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Animal Farm Timed Writing Exam

                In his TED lecture, The Antidote to Apathy, Dave Meslin argues that people, rather than being “selfish, stupid, and lazy,” are in fact discouraged from civic engagement.

                Write a fully developed essay in which you explore how the animals on Animal Farm are discouraged by the pigs from active engagement. Pay particular attention to giving specific examples of the ways that the pigs informed the other animals about important policy matters on the farm, the ways that public space was used to provide information, the way media presented information that was in the public interest, and how a cultural mythology developed around leadership and who could participate as leaders.

                Try to include some discussion of how things might have been different if the animals had enacted some of Meslin’s suggestions for lowering the barriers to engagement.