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Animal Farm In the book, Animal Farm written by George Orwell, the animals raise up in rebellion against their human masters in hope for a better life. However, the quote by Lord Acton, a British historian, describes it best: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." This is basically what happens. The pigs realize their intellectual superiority, and use it to their advantage. When this happens, they began to take advantage of the entire society of animals. The pigs of the story sacrifice the good of the whole just for the benefit and pleasure of their selves. To begin with, the story starts when the animals in Manor Farm stage a rebellion against the humans after a rousing speech from Major, a very respected boar in the farm. They chase their human master, Mr. Jones, away and begin to run the farm themselves. At first, all goes well. With Mr. Jones gone, the animals believe they now own the farm collectively, and that they are all equal. The Seven Commandments are soon set up to act as the governing laws for the animals. Among the commandments are "no animal shall kill another animal", "all animals are equal" and "whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy". It is soon decided that the pigs are the most intelligent, and shall be the "brainworkers". Among the pigs, two leaders emerge - Snowball and Napoleon. Problems arise when Snowball and Napoleon disagree on the plan to build a windmill on the farm. Snowball, a talented speaker, easily gains the support of most of the animals. But, unfortunately for him, Napoleon plays dirty and Snowball is chased away from the farm. From here, everything in the farm starts to change. Public debates are abolished and the animals have to take orders from Napoleon. All the animals, except the pigs and dogs, are made to extremely strenuous labor. Their food ration decreases while the pigs grow fatter. Despite this, they are still convinced that life is much better than before when in fact the living condition that they were suffering now were worse than when Mr. Jones had been running the farm. Everything that goes wrong in the farm is blamed on Snowball. He becomes the invisible enemy whose threat is constantly present. For example, when the windmill falls down for the first time, Napoleon, using his cunning, blames it out Snowball, making the animals hate him all the worse.
hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say". Old Major was a
At the beginning of the novel, a wise pig, old Major, had a dream about a world where all animals live free from the tyranny of their human masters. After he dies, that dream sparked a fire in the lives of all the animals on the Manor Farm. The animals start a revolution and kick out their master, Mr. Jones. Snowball and Napoleon, two pigs, step up as the revolution leaders. Things eventually get tense and Snowball is kicked out and accused of being a double agent with the other farms. Napoleon then uses Snowball as a scapegoat for all the farms problems. The windmill the animals are building “represents the spirit of Revolution since it is associated with progress” (Yemenici). When the windmill is mysteriously knocked down in the middle of the night, Napoleon blames Snowball (Orwell, Animal Farm 72). In the article, “Animal Satire in Animal Farm”, Alev Yemenici says the animals on the farm “prefer to depend on what Squealer tells them and to believe in his propaganda since they are incapable of sorting the truth from the lie.” For the rest of the story, the pigs (Napoleon and Squealer) continue to take advantage of the animals trust and individualism and blame Snowball for every bad thing that happens on the
Napoleon’s greatest challenger is Snowball. Napoleon has been evil from the start but now, with Mr. Jones gone there is no-one strong enough to oppose him. He can finally do as he pleases. He only needs to convince the animals. He has always wanted his own way and it seems he will go as far as it takes, even condemn Snowball’s work on the windmill. He knows very well that with the construction of the windmill under Snowball’s guidance, Snowball will be viewed as ‘better’ and would give him power. Power, that he believes, is rightfully his. He knows the windmill will benefit his welfare yet he is still willing to oppose this idea in order to keep Snowball from taking any power. Snowball was a real threat to Napoleon. Unfortunatel...
Animal Farm portrays many facets of the Communist revolution in Russia; however the book and the movie are both set on a farm in England in the 1950‘s. The book starts with Old Major, the founder of animalism, explaining how the animal rebellion would be coming soon and everyone should be preparing for the revolution. According to the book he died of old age but in the movie he was hit by a bullet from Mr. Jones’s shotgun causing Old Major to fall out of the hay loft and break his neck. Later Napoleon and Snowball come to prepare the animals for the coming revolution. Jones was a drunk and his workers did not always feed the animals regularly so one night Jones to the men out for drinks and they did not return for three days, and when he did return he still did not feed the animals. The animals took it upon themselves to break into the food storage and feed themselves and they were happy until Jones heard the noise they were making and went in there to see what was going on and when he tried to stop them they all attack him at once and chased him and his men of the property and then it was all theirs. Snowball started right away showing them the ways of animalism and stating that they were rules to live by. Snowball wrote The Seven Commandments of Animalism which are as follows: whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend, no animal shall wear clothes, no animal shal...
