Aditi
T4
Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is the story of how communism began as a great idea, but eventually failed when put into practice. The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. The first chapter starts with a speech by a wise and respected pig, the Old Major who gives out his ideas about animalism (Orwell uses this to represent communism, where everyone is supposed to be equal) and the overthrow of the farm owner, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones represents the old government in a country before the communist leaders came into power, and the Old Major represents Karl Marx who gave out his ideas about communism. The old Major dies in his sleep soon, but the speech affects all the other animals and gives them something to look forward to. The pigs in this story are supposed to be the most intelligent animals.
The rebellion starts some time later, when Mr. Jones and forgets to feed the animals. The animals go hysterical and when Mr. Jones tries to stop them, he gets overthrown. The pigs make up the seven commandments, and they write them on a wall. They are very important as later the pigs who eventually alter it to their benefit, so they can get their way around things.
The animals also decide that no animal will enter the farmhouse, and that no animal will have contact with humans, and no animal will engage in trade. After some time Jones comes back with help to recapture the farm. The animals fight bravely, and manage to drive Jones away. Snowball and Napoleon two pigs, are always arguing. When Snowball presents his idea to build a windmill, to produce electricity to the other animals, Napoleon calls nine strong dogs and they drive Snowball from the farm, and Napoleon says that Snowball was actually spying for Mr. Jones. This part is meant to show us that although communism starts out to be a good idea, it can never actually work because the leaders are tempted into the world of greed and selfishness, so although they and their friends become richer, all the other animals continue to be poor. Which is exactly what happens in the story, as Orwell describes it, “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer – except, of course for the pigs and the dogs.”
