Rating: 
Summary: An animal utopia gone wrong
Review: In my 6th grade English class we've been reading
Animal Farm. My teacher [Mr. Fixx] lets us debate over the
message [if there is one] this book sends. I would not classify this book as under fairy tales. It has a strong moral to send to all of us. I believe that readers from 12 through adult would enjoy this. It is an extremely serious
book, not humorous, as one may think from the title. It is
short book, but to the piont and very riviting. There are plenty of cliff-hangers and fore-shadowings. The author leaves you a lot of clues, much of the fun of reading this
is to try to place the puzzle together.
I would reccomend this book to any person who likes
morals and something different-as this one is!
Rating: 
Summary: A disturbing account of animals taking over a farm.
Review: "Animal Farm" captures your imagination from the beginning.
With animals communicating with each other, you start to find yourself loving or hating each character. The farm animals, driven by hatred towards humans, plan a full blown
attack on Mr. Jones of the Manor Farm. With the description
of the animals determination at expelling the humans from the farm, the scene almost seems to come to life. With the
animals in charge of the farm, things start to get out of control. Animals feel superiority over other animals, which
is breaking one of the "seven commandments" which is not allowed. Animals start to turn against each other, showing
that no society is a perfect one. Animals are displeased,
but are afraid to speak up because of the harm coming to those who are dissatisfied with their new "government." This captivating book ends with pigs and men sitting at a table playing cards and drinking. The other animals look in at them to see that their leaders have basically turned into humans. They could not tell the difference between their
own species and the much hated humans. George Orwell brilliantly depicts a frightening plot where animals take over and humans suddenly find themselves fearing what the
rebellious animals will do next.
Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm as powerful indictment of totalitarianism.
Review: Deliberately written in the style of a children's "fairy-story",
George Orwell's *Animal Farm* uses the medium of the fairy-tale
to make a powerful political statement -- protesting not only
the Soviet regime in Communist Russia, but also totalitarianism
everywhere and in all of its forms.
Tracing the development of the "farm" from the honest good
intentions of the revolutionary "animals" through the gradual
strengthening of the original, oppressive power structure, this
novel truly reveals something of the human spirit. It is no wonder that so many phrases from Orwell's work have become staples
in modern-day political argument: through this and his other works, George Orwell has truly contributed to the political
climate of the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Its an very good political novel but lacks reader intrest
Review: I feel taht the novel portrays human behaviour and tendencys
exytremly well.It has a very acurate conection with real life
( the lives of Trosky and Stalin) the the novel is a political
one. I find that the novel does not keep a reader interested
and I found myself pushing myself to read the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Steadman's art recreates a classic!
Review: Rememeber Animal Farm? Those days of high school lit classes
with Mrs. Brown at the head of the room explaining all of the symbols and allegory. Well thanks to Ralph Steadman many
readers are rediscovering the clasic Orwell novel. You might recognize Steadman from his illustrations for Dr. Hunter S.
Thompson's Curse Of Lotho, among other books. Steadman's art
work adds a new element to this work by recreating the horror
and corruption that plays such a central role in the text
of the novel. Snowball, Major, and Boxer are all found here
in Steadman's unique and disturbing style. The art offers
the reader disturbing portrayals to match the even more
disturbing ideological subtext offered some fifty years ago by George Orwell.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughts about the classic political fable
Review: What can anyone say about Animal Farm that hasn't been said already? Probably nothing, but I'll try anyway. Virtually everyone knows the story of George Orwell's tale. It is not a novel, but a fable, with little dialogue but plenty of narrative. On a small rural farm in England the animals rise up against the drunken, abusive farmer and drive him off the land. The parallel, of course, is supposed to be the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Based on the teachings of an old pig, Old Major, the animals define their ideal society of animals in which everyone will work together and think together, but the pigs under the control of the brainy Snowball, the despotic Napoleon, and the scheming Squealer soon betray the ideals. Of course, Old Major is really Lenin, Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky, and Squealer is a mystery, just who does he represent, anyway? Stalin didn't have an official spokesman that I know of.My question is how accurate this conventional wisdom really is. The parallels are clear, but not exact and I'm not entirely sure Orwell really meant this as a perfect revolution betrayed. This was one of his later books, and he had been disillusioned by communism for quite some time. I wonder if he really believed better leadership would have saved the Soviet Union from madness. There are some half hidden clues sprinkled throughout. For one, we see that even from the start not all the animals were impressed with Animalism. Mollie, the show horse, is certainly not in favor of it. She works little and would gladly have the return of humans if only she can get her sugar cubes and ribbons back. Likewise, the unnamed cat never helps out, nor does the raven. Orwell seems to be pointing out, however subtly, that communism must be either embraced wholeheartedly or made compulsory by force (which eventually happens to the animals that don't leave as Mollie does). The problem is right there at the start. Another example we see is Snowball. Now clearly Snowball the brainy pig is supposed to represent Trotsky, being the smart talkative one, the opponent of Napoleon, and eventually being exiled and made the center of every half-baked conspiracy theory thereafter. So Orwell is saying Trotsky would have made everything alright? He would have been better than Stalin, of course, but Orwell sneaks in little hints here as well. Snowball devotes considerable effort to planning the windmill. The windmill that