Animal Farm

[emilee]

Your essay was very well written except for a couple of grammatical errors that I found. I am also in 10th grade. I love proof-reading stuff and editing it. I hope you don't mind that I did that with your essay. Here's how I would have written it (although I'm sure I made mistakes also)!<br><br> George Orwell gives a very vivid and accurate account in “Animal Farm” of what happened in Russia after Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate. Being an allegory, most of the characters and events have a parallel in Stalinist Russia. Minor characters in the story also symbolize things that are very relevant to the history of Russia. For example, Mr. Jones represents the embodiment of the old government, and of the monarchy where the autocrat takes all without giving anything. The last of the Czars, Czar Nicholas II, lost control because the spark of reformation had been ignited by the publishing of Karl Marx’s book, “Communist Manifesto”, which led to the successful February Revolution. In the book, Farmer Jones lost control of the animals after they got the spirit of revolution from Old Major’s speech and revolted against Farmer Jones and all other humans. The outcome was a successful rebellion. After Old Major died and Jones was gone, the Animals, ironically, needed a leader to be in charge of the new Animal Farm, where they were all free and equal. <br><br> Pigs were considered the most intelligent, and out of them, Snowball and Napoleon were the most prominent. In real life, Trotsky and Stalin fought for power, but Stalin eventually eliminated Trotsky, having him expelled from Russia. In the same manner, Snowball and Napoleon constantly disputed. Napoleon was already hungry for power and soon after the Rebellion, had plans of getting rid of his opponent. <br><br> In the midst of an eloquent speech by Naplolean about the plans for making a windmill, Napoleon directed the dogs he had raised, to attack Snowball. Thus, he had eliminated his only rival and was free to control the farm. Upon the expulsion of Snowball, Napoleon’s first decision was to eradicate the Sunday Morning Meetings. “They were unnecessary”, he said, “and wasted time.” In the future, all questions relating to the work of the farm would be settled by a special committee of the pigs, and presided over by himself.” (Orwell, 68) This is also very much like the Command Economy that Stalin had made, in which the government made all economic decisions. Napoleon’s next decision was to build the windmill that he had been so opposed to when proposed by Snowball. Likewise, Trotsky had proposed a five-year Plan for the industrialization of Russia, and Stalin had opposed to it. After Trotsky was gone, Stalin had no economic ideas of his own; “In a word, he put into practice the dictatorship of industry for which Trotsky had called five years earlier.” (Ovseyenko, 70) The windmills, therefore, represent the five-year Plans, or Russia’s Industry.<br><br> As Stalin gained more power, it was imperative for him to eliminate any that might challenge it. He also decided to keep a bodyguard around him to prevent any harm from coming to him. Keeping this in mind, he assigned a “secret police” to assassinate people who were against him, and to keep him safe. This special army was most known as KGB or the Committee of State Security. In the book, Napoleon needed his personal army also, and this was the dogs’ actual purpose. “When they had finished confessing their crimes, the dogs promptly tore their throats out....” (Orwell, 93) Napoleon then asked if anyone else had any crimes to confess, and they were executed immediately.<br><br> Pinchfield, one of the farms bordering Animal Farm, symbolizes Germany. Stalin made the Non- Aggressive Pact with Hitler to keep Germany from attacking Russia during World War II. Germany attacked Russia, nonetheless, breaking the pact and forcing Russia to join the Allies. Likewise, Napoleon had made a deal to sell a pile of lumber to Fredrick of Pinchfield. Napoleon had trusted him, but in turn Fredrick had given him fake bank notes and was coming to attack them. He, like Hitler attacking Russia, had ignored the deal, swindled Napoleon and attacked Animal Farm. <br><br> “You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements,” stated Norman Douglas. In “Animal Farm”, Squealer the pig was very persuasive and “.... could turn black into white.” (Orwell 36) He communicated to all the other animals what Napoleon had said, and always convinced them that it was right, whether it truly was or not. He is a symbol of Stalin’s propaganda machine, the Pravda. The people had no other source of information, and Stalin needed to manipulate the media. He took control of the publication, making it work for his needs, so the people were oblivious to what was actually occurring. <br><br> The proletariats were the easiest to convince and were most attached to Stalin, being that the system would benefit them most and were not educated. Examples of this from “Animal Farm”, are the horses, Boxer and Clover. They were faithful, hard working, and never doubted the system. We can also see how important the unskilled labor class was in order for everything to work well also. “Nothing could have been achieved without Boxer, whose strength was equal to that of all the rest of the animals put together.” (Orwell 74) Mollie, on the other hand, represents the middle class workers, who got paid more. They were unsatisfied that they were getting paid less and they wanted their “sugar”. Muriel represents the minority of the working educated class; they could make decisions and think for themselves. Muriel was not spirited enough to incite another rebellion against the corruption that was happening. <br><br> At the end of the book, the pigs become indiscernible from the humans. In his book, Orwell has made humans represent the people who exploit those weaker than them. The pigs had become corrupters of their own. “ Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals richer themselves- except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.” (Orwell 129) Manor Farm is the tyrannical nation, while Animal Farm is the Communist or “Animalist” one. When Napoleon states that the name of the farm is once again, “Manor”, he is affirmatively stating that the totalitarianism is installed once more.<br><br> Animal Farm is concluded with the animals being exploited by the pigs; it is a dark ending, but it is brutally true. The idea of Socialism, or Animalism, is good as ideal. Human nature will not allow the leaders, who are always necessary, to be fair. Orwell did an excellent job of weaving the history of Stalinist Russia with the fairy idea of animals that speak and think. <br>

