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Summary: Read it!
Review: I think the contents of Animal Farm is very interesting, but if our English teacher wouldn't told us that Orwell wanted his animals to do like the people in the Russia Revolution, I wouldn't have knowen it!I think the context has certain warning which goes much further. Orwell wanted to show that it is always dangerous if one person takes the rulership without being asked, because he will take advantage of his colleagues. But I think Orwell shows his problem very well and in a way that everybody is able to understand it!
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Summary: A great book
Review: Animal Farm is a book I enjoyed very much. I already read it several times and I think that it is perfectly constructed. All actions and characters can be directly linked with happenings during the Russian Revolution and communism in Russia. Orwell certainly is one of the most inspired writers ever. Admittedly, it sometimes seems too smooth and perfect; but it certainly is a book everyone should have read at least once.
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Summary: read it!
Review: I enjoyed the book a lot. For me it is a brilliant political satire, written in a time when censorship ruled lots of countries. Orwell knew to write the truth about the happenings in Russia in such a hidden way that it is not that easy to see through. But he does not only treat the problems with Russian Communism, the book is a warning of every totalitarian system in the world. It also shows how difficult it is to treat all human beings equal.
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Summary: Animal Farm
Review: The book Animal Farm has two sides to its story. One person can see it as a fairy tale and another could see it as a satire of a society in dictatorship. The story begins one day on a farm, called Manor Farm. A old pig named Major tells the animals about a life without humans, a life were animals were equal and ruled themselves. Major told them about the "Beast of England", a patriotic song that stood for animals' freedom (animalism). Soon Major dies, but the words spoken at the rally remain in every animal's head and heart. One day without warning the rebellion begins. All the animals fought Mr. Jones (the owner) and his men. As the animals fought they thought of freedom and before the day was over they had won freedom. Jones and his men had fled. Soon the animals create their own society, with leaders, holidays, and dreams for the future. The two leaders were Snowball and Napoleon. They have a clash of differences and Napoleon, being the more cunning of the two manages to exhale Snowball. As time goes by Jones anf his men attack, to retake the farm, but the animals triumph. Soon the new named "Animal Farm" starts to alter. Laws are mysteriously changing, food is getting low and work is rising. It is not very long before the animals notice the change, but they can't express their feelings because now Napoleon and the pigs have to much power and the ferocious dogs Napoleon keeps for protection make sure all the animals remember there place. The pigs start to act like humans, and eventually start to wear clothes, live in the farmhouse, intake alcohol, and even walk upright. One day the owners of neighboring farms come for dinner with the pigs. A heated argument arises and as the other animals watch they can't tell the differance between the pigs and the humans, because the pigs have changed so drastically. As I read Animal Farm I kept thinking about how familiar the story was and I finally figured it out. The story is about a group ruled by a more dominant group and so naturally they rebel to make life better for themselves and to have freedom. They create their own law, customs, and traditions, but soon their vision of freedom becomes blurred. The pigs say all animals are equal, but the pigs act superior. There are people that will follow anyone in power and thats how the sheep were. They followed the expression, "If one sheep jumps off a cliff the rest will follow". All the sheep believed whoever was in charge. There was a lot of propaganda in a way, such as the sheep bleating, "four legs good, two legs bad" and then later on, "four legs good two legs better". When Napoleon took away Jesse's (the dog) pups and trained them to be his gaurds, that act reminds me of what the government in some countries do when they take away young boys and train them to be soldiers. I enjoyed the writers style. It was very creative how he tuned a typical new country turns into a fascist country into a story about farm animals. The use of his characters was very funny. The pigs were the bad guys, so you could call them "fascist pigs". The conclusion to this story is not a good one. All the animals intentions were good at first, but soon their leaders greed only makes the new society of animals just as bad as the old society with humans. I also think a moral to this story is the importance of education. Most of the animals were not smart, exept the pigs, so naturally they took advantages over the other animals.
