Commentary on Animal Farm Essay

The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory for the Russian Revolution which happened in 1917. Animal Farm begins with hope for a leisurely and more relaxed life and ends in misery. Throughout the novel life for the animals only gets worse.

The beginning starts off with a well respected pig by the name of Old Major who had a dream which he wanted to share with the rest of the animals on the farm, his dream was to live in happiness without having a leader. Old Major had said that Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.

Major spoke about a rebellion to overthrow Mr. Jones, so they were able to work for themselves and the produce of their labour would be their own. Before the rebellion the animals lives were decent, they didnt live in happiness but they didnt live in complete misery.

The seven commandments were introduced near the beginning their purpose was to prevent the animals from following the unsuitable habits of man. Within a few months of the first and second rebellion Napoleon was the leader of Animal Farm. Napoleon began to change the seven commandments to benefit him and the other pigs, he and the other pigs were found to be sleeping on beds in the farm house. The other animals were sure there was a rule against this, but Squealer was able to convince them that this was right because the pigs were the brains of the farm and they should have a quiet place to work in. It was soon noticed that the fourth commandment was changed from No animal shall sleep in a bed to No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. Then the animals noticed that the pigs were beginning to drink alcohol which they knew was surely against the fifth commandment and when the animals went to check the commandment it was changed to No animals shall drink alcohol to excess.

Napoleon was even able to persuade the animals into thinking that Snowball was an enemy all along and had never received the order Animal Hero First Class.

Boxer the horse injured himself trying to build the windmill and was then confined to his stall. Then a van came to the farm to take Boxer away to what the animals and Boxer thought was the vet, but Benjamin was able to read what was written on the side of the van Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughter and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied. Three days later Squealer announced that Boxer had died in Willingdon. Although some other animals knew about what was written on the side of the van and asked Squealer about it, but Squealer gave a silly reply which the animals seemed to believe, he told them said the van had previously been the property of the knacker, and had been bought by the veterinary surgeon, who had not yet painted the old name out. It is then discovered that the money used to sell Boxer to the knackers was used to purchase whisky.

The animals ignorance and faulty memories make it much easier for Napoleon to convince them that the changes made to seven commandments will benefit everyone. Slowly the seven commandments are changed to suit the pigs wants until there was a single commandments left which ran:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL

THAN OTHERS.

By the end the animals lives were the same as they had always been they were generally hungry, they slept on straw, drank from the pool, they worked hard in the fields and were troubled by the cold in winder and flies in the summer. Sometimes the older animals would think about the days before the rebellion and try to determine whether things were better or worse.

Old Majors dream was definitely betrayed by the end, he had said that it was unfair that an animal could be slaughtered as soon as their usefulness came to an end and the seventh commandment once said that No animal shall kill any other animal But Napoleon did the complete opposite as soon as he stopped working instead of letting him retire.

Napoleon definitely used the animals ignorance to his advantage by changing the commandments and giving foolish answers as to why the change needed to occur which the animals would stupidly believe.