Friday, March 26, 2010

Concluding animal farm

Animal Farm, in my opinion, is all in all a pretty good book. Reading from cover to cover i'd say it was worth it. In some parts of the story I was confused as to why power was and is so important to some people. Some of the details of the book made me feel for the animals which shows it's written well. I didn't like how abruptly it ended but the moral of the story is great. After reading beyond chapter 1, the farm goes crazy. The pigs try and overtake the farm and the other animals do nothing about it. Some of them are murdered for their opinions or run off of the farm. All the rules change and all in a matter of weeks. The quote "Only the strongest will survive." Does not pertain to this story, as any animal can be removed or killed for just a slight slip up. Trading with the humans begin as they slowly start to come back into the farm. All of Old Majors rules are either changed or gotten rid of and only one opinion is heard, no matter what. That opinion is comrade Napoleon the pigs. This however will condemn the farm almost entirely. It ends pretty abruptly, I almost wish there was a sequel.

Friday, March 5, 2010

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Animal Farm?

The book Animal Farm is about a couple animals and their outlook on life. But when you read between the lines, there is a whole other message from the story. From just reading the first chapter and not looking into it, it would sound something like this: The leader of the farm animals is the pig, named Old Major, and he has a dream that wakes him up to the reality of true farm life. He then calls a meeting late at night in the barn to tell all the other animals about his dream. The dream is about how all the farm animals do a huge amount of work daily and get nothing in return, they are fed just enough to keep them alive, and when they grow old they are slaughtered and eaten or used for a different cause. They work their lives away and receive nothing in return. Old Major then tells his comrades that this problem cannot go on any longer and it must be solved. The answer to this problem, in his eyes, is to rebel against the humans and take control. To someone reading between the lines, you can tell that this book is about the people in life that don't get the same writes as everyone else. They work for the upper class and for what? Nothing. So they must rebel against the higher classes to get the rights they deserve. I would definitely suggest reading this book.