will mean the end of their troubles. It will create a three-day workweek, electricity for the farm, and other various useful things. Where will the generator come from? No answer. Cables? No answer. Now if presumably Snowball is the better purist of Animalism, he would never sell-out and engage in trade with humans the way Napoleon does later. So what is the answer? I don't think this is an oversight on Orwell's part. The story is too tightly constructed with no wasted words. Certainly the greater events do overshadow these points, but could Orwell be saying that even the greatest leadership would have only delayed the inevitable? It is, I think, worth considering. Animal Farm remains to this day among the best modern fables ever written. Whatever Orwell's exact beliefs at the time it was penned, it is clear that he had been systematically disillusioned with communism, a process that started as early as the Spanish Civil War (see Homage to Catalonia for his first hand account of that conflict). Unlike far too many people holding similar beliefs, Orwell was not about to stand by a group he could clearly see was not representing his views, or the views of any decent person anywhere. By late in life, with works like Animal Farm and the later 1984 Orwell's writing has become that of an anti-totalitarianist first and foremost. He pays homage in Animal Farm to the early spirit of the revolution, but it is a doomed effort from the start. The first harvest is better than average, but it was already ripe and ready for picking. It's downhill from there. It would seem that Animalism/Communism was destined to fail no matter what. Perhaps this is why Orwell has been called every conservative's favorite Communist, but it seems clear here that by 1945, even when the Soviet Union was a British ally in the war against the one form of government Orwell hated more, he still had the vision to see rot and corruption, and worse, for what it really was. So besides being an enjoyable and intelligent author to read, Orwell shows in Animal Farm that he is among the century's most gifted political essayists.
Rating:
Summary: Totalitarianism results in a population's inability to fight
Review: Orwell's Animal Farm is a stirring story of a totalitarianismregime and its betrayal of its constituentsas a fable; achildren's story of a farm gone crazy. Offering a literary lesson built on brilliant and amusing character studies, this book centres on a farm of animals in a political satire exposing the evils of totalitarianism. The pigs lead the other animals in a revolt against the cruel tyranny of their human masters, only to fall into the same evils ways. Orwell's writing style is deceptively simple. He generally makes the excesses, corruption and abuses of power grossly explicit. After the Battle of the Cowshed, the pigs began to transform deliciously into replicas of the abusive people they displaced to run the farm themselves. While the ever-hardworking horses, Boxer and Clover, toil to keep the farm going, the overwhelming Napoleon and sycophantic Squealer lazed around, giving lame excuses to trick the animals who are not of first-rate intelligence. On the whole, this political thriller is a masterpiece of political satire, which bonds the reader to the feelings felt by the suffering animals.
Rating:
Summary: funniest ive ever read
Review: omg
after reading charlotte's web!!!! READ IT AFTER CHARLOTTE'S WEB!!
it's bloody hilarious
Rating:
Summary: "Pig"-headed Beasts
Review: Animal Farm, a book full of "pig"-headed beasts! When reading this book my emotions ranged from being sympathetic with the animals in the beginning to pitying the animals for their stupidity. I felt bad when Mr. Jones would work the animals hard and only feed them enough to get by. But my sympathy turned to pity when the animals fell for Napoleons propaganda (squealer's speeches). After finishing the book I realized how bad totalitarianism is and despised Napoleon for becoming such a power hungry "pig".
My favorite character was probably Clover. She was my favorite because she was pretty smart and didn't always agree with Napoleon right away. She questioned his and the other pigs' behavior. She was the only animal that would realize every time Napoleon changed a commandment. She was also very nurturing and mother like towards the other animals.
I really liked how everything in the book paralleled something in Russian history. It was really interesting to try and figure out what everything meant. I also really liked the book because it was an easy read and I had no trouble trying to figure out what happened.
George Orwell did a wonderful job showing how totalitarianism is bad and eventually will not work in favor of the people or animals in this case. I really enjoyed how he used a story about animals to explain the effects of totalitarianism. It turned something that otherwise could be a boring subject into a story about a farm.
I learned a lot about totalitarianism in this book. I knew that it was bad prior to reading the book but I had no idea how it affected the people the so badly. I always used to wonder why the people never fought against a dictator but after reading this book I realize that sometimes the people don't even now how bad they have it.
I thought that the end of the book was sort of disappointing. I wanted the ending to include a big downfall of Napoleon since he was such a horrible leader to the animals. But instead the book ended with Napoleon being happy and still in control.
There are a few things I still don't understand. I don't know what the windmill in the book represents in Russian history. I also didn't understand the ending. Why couldn't you tell the difference between the pigs and the humans? and What does that represent in history?
I would definitely recommend this book. It is a very interesting book to read in either an English class or a history class. I wouldn't recommend this book to someone to read outside of school because the book is much more interesting when you can compare it to the Russian history.
I don't know if I would read another book by this author. This particular book was interesting because it was so accurately representing an actual country's government. I might read another book by this author if there was another book that included this quality.
Overall Animal Farm is an "oink"-ing good time to read!
Rating: 
Summary: Lousy
Review: I have been forced to read this book 3 times for various school assignments and although Animal Farm is considered a classic, I find I like it less and less every time I read it. Yes there is deep metaphors and symbolism but the plot and characters are so bizarre that the story is hard to follow or enjoy.
|
