Rating: 
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: "Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." This quote was spoken by George Orwell (Eric Blair) who was the author of the novel Animal Farm. Orwell always opposed the idea of both capitalism and communism. His distorted feelings showed throughout this novel by using characters such as Snowball and Napoleon to represent historic figures of Trotsky and Stalin.
Throughout the novel, my feelings were torn on which character to side with. At the beginning, I felt a shot of sadness when Mr. Jones is unexpectedly forced away from his house. He and his family are corrupted by those that he thought he could trust. However, soon my emotions sided with Snowball. Snowball felt that all animals were equal and wanted the farm to prosper. However, Napoleon was more concerned with himself and taking the authority from Snowball. I felt anger towards Napoleon and his selfish power struggle with Snowball. He disregarded any of Snowball's accomplishments in order to raise his own ego. For example, after Snowball is removed from the farm, Napoleon produces Snowballs idea of a windmill as his own. Near the end of the novel, I resented that the other farm animals did not stand up to Napoleon after his power hungry acts. The fear that these animals held, due to Napoleons zero tolerance of being challenged, was horrific. As one can see, feelings of anger, sorrow, and trust were all obtained when reading this novel.
My favorite character in the novel was Benjamin. An old, cold-hearted donkey that was quiet yet very intelligent. He was able to see the changes in the pigs and how the rebellion against humans was failing. He is able to comprehend the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball and see the unpleasantness of life that was to be in the future. Benjamin's stubbornness and intelligence to be persuaded to enjoy life under Napoleon made him my favorite character.
The best part of the book was the commandments. I thought that the making of commandments served as the grounding for the book. I found it interesting how Napoleon was able to slip through the loop holes of the commandments in order to do what he pleased. The fact that the animals did not oppose Napoleon, even though they had a distinct feeling that he had rearranged them, was unusual. The commandments showed that many power-hungry leaders will change policies and regulations in order to better receive what they want.
Conversely, my least favorite part of the book was the absent-minded animals, who did not assume responsibility for overthrowing their leader. Even after dreading each day's heavy workload and receiving a meager amount of food, the animals did not question the actions of their leader. The killing of fellow animals, sleeping in a warm house, and trading with humans did not even send a slight occurrence of rebellion. If I was one of the animals, I would have tried to overthrow Napoleon, in order to receive a better life for all.
I thought that George Orwell did a fantastic job at writing Animal Farm. Considering the time period it was written, it took a lot of courage to write such a contrasting novel. His ideas on what world would be like without capitalism was very impressive. I enjoyed how Orwell wrote about his feelings towards the world he lived in and how it could be improved.
From reading this book I learned many things. I never knew of the contrasting leader, Trotsky and Stalin. This novel taught me many things such as the Bolshevik revolution and the overthrow of Czar Nicholas. Without reading this novel, I would not know of the past Russian history.
The ending of the book caused a slight disappointment. Orwell's ending seemed to argue that life will never be better than what it is. He writes that the pigs are the same as the cruel human farmers. The frustration that life and government will never become great is a sheer lack of trust of better tomorrow. Although this book is well written, the ending is slightly pessimistic.
Animal Farm was an easy read that was not very confusing. The only trouble a reader may have is relating this novel to Russian history. However, even by having a brief background of the revolution, this novel is straightforward and uncomplicated.
I would certainly recommend this book to a friend. It fairy-tale imagination of pigs running a farm was funny and intriguing. The humor and information in this novel was what made it interesting to read. I believe that no matter the gender, students and adults would enjoy this novel.
Later I would like to read another novel by George Orwell. His humorous content and informative writing caused me to strive to finish the novel. I thought this novel was very well written in the fact that it was very organized. I could easily read Animal Farm without being confuse. If Orwell's other novel is like this one, I would definitely read it.Orwell portrays in this novel, that although Napoleon and the other pigs start out with good intentions, they soon change. The existence of power can cause people to hurt others in order to gain it. Power can corrupt anyone into doing wrong at any moment of time. As George Orwell once said, "On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time."
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Symbolic Classic
Review: A short novel of only 130 page, Animal Farm is not a difficult book to read. George Orwell was well-known for ANIMAL FARM and 1984. The book is very symbolic. You find the revolution of the animals on Manor Farm is a symbol of the Russian Revolution. The book is an example of an allegory and a satire. The book has memorable characters- Boxer the hard working horse symbolizing the Russian people, Napolean the cruel and manipulating leader symbolizing Stalin, Snowball the ambitious and outspoken pig symbolizing Trotsky, and the idealitic Old Major symbolizing Marx. This book is a classic work of literature and is an excellent short novel to read. George Orwell wrote this novel meticulously and put in it criticism and a great deal of thought. A clever book, and a great read. I strongly reccomend it.