After the Animal Revolution the pigs take the initiative and place themselves in charge because of their claim of having higher intelligence. Over time this power begins to distort the basis of their revolt by recreating the same social situation they were previously in. “When the pigs takeover they claim that their goal is to preside a farm of equal animals, all working together to support one another, yet power quickly proves too much for a pig.” Though the animals originally took over the farm to increase the animal’s independence as a whole, because of the pig’s superiority they soon take the place of the humans further limiting their independence.
There is a substantial amount of conflicts that occur in this satirical story. Often these conflicts are between the pigs and the rest of the animals. Only a minute portion of the animals didn’t really have some sort of conflict with Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, or the rest of the dominating pigs. Overall, Snowball was a better leader than Napoleon, yet the animals reacted differently to Napoleon than to Snowball.
The animals were on an emotional high for the next few days. They set up rules, including the seven commandments, and decided to make Snowball and Napoleon (pigs) the leaders. The animals had meetings every Sunday to discuss and vote on what should happen, and the work schedule for the following week. Every single time an idea was brought up Snowball and Napoleon would disagree. This went on for a year. Finally, at one of the meetings Napoleon and 9 dogs jumped Snowball, and chased him off of the farm. From then on the farm became a dictatorship, not a republic as the animals had dreamed of before the rebellion. Napoleon lied to the animals a lot, but none of them were smart enough to realize it. He planted false memories in the animals heads, and manipulated them. He stole food from them and blamed it on Snowball. Then he started to go against the seven commandments, but none of the animals could remember the seven com...
Mr. Jones was unable to defeat the animals, therefore the animals got a boost of confidence. Now at this point Mollie runs away and Snowball begins his plans for a windmill. When Snowball’s plans are finished, Napoleon’s dog’s start to chase him off the farm. The farm just lost the best leader they could have had. They loose their chance to give input on what direction the farm should go, and Napoleon begings blaming Snowball for all the things that he did not do. Now Napoleon sets the animals to work on Sundays again and acquires Mr. Whymper as the farm’s broker. Napoleon starts to sell some of the farm’s produce. And the pigs start sleeping one hour later, and in beds. Then the windmill gets blown over and Snowball gets the blame. At this point the pigs still continue to abuse the power and stealing from the other animals.
his duty then he is met with conflict and is set t death or another
The animals on the farm get tired of how they are getting badly treated. So they end up overthrowing their farm owner Mr. Jones. After they overthrow their owner, the pigs start taking over the farm and taking control over all the other animals in the farm.
The pigs are natural born leaders and they lead the rebellion, with Snowball answering questions, “We have no means of making sugar on this farm… those ribbons that you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery” (37). One must think of themselves in the animal’s shoes. They have to be as pure as possible and not interact with humans. They need to be vigilant and not stray from the tasks at hand. Subsequently, the animals are starving when a cow breaks the storeroom lock and all the animals rush in for a meal when Jones wakes up. The animals fight bravely and force, “A minute late all five of them were in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road, with the animals pursuing them in triumph” (39). The animals wonder if this is their time to shine. They think about all the good times ahead and fight for all it is worth. They imagine themselves in the human’s shoes as they quiver and run away like babies from a tiger. Lastly, the pigs create a set of rules which read, “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in a bed. … No animal shall kill any other animal. All animals are equal” (43). The animals create a set of rules to govern themselves before they fall into chaos and dictatorship. However, some animals reject the ideas secretly. On the
Animal Farm - Text Response What prevented the animals from achieving their dream of the ideal society Animal farm can be considered a mere fairy story, yet, on another level it is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, criticising the corruption of politics and communism. The animals dream of the ideal society, yet are prevented from achieving it for a vast array of reasons. However, it is necessary to distinguish the pigs from the other animals. The pigs did attain their ideal society - controlling the farm and obtaining human luxuries such as money and alcohol - but the other animals were not capable of reaching their utopian ideals. The animals’ ideal society consists of treating others fairly and every individual contributing to the
Sooner than later, the animals change this commandment, and it is now “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” which is not fair. The most intelligent animals on the farm are the pigs because they are able to understand what is happening, and they become more protective of the farm. He uses the
After a while, the animals ended up rebelling, and managed to kick out Mr. Jones. During the beginning of “Animal Farm’s” reign under Snowball and Napoleon’s (main characters) lead, it brought the animals on Manor Farm together into a peaceful world. However, after this initial stance of power, Snowball and Napoleon began to fight for it. In the end, Napoleon ends up with control of the farm and Snowball is never seen again. Power is a corrupting influence in Animal Farm and both Snowball and Napoleon’s way of leading are very different.
Following the death of Old Major, the animals of Manor (Animal) Farm abdicate Mr. Jones, create Animalism, establish the Seven Commandments, and live freely from their human tyrant as they undergo a revolution to achieve a utopian state on the farm. Later, a power-hungry pig, Napoleon, takes control over the farm and under his leadership, the pigs begin