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Summary: REVIEW OF GEORGE ORWELL'S "ANIMAL FARM" By Vic Curtis
Review: REVIEW OF GEORGE ORWELL'S"ANIMAL FARM" By: VIC CURTIS, Thomas Stone High School, Waldorf, MD Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is a pretty dark fiction where animals take on human personalities. Mr. Jones was a farmer who took care of the animals. The animals wanted to be free. Basically, the animals were angry because Farmer Jones would take eggs from the chickens, would butcher the pigs for meat, milk the cows, work the horses, etc. The animals were fed up with the way they were being treated and rose up and took control of the farm. The animals had decided that they would run the farm themselves, but unfortunately, they acted just as badly, or worse, than the humans they despised!! The animals in the story turned on each other and seemed to forget what cause -- freedom -- they had banded together for! One particularly strong-willed and clever pig, named Napoleon, became the leader of the farm after the humans were gone. "The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others." The pigs taught themselves how to read and write and had developed and written down "The Seven Commandments." They are: "(1) Whatever goes upon 2 legs is an enemy; (2) Whatever goes upon 4 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 another animal; and (7) All animals are equal." The animals eventually broke all these Commandments they were supposed to live by. Napoleon realized that power (electricity) was useful and something that they needed to have, so the animals decided they should constuct a windmill. It took 2 years to build. The winter was coming and food was scarce. All the animals survived through the winter with little food. They were so worried about getting the windmill up that food production was slowed. They had focused on one thing and forgot about other basic necessities. Snowball, one of the other pigs who was run off of the farm by Napoleon's dogs, secretly returned and plotted to kill Napoleon and take over the farm. Napoleon found out about this plot and gathered the animals together. He asked all the farm animals to confess any bad things they had done. Several animals, mostly the chickens, said they had stolen food and some said Snowball had talked to them about killing Napoleon. Napoleon passed judgment and killed every animal that had confessed. He said that it had to be done for a better farm but in doing this, he broke one of the Commandments. He killed other animals. The animal society was in chaos. They did not follow their own Commandments and acted no better than the humans they thought were so evil. Napoleon started sleeping in beds and drinking alcohol; food was scarce because the animals spent most of their time trying to build the windmill, which got finished, was then destroyed, but then was re-built again; and all the animals were NOT equal -- the pigs had the higher authority and pretty much ran the others. The animals gained their freedom temporarily but it did not last long for all the animals on the farm. They were not treated equally. After many years, the farm thrived under the supervision of Napoleon and the "ruling class" animals. There was only 1 Commandment left "All Animals Are Equal, But Some Animals are More Equal Than Others." The animals that ran the farm (the pigs) slept in beds, wore clothes, drank alcohol, and carried switches in their mouths while the other "lesser" animals did all the work. Mr. Orwell's description of the characters and their actions are as dark as the characters themselves. "When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their throats out and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess." There always seemed to be tension in this new animal society and still there was no true freedom for many of the animals. Napoleon and the other pigs that ran the farm became just like Farmer Jones. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man and man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which."
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Summary: Worth Reading
Review: "Animal Farm " is a true story with fictional protagonists. It tells the story of the rise of Communism and the Second World War. Instead of persons who play in this story there are animals. That's why the book is called "Animal Farm". I'm not very good at history and I'm not very interested in it. But with this book I really grasped the historical facts with Stalin and Lenin and all these persons. I enjoyed reading this book and I can really recommend it. "Animal Farm " is a true story with fictional protagonists. It tells the story of the rise of Communism and the Second World War. Instead of persons who play in this story there are animals. That's why the book is called "Animal Farm". I'm not very good at history and I'm not very interested in it. But with this book I really grasped the historical facts with Stalin and Lenin and all these persons. I enjoyed reading this book and I can really recommend it.
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Summary: Exremely well-done demonstration of what social reality is
Review: Exremely well done demonstration of reality It's always been known that's much easier to see faults when it doesn't concern yourself, that's the trick of fairy tales and also in the story of the Animal Farm. Of course you're always on "the goods" (the animals without the pigs) side while reading, even if you're pretty sure that you never would be as blind as them. In fact, I think we all are in a way, right now. And I think we're all like the pigs to in a way. Who really thinks himself equal to all others, you take what you can, and if you don't then only because it gives you an advantage in another way! Reading this book doesn't mean just understanding the actions, no you have to read between the lines and I promise a deeply analysis of human beings and human systems.
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Summary: HONG KONG student's bk report (F.4)
Review: At first, I thought that ¡§Animal Farm¡¨ was a fairy tale because it used simple words and animal characters. However, when I reached the middle part of this book, the plot was similar to the Russian Revolution (taught in F.3 history lessons). This book was amazing good, because the words were understandable. The book was easy to read but hard to put it down. I can really understand the meaning of communism, capitalism and I found that History was not boring anymore, but it was too late, as I did not take History in F.4. Orwell made me think, that the story was parallel with the Russian Revolution. He showed me the negatives side of politics and the mirror to the real humanity. The Seven Commandments were laid down, and then the animals were forced into slave labour. Soon, the revolution began with ¡§four legs good, two legs bad¡¨ but ends with ¡§four legs good, two legs better.¡¨ It was ironic and proved that ¡§Power Corrupts¡¨. Selfishness was exposed in Napoleon¡¦s character. Napoleon claimed that he was in charge for the benefit of everyone but actually helping himself. I think that equality is an easy theory but sometimes difficult to maintain in reality. At last, I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in historical story, as this book is short and it will not take you much time.
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Summary: Not Quite a "Fairy Story"
Review: This lovely and compelling novel is, by far, one of my favorites. It is a view of the Stalin reign cleverly disguised as a fairy tale; concisely written, and yet poetic. The symbolic use of animals works wonderfully with the abstract 'moral'. The funniest thing, in my opinion, is that Orwell, with his wry sense of humor, dipicts the communist dictators as pigs. How true! A lot of the kids in my class read this book for their book reports, but they have no idea of what they're getting into! Why don't you give it a try?
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Summary: Fascinating
Review: We found the content of this book very fascinating. It 's a political allegory of the Communism. The little farm symbolises the Russian country. All characters of the Communism are represented by animals. The two pigs per example Napoleon and Snowball are Stalin and Trotzki. We were thrilled by reading this novel and we will recommend it to all the other students in our age. We were a bit disappointed by the end of the story, we expected a happy ending.
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