The Book Report
Every year, Ms. Nohara required her secondary-school senior history class to read two books about “government or political systems” and to write a brief report about each text.
One student in her class, Liam, selected 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell. In 1984, the world turns into a terrible place in which “Big Brother” monitors everyone’s actions via two-way television-like screens. Infractions of minor rules are punished severely. Animal Farm is a short novel about political systems in which the characters are portrayed as farm animals such as pigs and dogs. Liam enjoyed both books and finished them both
before mid-term. His reports were insightful, reflecting on the symbolism contained in the novels and the implications for
present-day government.
Liam’s friend, Pita, had put off reading her first book until a few days before the reports were due. She knew Liam enjoyed reading about government and had finished his reports. Pita asked Liam if he knew of any “skinny” books that she could read. Liam gladly shared his copy of Animal Farm with her. Pita accepted the book, very pleased that it was so short. However, as she began reading the book, she wondered why Liam had given it to her. It didn’t seem to fit the requirements of the assignment at all.
The day before the reports were due, Ms. Nohara overheard the students talking. Pita complained to Liam, “I don’t get it. It’s
a story about pigs and dogs.” Liam responded, “They aren’t really supposed to be farm animals. It’s a story about the promises of communism and what happened in the Soviet Union once the communists took over. It’s a great story! Don’t you see? The pigs represent the communist regime that overthrew the czars during the Russian Revolution. They made all kinds of promises about equality. The people supported them because they were tired of the rich and powerful running everything while they starved. Once the czars were expelled, the communists set up a new government. But they didn’t keep any of their promises. Instead, they controlled everything and began acting just like the czars. They even began
a secret police force—like the dogs in the story. Remember how they bullied the other animals? That was just like the secret police in the Soviet Union.”
“I still don’t get it. How can a pig or a dog be a communist or a police officer? They’re just animals.”
Liam looked at his friend, dumbfounded. How could she not understand this book? It was so obvious.

1		Using Piaget’s theory, explain why Liam understood the book and Pita didn’t
2		What could Ms. Nohara do to help Pita better understand the novel?
3		How could Ms. Nohara have structured this assignment so that Pita would not need to rush through the texts to complete the assignment?