Animal Farm, by George Orwell

Animal Farm

I.

Animal Farm is a story of the struggle for freedom and power. It takes place on a farm in England called Manor Farm. There are many different kinds of animals on the farm; these animals include horses, geese, dogs, cats, sheep, and pigs, which are the most intelligent of all the animals. The story starts out when old Major, an old, wise pig, calls a meeting in the barn. He tells the animals about a dream he has. The dream was about how the animals should rebel against the leader of the farm, Mr. Jones. He tells them that in the dream he remembered a song called Beasts of England. The song is about how the animals should rebel against the humans. He teaches the animals the song and tells them that he is going to die soon. A few weeks later old Major dies. The animals hold secret meetings about the rebellion a couple times a week. None of the animals really expected the rebellion to happen any time soon, but it happened before anyone expected. Mr. Jones started to neglect the animals, and one day the animals decided that they had enough. A cow broke into the building where the food was kept, and all of the animals decided to get some food. Mr. Jones and some of his helpers came out with whips as started lashing the animals, but were caught by surprise when the animals started to fight back. The men fled in panic, and before anyone realized it, the rebellion had begun. 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...

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...eady it was impossible to say which was which.? This quote is taken from the end of the book. It describes how the pigs had turned into men. All of the material things such as alcohol, gambling, and money had corrupted the pigs. They once had a dream to be unlike the humans, but they couldn?t? resist the temptations of such hazardous things.

Another quote that helps show one of the meanings of the play is, ? the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others.? This quote says that all people (animals) must work together to achieve a goal. If one person reaches the goal, but a another doesn?t, then the goal hasn?t been achieved .

V.

This literary work contributes an outlook at how people let unimportant things distract them from something. The unimportant things may distract them from God, goals, or dreams. The work shows ho highly people think of power and materiel things. Some people let these things distract them from their dreams; some people even place a greater emphasis on these things than they do on religion or dreams, with out even knowing it.