Fat Paragraph – Animal Farm by George Orwell
April 18th, 2010 | Fat Paragraph | Tagged animal farm, Fat Paragraph, george orwell
“Only get rid of man, and the produce of our labor would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when that rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that the future generations shall carry on this struggle until it is victorious”
– An excerpt of Old Major’s speech (pg 7)
“1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wins is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
http://lahaiseslair.com/alexh/files/2010/04/animal_farm2.jpg4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.”
-The 7 Commandments of Animal Farm (pg 28)
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an excellent novel for anyone to read. It is for people who love reading satire of Russia and enjoy a war among animals and humans as chaos ensues. In the beginning of the book, the animals are treated like nothing, overworked and hungry by their owner, Mr. Jones of the Manor farm. He was an alcoholic and terrible man who cared only about himself and drinking. He gave the animal’s very little attention and rarely fed them. All of the animals in the Manor farm were tired of this, and one great boar named “Old Major” who has a strange dream where all the animals are free one day in the future to rule themselves apart from humans. As Old Major tells the animals of his dreams, he inspires them to have a rebellion. And so, the rebellion happens and they take over the farm and rename it as “Animal Farm” with two leaders where their farm is supposed to be like a heaven and prosper for all animals, but that was all but a dream turning into a nightmare where in reality it is like hell. The two leaders are pigs who are known as “snowball” and “napoleon.” These two leaders were quite similar to Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky of the USSR during the 20th century fighting for power. But anyways these two leader pigs along with the help of the other animals create a set of commandments that are to be followed by every animal in Animal Farm. These rules were made to help animals but that was all a lie. Later on in the book, these rules are broken and changed by the pigs to make it suit them for their own interests. And many more interesting things happen to the farm, but to find out you have to read for yourself and have a journey of your own while reading this excellent novel.
I remember “reading” Animal Farm back in 9th Grade but I don’t remember anything about it. I have to say though reading your blog does make me want to revisit it. Maybe it was because I read it at a time when I didn’t understand that the entire book was a metaphor for how flawed Communism is. If I remember right one of my favorite quotes I’ve ever read comes from Animal Farm, “All animals are created equal…but some are more equal than others”. I think we both feel that the book does (as morbid as this sounds) show how honestly in the end, the “people” never win against their government leaders. And while the book mostly seems to rip on the regimes of Fascism/Communism/Totalitarianism, it shows how there is no such thing as a perfect society because our human nature doesn’t allow it (another thing I now find interesting since Orwell uses animals [pigs] to tell his story). I think this book should only be assigned in relation to what we’re studying in history; otherwise we don’t get the genius of it you know?