Animal Farm and Related Readings

Rating:
Summary: Historical Pigs
Review: It's a story of a farm where the animals make a revolution against their master and overtake the farm. At the beginning everything is fine and all animals are equal, but then the pigs take the control over the others. Gradually it becomes worse and worse. The animals have to work the whole day and a few of them die. The pigs lead a good life and the others suffer. But the animals can't defend themselves against the pigs and so the pigs keep the power. The book allows a lot of interpretations. The situation reminds to the historical period of communism in Russia with Stalin etc. People who are interested in history should read this book and build their own opinion. If you are not interested in history or politics you should prefer another book or just read it because of the animals. (There is also a funny film). We personally did not really like the story, maybe we should have had more time to read it.

Rating:
Summary: A modern fable
Review: This book is a very good allegory of the happenings during the Second World War. All the cruelty and the cheating of the Soviet Union is shown in a special way. Animals stand for human beings, it is a modern fable. George Orwell has managed the happenings in a very interesting way and shows the bad things very exactly, so that everyone can understand it, but what the person make with this information is his own problem, you can just say, well it is a nice animal story or you can learn from the story and interpret it. I think people who doesn't like the book, hasn't really understood the story.

Rating:
Summary: Beastly introduction into Communism
Review: To adapt a historical political subject on the world of animals is actually a great idea, which G. Orwell realised in a quite funny and interesting way, but still the story didn't blow my head off, just because it was nothing new to me at all (we just had socialism in history when we read the book and we actually went into it far deeper than Orwell does in his book). For people who don't know that much about the whole thing Animal Farm is a great chance to learn something about Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotzki and their ways of thinking and acting, but not to be only amused.

Rating:
Summary: Instructive and entertaining
Review: George Orwell has written a very interesting story. I like the idea of how he managed to transform the actual Russian story into a fictional story with animals. the film made to the book is funny to watch and entertaining but unfortunately the book doesn't always agree with the film version. The book can be recommended and also the film version. Whoever watches the film should read the book first though in order to learn the real facts.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Pigs
Review: I enjoyed reading this book because it shows very good the political, industrial and economical situation in Russia in the beginning of Communism. It's a story about a farm with animals. The animals try to free themselves from the cruel and unfair human beings. In the Russian history, the human beings represent the so called capitalists, while the animals are the communists. During the story, the animals try to create a state where everyone is equal and free and where no one has to be hungry. But exactly like in Russian history, there are always people who think that they are superior (or even are), and consequently try to dominate and oppress the others. In Animal Farm, these superior beings are the pigs, who, at the end, behave like there former enemies. So you could say that at the end, the situation for the animals (except from the pigs) isn't better at all, it's even worse! This development is also to be seen in Russian history! That's why I like this story, because it's kind of authentic!

Rating:
Summary: A political novel.
Review: The story begins when the animals in Manor Farm stage a rebellion after a rousing speech from Major, a very respected boar in the farm. They chase their human master, Mr. Jones, away and begin to run the farm themselves. At first, all are happy. After Mr. Jones has gone, the animals believe they now own the farm collectively and that they are all equal. The Seven Commandments is soon set up. Among the commandments are "no animal shall kill another animal", "all animals are equal" and "whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy". It is soon decided that the pigs are the most intelligent, and shall be the ones who rule the whole farm. Among the pigs, two leaders emerge - Snowball and Napoleon. Problem arises when Snowball and Napoleon disagree on the plan to build a windmill on the farm. Snowball, a talented speaker, easily gains support. But unfortunately for him, Napoleon plays dirty and Snowball is chased away from the farm. From here, everything in the farm starts to change. I don't want to reveal the rest of the story, but I think this book is worth reading. Orwell gives very lively description of the whole story which have a good effect to the reader.

Rating:
Summary: Very good exposition of history
Review: We give this book four stars because it contains many true elements of history and illustrates them cleverly using animals. Since we have just spoken about USSR in our history class we found it interesting to recognise the parallels between the characters of certain animals in the book and the real historical figures. Old Major, for example, stands for Marx and Napoleon for Stalin (whereas his megalomania is already contained in his name). What we further like about the book is, that the development of the farm with it's inhabitants is realistic. The film, on the other hand, ends unrealistic. A revolution would never have been possible at that time, because the leaders were too strong.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable class reader
Review: I enjoyed reading the Novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. I like the Idea to show the past in a totally different way: animals representing (dangerous) people from the past. At the beginning it was difficult to find out which animal "belongs" to which person. It's odd how people (animals) develop and react when the get the chance of possessing the power. The result of it may turn out very horrible and cruel. The reader is unsatisfied at the end because there is no happy ending; the pigs start to walk on two legs, the become more and more like human beings.

Rating:
Summary: Communism explained with animals
Review: I liked this book because it was a very interesting book to read. I even learned much about Communism. I find that it's a very good idea to write a book about Communism, in a way that it's not too difficult to understand the important things. It's something special to write a political story with animals. And that's what I liked, because it's very easy to understand. Sometimes, it was very hard to read this book, for example when old major and boxer are killed. But that's how real life is.

Rating:
Summary: A good insight into history
Review: I liked the book a lot because it's very entertaining and it gives you a lot of background information on Russia's past. "Animal Farm" is easily written and it's a book you can read within about two hours and that fact encourages a lot of students, I can imagine. Unfortunately there's no happy ending for the Russian population, neither for the working animals in the book, a fact that makes the reader think about humanity. It's also very entertaining, especially the way the animals are describes and how they communicate.