Animal Farm Essay

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Animal Farm Essay

‘Animal Farm,’ a novel by George Orwell, has a theme based around power; how it is abused and how it’s used in a good way. ‘Animal Farm’ also explores how it is transferred between characters as the story progresses. It is also fair to say that every event that takes place on ‘Animal Farm’ has a political significance which mirror the events which took place in the Russian Revolution. The characters in the novel represent famous political figures from history. I think that George Orwell wrote ‘Animal Farm’ because he wanted to make people actually think about what the novel and the characters contained in it represent.

        Power on ‘Animal Farm’ ends up being totally abused – I think that George Orwell’s theory is that when one person has absolute power, it corrupts completely, and that it will never work. At the beginning of ‘Animal Farm’ we see how Mr Jones is at the top of the power ‘hierarchy;’ he has the most power, although it’s more of an authority that Jones has over the animals compared to him having power. In a way, Jones having all the authority over the farm was a good thing, as all the animals knew where they stood, however, the normal farm animals, who represent the citizens of Russia, wanted more authority and power over the ruling of the farm; the country in Russia’s case. Fed up with slaving for Jones and getting nothing except the bare minimum’s of food in return, the animals rebel suddenly, using violence to get what they want – similar to the way assassinations and attempted assassinations of major political figures took place in Russia.

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        Jones abuses his power and authority over the animals. Old Major, who some may argue had more power over the animals than Jones did, was respected and trusted by the animals. Luckily, Old Major does not abuse this trust and abuse his power.

        When Mr Jones and Old Major are no longer on ‘Animal Farm,’ Snowball and Napoleon shared the power between them. Gradually, they both became greedier, and wanted more power. They kept wanting more power. More power was all that was in their minds. Eventually, one of them had to go and as a result, Snowball is ...

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The Quality of Written Communication (QWC) is good. There are as few moments where grammar and punctuation are used incorrectly - "the bare minimum's of food" - but these do not compromise the clarity of the essay or the overall mark. They do however have an effect on the QWC mark and should be ironed out before closing the exam booklet or handing in the final draft of coursework. It is absolutely imperative that candidate conducts these grammar checks, as even computers can miss these errors at times.

The candidate's Level of Analysis is very good and indicates someone operating at a high B grade for GCSE. There is a good, continuous focus on the transition of power between the animal sand how the hierarchy is formed, and also how the power is abused. It should be made quite a bit clearer that Snowball is not Napoleon's equal in terms of power abuse - Snowball does in fact want to uphold the Seven Commandments of Animalism and help the farm progress financially and technologically (it was his idea to build the windmill) but he is driven out by Napoleon who, corrupted by his shared power, strives to have all the power, just as Stalin did with Leon Trotsky (as accurately identified in this essay). Where I would recommend extra analysis is in how Napoleon uses his status to undertake a great level of fear-mongering amongst thew animals. Whilst some in power are required to be good speakers and working for the benefit of the community, Napoleon does the opposite, spreading fear and caution through the animals that the dogs will kill them if they betray him (it should also be noted that Napoleon's dogs represent the KGB - Stalin's secret police force).

The candidate here pays a good level of understanding to the theme and social and historical congruents Orwell writes into his novel 'Animal Farm'. There is an excellent level of appreciation of the use of the symbolism of power and how it changes hands for the good and for the bad in the novel. The candidate's focus remains unbroken for most of the essay, with all of their analysis pinned down to having something to do with the presentation and struggle for power and how it reflects the real life occurrences during the Russian Revolution of 1917. This is excellent as it shows the candidate can really concentrate on forming analysis to suit the question. This is such a common pitfall for other candidates who can often write about something that bares little or no resemblance to what the question asks.