Animal Farm Book Report

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                                               Animal Farm                      

                  By: George Orwell

                        Number of Pages: 102

                   Date of Publication: 1945

        

       Animal Farm is a novel of dreams, hatred, betrayal and rebellion.

            One night, all the animals of Mr. Jones’ Manor Farm, assemble in the old barn house to hear the speech of an old respected animal on the farm, old Major, a pig that has a dream that the rest of the farm animals will be free from a life of slavery and torture of their human masters. Soon after old Major dies the other animals are inspired by this thought of “Animalism”. Animalism is about having a life of freedom that all animals are equal and they will run the farm by themselves.

            The animals plot their rebellion against their human master and when their master forgets to feed them this is when the rest of the animals take action to drive Mr. Jones out of his farm. During this event it is evident that two of the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball are the cleverest animals on the farm, as they make the plans of the rebellion, and they change the name of the farm from the Manor Farm to Animal Farm. The animals decide to have meetings in the farm house to discuss what they are going to do the following day, and the pigs become the new leaders because of their intelligence. But the power-hungry Napoleon steals the cow’s milk and apples for himself and the other pigs, and Napoleons excuse for his actions are that the pigs need extra food and milk for thinking. Napoleon also gets the help of Squealer, a pig that is good at persuading the others.

            Later Mr. Jones and his men come back to retake the farm, but thanks to Snowballs tactics the animals chase them off again. This battle is then known as the Battle of the Cowshed. Snowball draws up plans for a windmill, which will give the animal’s electricity and more leisure time, but Napoleon is against this idea, and the next meeting he summons a pack of vicious dogs that chase Snowball off the farm forever. All of a sudden Napoleon announces that the windmill will go ahead and be built, and whenever anything bad happens on the farm Napoleon blames it on Snowball, and poisons the rest of the animals against him.

            Most of the next years are spent building the windmill, and Boxer, a very strong horse proves himself very useful during these hard times. One night a storm hits toppling over their nearly built windmill and all their efforts were in vein, and of course Napoleon blames this incident on Snowball. Napoleon becomes completely power- hungry and orders his dogs to kill innocent animals in front of the rest. The pigs then move into Mr. Jones’ house and sleep in his beds, which was against the original “commandments”, which are changed by Squealer in the middle of the night when all the other animals are asleep.

           The neighbouring farm, Frederick, who was completely against the idea of animals running a farm themselves, and thought it was a disgrace that they chased out Mr. Jones, planed an attack on Animal Farm and blew up the windmill, which they had restarted building, but stronger this time. Also the pigs consume alcohol that night in celebration, which again is against the “commandments” and the pigs change this.

             The next few years are spent by the animals still doing hard labour and being abused by the pigs, as if Mr. Jones was controlling the farm again. All the older animals can hardly remember the few days of freedom, and the pigs reduced the commandments to a single one “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. The novel ends when the pigs invite the surrounding farms over and they sat around the table in the house playing cards and drinking alcohol, and as the older animals watch them from outside, they cannot tell the difference between the men and the pigs.

            The principal character I have chosen to write about is Napoleon, a pig who proves to be very intelligent, when he plans the rebellion and when he learns to read and write. But all through the novel he gradually gets more and more power- hungry and becomes a dictator.

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             Even in the first chapter of the novel Orwell describes the pigs as “the cleaver ones”, next to the dogs. Orwell describes Napoleon as being “large” “fierce-looking Berkshire boar” with a reputation of getting his own way. As old Major, another pig with the dream of running the farm, dies. The two main pigs which take over the leadership, when they have overthrown Mr. Jones, is Napoleon and Snowball who are recognised as being “the cleverest” of the animals.

            The pigs decide to write down ...

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