Animal Farm Reading Response

First Reading Response of the Year!

Animal Farm by George Orwell

     In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, a farm is taken over by its own animals, forcing the human owners to leave. The animals attempt to create a utopia, with fair rules and equality between them all. However, things don't quite go as planned. The pigs, the most clever of the animals, begin to manipulate the others. They slowly change rules and alter the equality on the farm, so subtly that the other animals don't even realize what is going on until the pigs are in complete control. eventually, even the dream of the animal-run utopia is swept away as the pigs begin to use the animals for a profit, just as their former, human owners did. I think that the message of this book is that people who have power or abilities that put them above the rest of people are easily corrupted even if the intent is good at the beginning.

    An example of this message is on page 35, where it says, "pre-eminent among the pigs were Snowball and Napoleon" (and pigs are recognized as the cleverest animals on the farm.) in the beginning the pigs are helping out by making fair rules of the farm and educating the other animals. soon after, however, (on page 51) Napoleon begins to restrict education only to pigs, which is an early sign of the discrimination that becomes so apparent by the climax of the book. While this may seem not that important, it shows that the equality the animals founded is already fraying at the edges. napoleon is not a cruel animal, but he feels that pigs are superior to other animals, which opposes the mindset of their civilization.

     Another example of this is found on pages 43, and 133. on page 43 the commandments of the farm are, "1.whatever goes upon 2 legs is an enemy.

 2. what ever goes upon 4 legs is a friend.

 3. no animals shall wear clothes.

 4. no animal shall sleep in a bed.

 5. no animals shall drink alcohol.

 6. no animal shall kill another animal.

 7. all animals are equal." which the animals use as their philosophy and basic rules of life. on page 133, after the pigs have taken over, and treated themselves to the luxeries that are banned from the other animals, the change the commandments to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." this shows that the pigs have been corrupted and mistreat the other animals becuase the believe that they are entitled to it.

    all in all, i think that this shows that power does corrupt those more endowed than others. this world has a history of slavery and racism just because some people think they are better, and have the power to do something with it. with power, comes the responsibility for the people you can care for. just like a parent helps a small child, a leader must care for and protect a society, and not allow the power to make him or her think that they are all-powerful.