Orwell, Georg: Animal Farm

George Orwell was born i 903 and died in 1950. His books were always pointing at important political themes of real importance.

Mr. Jones is the owner of the Manor farm and most of the time he is drunk. One day old Major has a dream. He dreams that the animals live like slaves on the farm and he wants to finish the slavery. So he speaks to the animals to make a rebellion. Some days later Major dies so the other animals want to make the rebellion. They want to overthrow the human race because a man is an enemy. He is the only creature, who consumes without working. Human beings reign over the animals. One day the animals don`t get enough food so they started the rebellion. They fight with Mr. Jones until he runs away. Now the animals are the owner of the farm and they change the name into Animal farm.

Everybody living around the farm thinks that the animals can`t hold the farm long. The animals want to convince the people oof their resolution so they maake seven commandments:

1) What ever goes upoon two legs is an enemy.

2) What ever goes upon four legs or has wings is a freind.

3) No animal shall wear clothes.

4) No animal shall sleep in a bed.

5) No animal shall drink alcohol.

6) No animal shall kill another animal.

7) All animals are equal.

They ake meetings where problems are discussed. The pigs say that the are the cleverest and so they take over control and organise everything. They have more rights. Napoleon and Snowball don`t have the same opinion so Napoleon chases Snowball until he runs away. So Napoleon is the leader of the farm. Now Snowball is blamed for everything going wrong an the farm. The pigs live in the house and sleep in beds. Napoleon kills some animals because of being in contact with Snowball.

The animals get little food and do all the work. They have to built a winmill to make electricity. The pigs drink whiskey. Clover realizes that the pigs have broken nearly every commandment but the pigs can change the them the way they like. Boxer listens to the words of Napoleon and he blames himself for everything going wrong.He always worked hard and tries to be an example for every animal. One day he has an accident and the pigs sell him to the slaughterer.

Years pss and the work is harder than ever. The pigs start wlking on two legs and wearing clothes. They changed the seventh commandment into " All animals are equal but some animals are more equal."

The pigs have a good relationship to humans and they act like people. Benjamin and Clover see that there is no difference between men and pigs. The life is worse than it was when Jones was the owner of the farm.

I chose this book because it was recommanded to me. This book is well written, but sometimes it isn`t easy to read. Maybe it is because of the serious plot. I enjoyed reading this book because of the plot. It showes how complicated it is to make a working community.

Animal farm is a fable which means that it doesn`t mather if you take people for the animals. The first part of the book shows that people who are in a bad situation for example suppression or dictatorship have the same ideas. The want to change their situation so they organise a rebellion. First they search for an leader, which is Old Major. He has the idea to overthrow Mr. Jones. So people are motivated to do a rebellion. If there is a device factor they start the rebellion. In most of the cases the rebellion is cut down but if it is successfully done they make rules.

And then there is somebody who thinks that he is better than the others. In the book it is Napoleon. The name reminds on Napoleon Bonaparte who was a great general but a dictator. This person has some accompany and they do everything he says. So it isn`t better than before. Surely it can be better.

Orwell lives during the two worldwars. Maybe it was a hidden criticism on Hitler and the Nazis. There it was the same. After the first world war the people were depressed. Everything was damadged. Then Hitler came and said it woudl be better and everybody trusted him. So they went into the second world war.