Making Inferences
What’s the Reader’s Job?
The writer of Animal Farm, George Orwell expects that you’ll figure out important things about the story that even the characters don't see; he assumes that you’ll make inferences. Even though the animals don’t seem to know what is being done to them, you’re able to understand that things have gotten much worse on Animal Farm than they were on Manor Farm.
Inference -: An educated guess; the process of making conclusions from the information you have been given.
Instructions: Read the following passages from Chapter 9. Explain the inferences and insights you can make that the characters can’t.
Meanwhile, life was hard. The winter was as cold as the last one had been, and food was even shorter. Once again all rations were reduced, except those of the pigs and dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism. (p58)
In April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary to elect a President. There was only one candidate, Napoleon, who was elected unanimously. On the same day, it was given out that fresh documents had been discovered which revealed further details about Snowball’s complicity with Jones. It now appeared that Snowball had not, as the animals had previously imagined, merely attempted to lose the Battle of the Cowshed by means of a stratagem, but had been openly fighting on Jones’ side. (p60)