Animal Farm Response Essay

Animal Farm: Response to Literature Essay

Every single day of our lives, we view, listen, play, and interact with some form of media; whether it’s a newspaper, book, song, movie, video game, etc. While most of the world views any form of media as harmless entertainment, there are deep layers to this ‘harmless entertainment’. These deep layers consist of propaganda, controlling perception, and more. We are controlled by the media, even if we don’t realize it. For example, a poster on a wall that produces false claims about a certain person could be seen differently by many people. One person may know that the claims made are false, while another person may think that the claims are true and try to use them as valid points in arguments. That is why it is important to take note of all the media that we see because within it, there are hundreds upon thousands of false claims that are made by the media to be true. Within the allegorical novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, we see how the animals on the farm react to the media presented to them. The message I got from the novel was that

The sheep are the most manipulatable characters in the story and only do what Squealer and Napoleon tell them. For example, when Squealer or Napoleon gave their speeches and/or announcements, they would only say one sentence, which was the sentence that Squealer teached them. “It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches.” (Orwell 63). This quote shows that the sheep are indeed unintelligent and repeated only this sentence every day. They’re not smart enough to realize that they are being manipulated and do as they’re told, not thinking at once about what they are actually doing, or their moral choices. The sheep of Animal Farm are the first example of how the media can manipulate us into changing our own perspective of