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Summary: The History of USSR from 1917 to 1943
Review: It is a misrepresentation that "Animal Farm" is anti-communist. It certainly is anti-stalinist, but it is as much anti-capitalist. It is written from a historical perspective of a trotskyite and even uses common trotskyite terminology, in many cases (representation of Stalin as Napoloen is a very common analogy in Trotsky's works who likened Stalin's usurpation of power to that of Napoleon more than 100 years earlier). The story is not much more than a fable version of Trotsky's "Revolution Betrayed" Also, there are not a lot of meanings to the book. The story line is simple and very predictible, if you know Russian/Soviet history of 1917-1943. The events in the book almost have one-to-one correspondence to what really happened to Russia. Under the leadership of the bolshevik party(pigs) animals(people) depose capitalists (Mr. Jones) and establish the first ever worker's demoracy (Animals' Farm). Then, the deposed leaders attempt to gain the power back by getting capitalist countries - England and France, among others- to invade the newly found Russian Soviet Republic ("Jones and all his men, with half a dozen others from Foxwood and Pinch-field" invade the Animal Farm). However Trotsky/Snowball proves to be very able as Comissar of War and saves the newly found regime. In the impending power struggle Trotsky loses out to Stalin(Napoleon), who goes on to slowly get rid of all the principles on which the USSR (Animal Farm) was founded on. Even the personal characteristics of the two main bolshevik leaders are very accurate, albeit allegoric - "Napoleon was a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker but with a reputation for getting his own way." Stalin was not a good speaker, but had a strong will, and the Bershire is definitely a reference to Stalin's Geogrian Background - he was the only bolshevik leader from Georgia and spoke Russian with heavy accent. Trotsky on the other hand, was the greatest speaker of the Russian Revolution, a brilliant writer, but wasn't suited for intraparty struggles. ("Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.") Orwell also doesnt forget to mention Stalin's ability to amass support behind the scenes - "At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for himself in between times." Orwell describes the events quite meticulously - intraparty struggles, usurpation of power by Napoleon/Stalin, stalinist vilification of Trotsky/Snowball, falsification of history to suit Stalin's goals and to downplay Trotsky's role in defence of the revolution during the Civil War and the Intervention, industrialization (the building of the Windmill), the betrayal of the revolution's ideals, the purges and the stalinist terror by the Stalin's secret police (Napoleon's dogs)- all of them are described and are easily recognizable. The book ends with Napoleon being involved in a dialogue with with humans from the neighbor farms - Mr Pilkington (Churchill) and others. This is probably a reference to the Yalta conference, where Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt forgot their differences and divided spheres of influence. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which". Stalin, a representative of a country that was supposed to have a higher form of government than capitalist democracy is a tyrant, just like leaders of capitalist countries; and for Orwell the only positive (and tragic) character in the book is Snowball/Trotsky.
Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: Animal Farm was an intresting book about how animals take over the humans and run them off of their farm. Even though the book refers to animals, it is very ture about our human nature and how we like to take over and control things. The book was written after World War Two it is very ture in today's world.
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Summary: The Animal Farm---The Story Within
Review: The story of The Animal Farm itself is somewhat out there,but if you read between the lines and aply it to everyday life and look into history for aplications then you can get a special meaning from the book. The characters in this book seemed to come alive, the animals portraied all the different kinds of people you will incounter in life. The leaders,the quiters,the hard workers,and even the fakers. George Orewell used his talents as a great wrighter to speak out against communnism. Comming at the end of WWII, this book gave citizens a new look on communnism and the dictators who run communnist governments.All in all, i enjoyed reading and understanding this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: Animal Farm is an interesting book. You really can't predict the outcome of this story which made me be really attentive.
One of the main charcters, Major, made an important speech about how animals were mistreated and fed just enough to keep them alive. He wanted animals to be free. Once he passes away his ideas begin to happen, only not exactly the way he planned.
The animals work hard and a certain leader bends all the original "rules."
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Summary: Gives a Good Understanding of How Life was With Dictators!
Review: Napolean is a dictator who was a lot like some of our terroists of to day, and how they get followers. I think it shows how inhumane dictators are. I also think it shows in more ways then one that dictators take and don't give anything back to their followers.The followers are always loyal and don't realize the dictator would eat better then them or if they were starving they wouldn't eat but, there leader would. That is why this book gives such a good understanding of it all!
Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: The Animal Farm was a very interesting book written by George Orwell. If you didn't pay attention closely you could miss something important. The book was held at the end of World War 2 at a farm. The farm contained many walking and talking animals using personification. This book was very entertaining and amusing.
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Summary: Animal Farm By: Meagan Frye
Review: Animal Farm, a very intriguing novel by George Orwell, is one that I highly suggest to anyone who wants to read such a meaningful book. In an essence, it represents our world in the early 1940's, when World War II was in full swing. In this book, animals represent different human charcters and different characteristics people exhibit through their actions of war and tyranny. Napoleon, the pig that overthrew Snowball, symbolizes a dictator and represents a sort of dictatorship, like Adolf Hitler. Napoleon has a way, like Hitler, to brainwash his people to think he is the best. This book really got my wheels turning. This is an outstanding book for anyone who chooses to read it, so why are you waiting? Go read it today!
Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: The animal Farm was an incredible book. I liked it alot except for the animals drinking and smoking. It had great personification. I liked the way they all worked together and did their jobs. I think that they worked hard to get what they got and they deserved it. It will be read by everyone and enjoyed one day.
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