Animal Farm by George Orwell, C. M. Woodhouse, Russell Baker

Animal Farm!! Great Book!!by Anonymous

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11/25/2009: I think Animal Farm is a great book. In a way it shows how we as humans treat other people and sometimes animals too. Animal Farm is a book that shows the battle of people or in this case, animals, trying to be accepted by someone that is higher than them. I enjoyed the reading the book and I would recommend it to anyone who asked.

In Animal Farm it starts out with a pig named Old Major telling all the animals about a strange dream that he had. He began by telling the animals about his life and about how he had lived a pretty good life. He told them that over the years he had over five hundred sows and that he didn't believe he would be with them much longer because he was of old age. Once he finished telling them about his life he went on to tell about his dream. He told them he had dreamed of a rebellion where the animals would take over everything and override the humans. The animals all believed that the day would come when the rebellion would begin and they would be free of the whip of the humans. The animals couldn't wait for the day when they would be free, and they were even happier when it came sooner than they expected it. The farmer that owned the farm, who was named Jones, wasn't feeding the animals and they were very hungry so they broke into the food shed and started eating and when Jones and his workers started beating the animals they attacked them and ran them off the farm and went back to eating.

Toward the middle of the book the pigs start being more controlling. They start giving the animals less food rations to make more for themselves. The pigs also started changing the commandments but just enough to where it wasn't of notice to the other animals. The pigs sat around all day while the other animals worked on the farm trying to build the windmill and do the other work around the farm. There were a few pigs that supervised over the animals as they worked all day but they never helped. The pigs made themselves and the dogs of higher authority, and if any animal was caught in a crime they were killed right in the spot. The animals worked hard every day especially when they were building the windmill and they had to carry the heavy boulders to the top of the hill and throw them off the edge so they would break into smaller pieces. The animals spent most of their time working on the windmill and on the farm and this went on for years until the windmill was finally finished.

I see this story as a way to show how cruel people can be to others and that some people think that just because they have more than someone else they deserve more or they think they are higher than they are. People think that just because they have more than someone else that they aren't any good to anyone else or as good as they are. The pigs in this novel treated the animals as if they weren't as good as them because they couldn't read and write either at all or as well as they could. I think the book was very good I would recommend it to anyone who asked me about it and to me it's another way of showing how we as people judge others because of what they do and do not have.

George Orwell succeeds in every way at delivering a truly magnificent tale.by SpencerRiggi

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11/25/2009: Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is a tragically beautiful book cleverly disguised as a simple tale of talking animals. Drawing inspiration from the Russian Revolution of the 1900's, Orwell succeeds in delivering a short, yet complex story.

Animal Farm's main plot, without giving anything away, is a simple tale of overthrowing a tyrannical authority. One of Animal Farm's strongest points is the fact that Orwell is able to grab the reader and never let go. We, the readers, are never fully told of how the animals plan to execute the Revolution. In place of pages and pages of planning is the quick and swift action of the animals actually taking control. Some could argue that the lack of knowing their exact plans is a detach from the story, however I could not disagree more. Orwell's fantastic writing style never makes anything completely clear. The look of the farm, how the characters sound, what they look like, etc. etc., is left completely up to imagination. Orwell is able to accomplish this, amazingly, without the writing ever coming off as lazy.

On top of an intriguing and engaging story, we are given a very wide array of interesting characters. Whilst a majority of the animals share the same core importance, there are two particular animals that come to mind when discussing the main characters. The first of them is Snowball, a pig who immediately assumes the role of farm leader due to his high intelligence and speaking prowess, and the second being Napoleon, a fellow pig who also resides as farm leader.

There is also a certain mystery to the story, in the sense that we do not know who, exactly, are the protagonist and antagonist. The only true sense of an antagonist early on would be Mr. Jones, the previous farm owner. Other than that, however, there is no clear insight as to who is good and who is bad, which is, again, another brilliant decision by Orwell to suck readers into the story.

With the review coming to a close, it may seem as though I am being far too vague. However, to my own defense, there are far too many surprises within this little book to tell. My duty is to give you a verdict on this book; and my verdict is this.

This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. So little to read, yet so much to think about when you finish. It truly is a remarkable piece of literature, and, in my honest opinion, lies among the most brilliant of tales. This is an absolute MUST read, without a shadow of a doubt.