Welcome to Animal Farm
Welcome to Animal Farm
by Sam Newman
Imagine
living in a place where your government was run by a leader who only cared
about themselves, who eliminated others who disagreed with them, who denied inhabitants’
basic human rights, and who chronically lied about obvious facts. Now also imagine
that many of the people still pretended not to notice and continued to follow that
leader. That is what it is like in the book Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Orwell
wrote Animal Farm in 1945 as a satire to show the severity of the Russian
Revolution. He did this by taking important figures from the Russian Revolution
and changing them to animals, because retelling the history with the characters
as animals tones down the barbarity of the events that happened. For example, a
pig named Napoleon is the parallel to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. When Napoleon
the pig decides to starve the hens for not giving up their eggs, it parallels when
Joseph Stalin starved millions of people to death in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-3.
There
are many other examples of tyranny. One is how Napoleon treated his partner-in-command,
another pig named Snowball. Snowball had an idea to build a windmill to grind
grain and make animals’ lives easier. Napoleon opposed the idea publicly. After
a vote by all farm animals favored building the windmill (Napoleon lost the
vote), Napoleon then announced that Snowball had actually stolen the windmill
idea from Napoleon himself. Napoleon then called his dogs to chase Snowball out
of animal farm. Exiling Snowball gave Napoleon complete power. Napoleon later destroyed
the windmill and blamed Snowball for it, then killed anyone who claimed to have
agreed with Snowball. Napoleon also acted like he was above the law, by breaking
many of the Animal Farm rules (like no sleeping in beds or drinking alcohol)
and then lying and changing the rules to his liking. Napoleon also changed one
of the Seven Commandments of Animalism that had been the basis for the original
animal farm revolution, so that it was revised from, “All animals are equal,” to
instead say, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others.” These examples all parallel events that actually happened in Soviet Russia,
and there are many other examples I did not mention.
Given these many abuses of power, it is difficult to believe that so
many of the animals [and their real-life counterparts] did nothing to stop Napoleon
the pig [Joseph Stalin]. I think this is why Orwell wrote the book. By making
the story like a fairy tale for kids, George Orwell is saying that the issues of
corruption are so clear and obvious, that even children could understand what
is going on and see that it is wrong. If you like books about politics, if you
want to know what can go wrong when socialism is left in the hands of greedy
leaders, or if you just like stories about how manipulative people can totally ruin
a government, then Animal Farm may be the book for you.
I read Animal Farm two years ago for school, and I think you did a great job summarizing the book and giving some examples of unfortunate events that happened in it. I agree with your point that Animal Farm helps people understand the events of the Russian Revolution and makes it very clear that there is corruption inside of the farm's leadership. However, it also shows how leaders slowly gain tremendous power, and once others realize how horrible they are, it's already too late to stop them.
ReplyDeleteThis is nicely written! I read Animal Farm in 6th grade and I can definitely relate to your opinions. At first, Orwell makes it seem like the pigs are the heroes of the farm, but then the pigs just give themselves more and more power, which is like Soviet Russia, just like you said.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job explaining how Animal Farm relates to the Russian revolution. l read Animal Farm in 5th grade, but at the time I was not really focused on the underlying meaning of the book. I think your blog post helped me reflect on the book. I also think your opening paragraph was good and draws the reader into the rest of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your blog post and think that it is well-written. I like how you did your research, and found specific examples to make a parallel between Stalin and Napoleon, such as when Napoleon started starving people. Also, Snowball sounds a lot like Leon Trotsky.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog and I think you made it easy to understand why the book Animal Farm is a good read. I liked the way you concisely explain the way the story compares historical figures to the characters in the book. I also liked how you used many examples from the book.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you give some historical background to the book, it really strengthens your summary. I have not read this book before and I find the clear parallels between reality and the book super interesting. You gave a nice amount of examples which gave me a clear idea of the book's plot. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis post does a good job with summarizing the book along with explaining the intentional parallels and intent behind the book which may have been missed by some readers. You did a good job providing examples from the text without spoiling the book entirely. Overall, great work.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has only read part of the book, I enjoyed reading your post and finding out about the rest of the book. I never would have thought that there would be so many references to the Russian Revolution. I enjoyed how you explained the specific ways the book references the Russian Revolution because I would have missed those. I also liked how you talked about what the animals around Napolean did (mostly in the conclusion), rather than just focusing on his specific character. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI have read this book and really enjoyed it. I liked your description about the plot because it was detailed enough to give the reader a sense of what goes on in the book but also doesn't give away too much. I also really liked how you directly related the book to real life with examples from the book. The only thing I would have wished to see was a mention of Old Major and his dream (not a spoiler) but other than that great blog!
ReplyDeleteI have read this book before in 5th grade, but I enjoyed coming back to the plot through your blog post. I really enjoyed that you talked about the books relation to the Russian Revolution and how the author intended to portray the communist society, as well as your own opinion on it. Your explanation on why Orwell wrote the book, as well as how well you think it ties into real life was really good. Great job!
ReplyDelete