Animal Farm

Animal Farm Essay

         In 1945 George Orwell wrote the novel Animal Farm, which depicts animal life on a farm in England. The animals feel they are not being treated well by the cruel farmer and decide to revolt against him. They have their own society, in which they form Seven Commandments to keep everything in order. However, by the end of the novel, most of the animals had broken almost all of the commandments and they had formed a bias class system within the so-called fair and equal society. This is the first sign of how in every society there is going to be somebody that needs to have power and authority over everyone else, and they are willing to do anything to get that power.

         After the farmer is overthrown, the animals were all treated equally, but as time progressed, two pigs named Napoleon and Snowball fought about which one of them should be in charge of the farm. Snowball and Napoleon did not always agree on everything and did not like each other. One of their many arguments was about building a windmill for the farm. It was Snowball’s idea to build the windmill to help get things done more efficiently on the farm, but Napoleon did not think it would be a good idea. He complains that it is too much work for all the animals to take on. When Napoleon cannot take the constant threat of Snowball’s presence any longer, trains his dogs to run Snowball off the farm. When the possibility of a windmill being built becomes public, the animals love the idea, which leads Napoleon to take credit for it and then later have it named, “Napoleon Mill.” This shows how Napoleon only does what he thinks will give him more power, even if he is lying to the innocent animals on the farm and taking credit for Snowball’s idea.

         With Snowball gone, Napoleon is the new president of Animal Farm. He thinks that he is helping the farm improve, but in reality he is destroying the last remaining hope for the honorable society that the animals had wanted so badly in the beginning. During Napoleon’s reign, almost all of the commandments are broken. When Clover, a horse on the farm, stats to question if the commandments are still being enforced, the other animals just tell her that she cannot read correctly. Napoleon and his dogs change the commandments so that, “No animal shall sleep in a bed,” changed into, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” “No animal shall drink alcohol,” turned into, “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.” “No animal shall kill any other animals,” changed into, “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” Finally, the one I thought stood out the most, “All animals are equal,” changed to, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This makes me question if they know what equal means, or if they knew what equal meant when they were writing the Seven Commandments. All of these changes also make me think that the society they are living in is exactly the one they didn’t want to have in the beginning, and they wrote all these commandments to avoid having to live in a life so similar to their lives when the farmer was around and in charge.

         Animal Farm shows that in every lifestyle or society there is always going to be someone or something that needs to have power and authority over everyone else and they are wiling to do whatever they have to in order to get that control. Like in Animal farm, the farmer had to have control, and after him, Napoleon. They both used drastic methods to get the animals to agree with them, and to become powerful. Even in our world today there are people who have a lot of power, but it is really about how much, and if the person—or animal—wants to abuse that power or not.