[Jennifer]

I liked your essay, I am doing a research paper for college, on George Orwell, and three of his works, and animal farm is one. Even thought you wrote that in 9th grade and I am a freshman in college, i still found it somewhat informative.

[Giovanna]

Amazing. Truly amazing. I am glad that this essay has helped someone, and yet I am also glad to know that not everyone finds it brilliant; by the way, I never claimed it was awsome or superb or anything. Nonetheless, I truly do appreciate your comments, anonymous person Do not be anonymous, I would like to converse with you about the details I overlooked. <br>I know I am not the best writer, and no matter how hard you work on any form of writing, it can always be improved. Always. And like I also said before, you were not the only critic of the essay, but my teacher also. She seems to have a dislike for my sense of essay structure and organization. I got a B- on this essay, not what I expected, of course, but most likely what I deserved. <br>It is wonderful to get negative comments! I do not mean to be supercilious or disdainful, but it irks me terribly to do peer editing in class and getting my paper back with smiley faces with "great job," "excellent essay" written all over it, because I know there must be something wrong with it, something redundant, something lacking.<br>Animal Farm is a great book and doing the essay helped me, for in history we are now studying the Russian Revolution, and I have a background to work with.<br>I wish you all the best in your assginments, and keep up the reading, for that is the only mean for advancement of the mind!

[Unregistered]

I am in Honors English 9 & we read Animal Farm in our class. I thought that your essay was very helpful in trying to understand how Animal Farm relates to real life. You did a wonderful job explaining the novel. <br>Thank You for your help.<br>

[Unregistered]

For all you people who didn't like this essay, I have a question for you guys, can you do better than this? If you can, can you please show it? Oh by the way, this essay was amazing, very detailed.

[Unregistered]

Dont you think that Orwell was criticizing the Allies as well as Russia?<br><br>Reply to: [email protected]

[colleen]

I honestly think the essay written by Giovanna is quite good! Disregarding a few errors (as aforementioned by the one who corrected the essay), it is very well thought out, and it is wonderful to read the work of somebody that can WRITE!! I am in an eleventh grade Government course, and currently in the process of researching for a book analysis of Animal Farm. In reading the essay, I found some helpful parallels that I will need to successfully write my paper-- Paraphrased, of course. (I, personally, am a bit surprised you received only a B- for your work. You use gorgeous, vivid language in your writing; I loved reading it!)

[Susan]

Its funny i am doing the exact same thing right now, and this eassy really helped me out, so thanks for that.. It was a lil hard to understand in some parts but no complaints otherwise...<br><br>

[John]

This is quite useful as I am studying Animal Farm for my GCSE course. However, I feel that a comparison to another Orwell book(1984) would really help those in higher education, and those who are interested in Orwell's pieces of art.

[Unregistered]

Thank you to the person who posted that essy. It helpped me alot with the essay i had to write for my 8th grade english class. It is evident that much work and effort was put in, adn i find it generous to share your research with the public.<br><br>Thank You<br><br>

[Giovanna]

Arg. We finished the Russian Revolution, World War II and the fall of the USSR in history. In truth, I knew nothing of what I worte. I look at it now, and it is bad. Bad bad bad. Of course there are some details and some analyzing, but with what I know now, it was very superficial and there is so much that could have been done with it. <br> We are currently reading 1984 as well; ver dark book also. Quite different from Animal Farm, but still very pessimistic as to the USSR, as he rightly should be. Ah, I will shut up now. Next time I post an essay I will make it something really good.<br> Have a great day and a pleasant tomorrow : ) I know a lot about communism, but not enough for 40 sources and a 10 page paper. Sorry. And I guess my response is somewhat delayed.

