FREE ESSAY ON ANIMAL FARM BOOK REPORT

ANIMAL FARM BOOK REPORT

Many authors write about topics that they know and about historical events that are going
on while they write their story. In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell this is
definitely true. Orwell modeled many of his characters after Russian leaders. He
ingeniously depicts the troubles of Russia in a book about farm animals.
The story begins with a prize winning boar named Old Major, he gathers all of the farm
animals around to tell them of a dream that he has. He tells them about a society of only
farm animals, they would run everything with out humans. The farm animals like this idea
and make a song called "Beasts of England" about their new freedom. Three days after
announcing his dream, Old Major dies. Two younger pigs,Snowball and Napoleon, put Old
Major's ideas into a philosophy and call it Animalism. The animals chase Farmer Jones off
of the farm and claim it as their own, calling it "Animal Farm". Everyone works together
to bring happiness to the farm. Boxer the cart-horse devotes all of his strength to the
farm, Snowball teaches the animals to read, and Napoleon educates a group of puppies on
the topic of Animalism. Soon there is a struggle for power between Snowball and Napoleon.
Snowball wants to erect a windmill to produce power for the animals. Napoleon is opposed
to this idea and sends attack dogs to chase Snowball out of town. Now Napoleon has all
power and begins to run the farm like he wants it. He decides that the pigs will run the
farm, he also changes his mind about the windmill. They finally build it, but the next
day they find it toppled onto the ground. Napoleon tells everyone that Snowball toppled
the windmill. So anyone that goes against the words of Napoleon would then be with
Snowball and would be put to death by the dogs. Napoleon starts to act more like a human,
sleeping in a bed, wearing clothing, drinking whiskey, walking upright, and he even
engages in trades with the neighbors. The farm animals are now cold, hungry, overworked,
and miserable. Boxer ,the most loyal of all of the animals, is sold to a glue-maker for
money so Napoleon can buy some whiskey. At the end Napoleon sits down with Farmer
Pilkington for dinner, as the farm animals look through the window they can not tell
which one is the pig and which one is the human.
George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in 1903 and died in 1950.
He served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. When Orwell
resigned from his position in Burma, he resolved to speak out against the domination of
any person over another. During World War 2, he was war correspondent for the BBC and the
Observer, and wrote for the Tribune. His condemnation of totalitarian society and his
intellectual honesty motivated his biting satire of Communist ideology in Animal Farm
written in 1945, and in the novel Nineteen Eighty-four written in 1949.
When a book is written, the author is most likely trying to get a point across to the
reader. When Orwell wrote Animal Farm he was trying to show the reader his point of view
on Soviet Communism. Joseph Stalin became general secretary of the Communist Party of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1922 to 1953. Orwell wrote Stalin into the book
as Napoleon, the power hungry pig. In the story Napoleon chases Snowball off the farm
because Snowball has different ideas. Orwell wrote Leon Trotsky in as Snowball, Trotsky
was exiled from the USSR by Stalin. Trotsky was a Russian Marxist theorist and
revolutionary, who was one of the principal leaders of the USSR government until he was
exiled. The Bolshevik revolution is shown with the animals revolting against farmer Jones
and chasing him off the farm. The Bolsheviks titled themselves the Russian Communist
Party in March 1918 and the All-Union Communist Party in December 1925. Just like the
farm animals renamed the farm "Animal Farm" and created "Animalism". Other historical
events that effected Orwell's writing are the coming to power of Adolf Hitler and World
War 2. In both of these events many countries were afraid of the threat of Communism
taking over the world. 
The 1940's was a time of great change. World War 2 ended in 1945, and changed society in
many countries. After Word War 2 the baby boom took place. A lot of literature had to do
with propaganda against Communism. Animal Farm is one form of propaganda, putting the
problems of Russia in the perspective of a group of farm animals.
This book has taught me more about Soviet Communism then I will ever learn in school. It
gave a perspective of the people under the rule of communism. Not from the perspective of
another government looking down upon communism, like we learn in social studies. This
book kept me entertained all the way through, I like that the story is an allegory. This
means it has an inside meaning to it. No matter if you look to Animal Farm for
educational value or if you look to it for pure entertainment, it is still a very good
book.
Bibliography
www.biography.com