My log

George Orwell first published “Animal Farm” in 1945. This book is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian revolution, and because of Russia being an allied of England in that time he had lots of difficulties publishing it.

This story takes place on a farm somewhere in England and because of Orwell`s inaccurate description of the farm we can`t know for sure where it was but it obviously doesn`t matter given the fact that Russian revolution was the thing that had to be criticized.

Chapter one

Mr Jones, the owner of “Manor Farm”, was often drunk, did not care about his animals, he didn`t feed them almost always.

One night Old Major – a very old pig but very respected in the farm – called all the animals togheter and gave them a speech where he first talked about why was giving it and then motivated them for a rebellion. For that he sang a song  “Beasts of England“ and gave examples of what was wrong in Manor Farm such as,  no animal is happy and is killed when it is not longer useful, man is the only creature that consumes without producing and yet he is the lord of all the animals. He claimed that, If the animals wanted to live a better life, they had to get rid of man.

Characters caracterization

Mr. Jones: Human, Farmer, married; Likes to drink
Mrs. Jones: Human, woman, wife of Mr. Jones; snores
Old Major: Male pig, 12 years old; Isn’t that fat anymore, majestic-looking, tushes never been cut, benevelopt, good talker wise
Blueball: Dog
Jessie: Dog
Pincher: Dog
Boxer: horse; Enormous beast, 18hands high, strong, white stripe on his face Stupid, steady, works hard
Clover: Horse, stout; Kind of fat; ‘Protector’ of smaller animals
Napoleon: Pig; large; Not much of a talker
Muriel: White goat
Benjamin: Donkey, oldest animal on the farm;Bad tempered, doesn’t talk too much, never laughs, friend of Boxer
Squealer: Pig; Round cheeks, twinkling eyes, shrill voice
Mollie: horse, Pretty, white mane; Wants attention, foolish, dumb
Snowball: Pig; Good talker
Moses: Raven, Mr. Jones pet; Clever talker

Chapter 2

It is in this chapter that revolution takes place and it starts because Mr Jones, again, “forgot” to feed the animals when he got home (drunk) from the bar. Unsatisfied, they came up with a plan to finish this injustice and made it happen.

After that, they renamed the farm to “Animal Farm” and soon two pigs almost were established has leaders, Napoleon and Snowball, because they created the seven commandments.

They were ….

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
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 any other animal.
7. All animals are equal

But the first awkward event ocurred almost after this rebellion, where the milk taken from the cows disapears  and Napoleon afirms that there is no problem, everything is ok.

Observation: When I read this part I noticed that something was wrong and Napoleon was behind it.

Chapter 3

·         Animals worked very hard in summer but they were satisfied because they were rewarded , all equals;

·         Boxer is a great worker , the best ;

·         Some pigs don`t work, just supervise the others but they consume milk and the products. In here we start seing violations of the commandments.

Observation: The pigs are smarter than the others, no doubt about it,  but they are starting to be like Mr Jones and that is against what Old Major said about all animals being equals.

Chapter 4

·         Snowball and Napoleon always disagree with each other ;

·         “The Battle of the Cowshed“ takes place, humans leaded by Mr Jones try to regain what is his for legal rights but animals win because of snowball`s tacticts;

·         Boxer is a hero;

·         Snowball cums up with the windmill plan

Observation: Napoleon starts do dilslike Snowball`s popularity. I think Napoleon is a bad pig and will do something against Snowball.

Chapter 5 

·         When giving a speech about the windmill, Snowball is brutly attacked by Napoleon`s adopted dogs and fell in a well;

·         Napoleon takes command of the farm;

Observation:we can see here similarities between Napoleon and Staline

Chapter 6

·         Napoleon makes the others believe that the windmill project was his but Snowball stole it from him and he had planned this attack for a long time, kick off the  liar

·         They built the windmill

·         Pigs started to live in Mr Jones house

·         Windmill was destroyed and Napoleon blamed Snowball

·         Pigs start trading with human

Observation:we can see that each chapter pigs become more humans and disrespecting the commandments.

Chapter 7

               

·         There was less food for the animals because of the trades with men;

·         3 hens ( because they didn`t wanted to give away more eggs) and 4 pigs( by saying that Sunday meetinggs should go on) were executed;

·         Change in commandments : “No animal shall kill other animal without cause“;

Observation: Quoting Max , and because I din`t knew about this fact and I`m now changing my observation, “ Napoleon is saying that everything bad is happening because of Snowball, this technique was already used by Hitler who said that all bad things happen because of the Jews.”

Chapter 8

• In this chapter takes place  “the Battle of the Windmill“ where human destroy the windmill and kills other animals but in the end they lost it because the dogs where there to save the “pigs day“;
• The pigs consider it as a victory, as for the others they don`t
• New commandment “ No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”

Observation : This failure can be compared to the Stalingrad battle

Chapter 9

• Napoleon says that Animal Fram is a republic and he is the president;
• Boxer is bad treated by Napoleon that instead of taking care of him because of his condition, he sold him;
• Pigs live in luxury, the others just starve;
• Napoleon educates 30 new pigs;

Observation: This youth pigs raised by Napoleon can be compared to hitler youth in were he formed his boys.

Chapter 10

• From the inicial animals in story a few are alive;
• There are two windmills in the farm;
• The bigs walk by their two leg;
• The commandments were now one “ All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”

Observation: the end of this story is similar to the beginning, that means  that the farm had human power controlling it.

Conclusion

I think this story is great, from the carachters to the plot itself. I always assumed that this book would end well, Napoleon dies, everyvody is happy, equals.

But no, an ending which was unpredictable made this story unique and realistic and I thank George Orwell for that.

My favourite character was Boxer because he was always there to help the others and to guarentee a good life not only for him but to the others too.