether recognising a problem necessarily changes it. Explain what each character does as well as what they seem to believe; a description of personality alone does not show a response to events.
Using the game with a class
Ask small groups to investigate the same change from different animals’ perspectives. Afterwards, compare who had information, who had influence and who carried the consequences. Return to Orwell’s wording before writing an analytical answer.
Access and progress
The game supports keyboard, mouse and touch controls. Progress saves in the browser on the same device. All ten chapters are included, but the game does not replace reading the novel or checking your exam board’s text and assessment requirements.
You can print this guide from your browser for lesson planning or independent study.
Play the Animal Farm revision game →