Question

read the excerpt from chapter 10 of animal farm. years passed. the seasons came and went, the short animal lives fled by. a time came when there was no one who remembered the old days before the rebellion, except clover, benjamin, moses the raven, and a number of the pigs. muriel was dead, bluebell, jessie, and pincher were dead. jones too was dead—he had died in an inebriates’ home in another part of the country. snowball was forgotten. boxer was forgotten, except by the few who had known him. clover was an old stout mare now, stiff in the joints and with a tendency to rheumy eyes. she was two years past the retiring age, but in fact no animal had ever actually retired. the talk of setting aside a corner of the pasture for superannuated animals had long since been dropped. napoleon was now a mature boar of twenty - four stone. squealer was so fat that he could with difficulty how does orwell use irony in this excerpt? by using humor to demonstrate how few animals remember the rebellion by illustrating that the news of the rebellion was exaggerated for dramatic effect by building suspense about what the current animals know about the rebellion by showing that readers know more about the rebellion than most of the animals

Explanation:

To determine how Orwell uses irony, we analyze each option:

• The first option: The excerpt doesn't use humor to show few animals remember the rebellion. It's about time passing and forgetting, not humor. Eliminate.
• The second option: There's no indication the rebellion news was exaggerated. The focus is on forgetting, not exaggeration. Eliminate.
• The third option: The excerpt doesn't build suspense about what animals know. It's about memory loss over time. Eliminate.
• The fourth option: Readers know about the rebellion (from the novel), but most animals (except a few) have forgotten. This creates irony as readers are more informed than the animals. This matches.

Answer:

D. by showing that readers know more about the rebellion than most of the animals