Book Review 2 - Animal Farm

Here is book review number two, about the story Animal Farm. I first got to know this book when my English teacher introduced it in class. I must say that my teacher has really introduced the right book! It is really interesting despite it having only 89 pages.

The first few pages of the book highlights the cruelty in which man treat their animals with. " Now comrades what is the nature of this life of ours ? Let us face it : our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born , we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us that are of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength ; and the instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty" This is one such part that shows the cruelty of man. For farmers out there , this might be an insult to you but remember after all this is just a story.

With evil deeds done , there is sure to be some kind of revenge. And that is where the conflict starts. So the animals planned their attack. When the planning was done , they carried out the plan. After just a few minutes of struggle, all the farmers surrendered and were seen running for their lives. Victory. Sweet victory.

Now that the humans are all gone, the farm was now theirs. The animals had to run the farm on their own. So like in the human world, there were laws being passed. Here they are:

1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy


2. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend


3. No animal shall wear clothes


4. No animal shall sleep on a bed


5. No animal shall drink alcohol


6. No animal shall kill any other animal


7. All animals are equal

The name of the farm was also changed from Manor Farm to Animal Farm. To run the farm is like running a country. You will have to have some people who are able to organise things for the farm. This job was given to the pig as they were able to read and write. Education was also given to animals. They learnt basic English. The classes were a success and by autumn, almost every animal in the farm was literate in some degree. The pigs, dogs and goats were able to read properly while Clover learnt the whole alphabet but could not put them together to form words. The horses could only remember A B C D of all the alphabets.

The farmers were angry that their farm was being taken away from them and wanted revenge. So in early October, they launched their attack. But the animals were still too strong for them and the battle is lost almost immediately and one farmer was being killed. After the battle, the animals reassembled in the wildest excitement, each recounting his own exploits in the battle at the top of his voice. An impromptu celebration of the victory was held. Then the sheep that had died in the battle was given a solemn funeral.

In January of the next year, many meetings were held in the barn. Many different suggestions were being brought up there. Two animals were on constant disagreement with each other. They are Snowball the pig and Napoleon the boar. Each had his own following and violent debates happened. Then one day, Snowball suggested that a windmill could be built in the farm. He mentioned that the windmill when attached with a dynamo was able to supply the farm with electricity and this could be used to run machines that could reduce the work load of the animals. As usual, Napoleon disagreed. When the day of the voting whether the windmill should be carried out took place, Snowball gave a speech that won over Napoleon's. Napoleon casted a peculiar side long look at Snowball and uttered a high pitched whimper . Then large fierce dogs came charging towards Snowball. The dogs chased him out of the farm and was seen no more. Snowball was expelled.

It was later known that the plans of building a windmill was originally Napoleon's and that Snowball took this idea to gain the popularity of the rest of the animals. Snowball had also been in contact with farmers from neighbouring farms and thus he was a dangeruos person and a bad infuence. Now that Snowball was out of the way, the windmill plan was carried on. Nepoleon then became the leader of the farm.

Given Snowball's evil character, there is sure to be revenge. These happened quite frequently. One of the things that he did was to destroy the half completed windmill. This caudes heart ache in many animals as it took them much pain and sweat to build it up. After some acts of revenge from Snowball, Napoleon made a rule that anyone who had been in touch with Snowball was to be punished by death. Soon, several animals were being punished.

After a period of time, the farmers came back to Animal Farm, determined to get their farm back . This time there were fifteen of them. Six with guns.The battle was hard and there were more deaths. In the end, the animals still won. After losing this battle, the farmers had given up fully. They had even made peace with the animals.

This story ended with the farmers attending the ' open house' of the animals' farm. There , the animals played cards and drank with the human and showed them every part of their farm. Napoleon also announced that the farm shall be called Manor Farm once again.

This story strongly highlights the things that happen in a government . There are those government officials that are corrupted and bad while there are also those that are good and does things for the sake of his people.