Animal Farm, by George Orwell :: Essays Papers

Animal Farm This remarkable book was written by George Orwell, whose real name is Eric Blair, and it is about the lives of farm animals who rebel against humans. The animals live on Manor Farm and are owned by Mr. Jones, who always seems to be drunk. The leader of the animals was an old pig named Old Major who one day had a dream about being free from the oppression of man. One evening, Old Major assembled the animals of Manor Farm and talked to them about how they live hard, short lives in slavery to the humans and that they should rebel and become free. Old Major got the idea from a song which came to him in a dream, Beasts of England, that was sung when he was a young pig. The song talked about the animals being free one day. No one knew when the rebellion that Old Major talked about would happen, especially after Old Major died three days after the meeting. The pigs, who were the smartest of the animals, picked the two most pre-eminent pigs to assume the leadership role that Old Major left. The two pigs names were Snowball and Napoleon. These two pigs got together and organized all of Old Major’s thoughts into a system called Animalism. This was taught at night during secret meetings that were held in the big barn and the animals slowly learned it. Then one midsummer’s eve, the animals rebelled against Mr. Jones and his men because they had not been fed the whole day. This was not a planned attack, but the animals succeeded and kicked Mr. Jones and his men out. The animals were free. The next morning the animals set up rules, The Seven Commandments, and changed the name of the farm from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. Then the animals went out in the field to gather the hay and did it more quickly than Jones and his men ever did. It was also the biggest harvest they had ever seen because there was absolutely no waste. Boxer, a large horse, was a great asset to the animals because he worked as hard as three horses put together and he kept pushing himself harder and harder. The animals heard that Jones might return and try to recapture the farm, so the animals started preparing for an attack.