Animal Farm

If you have never read this book before, read the book before you read the post. I mean the book, not the movie, that is a separate matter. If you have read the book as part of a class assignment, don't flee in horror, read this post first.

Anyway, Animal Farm was written by George Orwell, the same person who wrote 1984. I haven't read the book, but I know enough about it that Big Brother wouldn't want me to read it.
Jokes aside, I will not compare this to 1984, but instead to "Lord of the Flies," another name that might cause people to run. I will not spend this entire post comparing them, instead I will summarize the main point. The point of these is that while sin exists, any utopian project will fail. Both groups are given a fresh start, and they end up even worse, than before. These books are pessimistic, but the general things are true, while there is sin, every system will have its flaw. I am sure you can think of at least one example, so I don't need to delve into that much.

However, I don't like to think of this as just symbolism. I like to bond (and anti-bond) *snicker* with the characters and if you view it as merely symbolism or satire, you lose the sense that they are supposed to be something to focus on instead of just "being there." As so, I will talk more about the individual characters instead of just focusing on symbolism.

First, I will talk of Old Major. He is the old, wise pig who first spread Animalism, where animals govern themselves and are not supposed to adopt human vices. He seems to have good intentions, but he seems to be old and quite content, as a prizewinning boar, he doesn't have to worry about these things. Other than this, he is wise and respected, and dies 3 days after giving this speech. He is not accidentally shot in the rear like the movie. The movie is a side issue that will be brought up next week, Jessie will not be referenced until then as well. I will tell you the diferrences when necessary so you don't have to watch the movie.

Anyway, on to Snowball :), as evidenced by the emoticon, I like Snowball. He tries to help the animals learn, has good character, and is braver than the other pig. Some may ask why I like him, while it is true he has his faults, he ate the apples and drank the milk along with the other pigs. Everyone has faults, but he wanted to improve life for the other animals in the long run. SparkNotes has said this about Snowball,"For example, Snowball basically accepts the superiority of the pigs over the rest of the animals. Moreover, his fervent, single-minded enthusiasm for grand projects such as the windmill might have erupted into full-blown megalomaniac despotism had he not been chased from Animal Farm." Orwell did say that power corrupts, so that is the problem. Snowball was somewhat corrupted by power, but other than that he is pretty nice. As for the "single-mindedness," he does show enthusiasm, but I don't think that would happen. I will explain my reasoning for this later.

Next, Napoleon. He is pure badness!!!! He is a puppy snatcher! He really did, he took them and made them obey him! He didn't want to lead Animal Farm for the others' benefit, it is for the benefit of him and the other pigs. The other pigs willingly went on with Napoleon, he knew that Snowball would never let that happen, so he got rid of him and called him a traitor to remove suspect. Eventually, he changed all of the laws one by one and eventually, it was hard to tell him and the humans apart. He went to complete pig superiority and none of the other animals had much food. He even said that it shouldn't be called "Animal Farm" anymore. Now, onto why Snowball wouldn't become a megalomaniac, he was devoted to the projects in mind of the other animals, not his own gain, this could lead to him doing these amazing projects without the consent of others. However, Napoleon would debate with him enough that his projects would not go unchallenged. But, thinking about it, Napoleon somewhat did Snowball an unintentional service. When Snowball is out of power, he would have more time to reflect on the milk and apples and other mistakes he may have made when he was in power.

Next, Boxer. He wanted to do a good job and be a hard worker, but did not understand what was really going on. When he received a greivous injury, he was shipped off to the glue factory and the other animals were told that he was taken to a hospital. I would like to imagine that he somehow escaped. Many would say it was hopeless and that it is the harsh fact of reality. Well, do you read fiction for reality? No. I like happy endings, and they never described Boxer being turned into glue, so I can assume that he by some miracle escaped all I want to.

Now that my rant is over, Squealer is next. You would probably assume that I am going to vicously rant about how bad Squealer is. You would be correct. He twists his words to make others believe that Napoleon did this for a good reason and "edits" the laws so that he and Napoleon aren't breaking any and even convinces people that Napoleom bravely fought when Snowball was either hiding or on the other side, when Napoleon really hid.

Benjamin is an elderly donkey. He is cynical and could very well challenge the pigs if he wanted to, but he doesn't. He probably does this because he doesn't want to, he has a feeling things would become worse, or he knows very well what will happen if he goes against them. Personally, I think the last choice is the most likely.

The last character I will talk about is Mollie. She liked the ribbons that she could wear and the sugar that was given to her as Farmer Jones' carriage horse. She did not like not being in contact with humans and eventually left to pull the carriage of another person. After this, she was never mentioned again.

Moses did not have much of a role. He will be discussed in the movie with Jessie, where their roles are increased. For that, you will have to wait till next week.

One final comment, this whole post is over 1,100 words, hopefully it makes up for my other 2 bad posts.