[Neil P]

I feel sorry for you Paublo. 40 sources, that' a lot. Although, I hope you know that Orwell also wrote 1984, which he finished writing in 1948. To the anonymous that would give Giovanna's essay a 70, sure that were some things overlooked, but it did definitely not deserve a 70. To Giovanna, I liked your essay. I would have given it a 90 though because there were some points that you overlooked and you didn't really use any literary devices, but otherwise it was a good essay. You had some awesome outside information, I'm sure that you did a lot of researching and put a lot of effort into it. But I agree with you, essays can always be improved, no matter how slightly. Always.

[11th grader, believe it or not]

i made this up in about hour and is just a crappy review, NOT an essay...<br>this was supposed to be short, so there isn't any deeper thoughts...<br><br> The book tells about an ordinary farm in England, but the farm is then taken over by animals and the real owners of the farm are exiled. The whole book is based on fiction that the animals can think something and can speak. Pigs are the cleverest ones from the animals throughout the book. Pigs control everything and everyone; the farm has all the ‘usual’ farm-animals, for instance horses, cows, dogs and hens. <br> Story starts from the animal’s first thoughts of the revolution. At this point a pig called “Major” is the leader of the animals. Soon after the beginning “ Old Major” dies and then there are two leader pigs; “Snowball” and “Napoleon”. The animals make a revolution and seven commandments, which every animal must follow. Commandments are like “no animal shall kill any other animal”.<br> Then the animals start to make food just for themselves instead of making for humans also. At this point humans try to capture the farm back, but fail and animals start to celebrate that day. Now the Napoleon starts to get more power and he takes 9 puppies and raises them in secret in order to get bodyguards for himself. After some time Snowball is “caught” from traitory and is exiled. After that event Snowball is being blamed from every accident and drawback. At this time there is Napoleon as the only leader, though there are several other smaller pigs. Because the animals are so stupid, except pigs, they believe the whole story about Snowball being traitor. <br> Then there are several smaller happenings, but the biggest is the building of a windmill, though this idea was originally introduced by Snowball in the beginning and Napoleon opposed it at that time. Now and then there are some things happening, which are against the seven commandments, but always when the animals go and re-read the laws, the pigs have changed them a little in secret for making their actions ‘legal’. <br> At the end, pigs make the whole thing upside down and break all the rules of the idea called “Animalism”, by walking on two legs, wearing human clothes and meeting humans. There is only one commandment by the end of the book: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. <br> The whole idea of this book is to make communism look stupid and to reveal all its weak points. Napoleon is a bit like Stalin, Snowball reminds me of Trotski, with whom Stalin had several difficulties, and Major is like Marx. Even though this book is written during the 2nd World War, which was kind of madness because England was allied to Soviet Union and this book was published in England, George Orwell sees right to the spines of communism and shows the problems. Some things are clearly seen in this book, e.g. bribery, lies and hiding certain things from the people. The windmill symbolizes the industry and the five-year plans. Everyone would live happily if everyone would live like the communism means, but none does live like that in real life.<br> Genre is not hard to define in this case and I would say political satire, which sounds little confusing and boring, but it isn’t. I found this book quite entertaining, but you have to have some knowledge about Russia and it’s history, otherwise this book could be boring. Finding those similarities between communism and this story are the actual entertainment.<br> Even though this is politically oriented book, language is pretty simple. Only problem occurs in recognizing different animal names from each other, because there are several names for all species.<br>

[shell]

Giovanna, <br>it's obvious you have put in a fair amount of effort to cover the entire story and you have achieved complete coverage. However, i believe you should have gone into much more detail. I'm not talking about depth on the issues and occurances in the novel and during the Revolution, but instead on how a system of governance which was much glorified and adored actually works. <br><br>Perhaps you could refer to more symbols within the novel, hidden rather than the obvious. I think your essay is well-structured however you could put a lot more "heart" and deep thought into it. <br><br>You could balance it better as it seems very literal, and literal essays aren't the most exciting to read. However nice job. I hope you do not take offence to what i have said, but use it as constructive critisism.

[Unregistered]

Good, very good essay, you helped my English deadline, but how do you expect me to give you credits by telling the teacher, "Sir this essay is a total copy and paste!"