QUESTION 1-Animal Farm

What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The theme of this novel is the corruption of socialist ideals. The pig, Napoleon, builds socialist government after chasing Jones out of the Manor Farm. Napoleon gets to grab the political power in their new farm, Animal Farm. At first, every animal seemed to like the idea of ruling the farm themselves, but as the time passed, the pigs were ruling the farm because they were the smartest. Pigs made the rules which are privilege to them, for example they make rules like pigs don’t have to do labor and can wake up an hour late. Squealer, another pig who follows Napoleon, explains really well to the animals why the pigs have the special rights to do things which other animals can’t do and since other animals are not that smart, they believe it as they were told. The privileges of the pigs get too extreme later for the other animals to handle. This theme is important to teenagers living in 2007 because this novel shows that we should choose a leader and be a leader who can really care for us and do things which can benefit his/her citizens. If the teenagers, who are going to lead our world years later, become to be like Napoleon or the other animals who are following him without any thoughts, it would certainly be a dystopia. Since we are the ones who are going to lead our world, we should try to make our world a utopia, not like the Animal Farm.

QUESTION 2-Animal Farm

Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

George Orwell wrote this novel to criticize Soviet Union so it should be similar to Russian revolution. It isn’t that current, but it is the closest situation which happened to Animal Farm. When I was reading this novel, the story was so similar to the Russian revolution. The personalities of each character were alike to people in Russian revolution. The rebellion of the animals is also similar to North Korea right now. The leader of North Korea is dictating and the citizens are painful from it. The pigs are having all advantages such as eating more, working less, sleeping in beds, changing the rules, and etc. But the animals like horses, sheep, chickens, and ducks are suffering from starvation. The animals are only relying on Napoleon to improve their life better than before but Napoleon doesn’t care about that. In North Korea, the high classes have lots of money and are very rich but the many citizens are starving to death. Same as the animals, the citizens are hoping that their country would get better at any time, but it’s not going the way they are hoping it to be.
I think the novel is not shedding any light on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed” because of the ending of the book. The book ends by showing Napoleon and other farmers fighting over a card game and it is said that they could not be defined of who is animal and who is not. The book doesn’t show whether the other animals stood against the pigs or they kept on following them.

QUESTION 3-Animal Farm

Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

The main characters are:
Napoleon-He leads the revolution with his counterpart Snowball. He uses dogs to force the other animals to follow them, and the dogs tried to kill Snowball when he was making an important speech.
Snowball-He was challenging Napoleon over the control of the farm. Snowball was really trying to make the farm better than the Jones’ time but it was interfered by Napoleon.
Jones-Jones was the former owner of the Animal Farm. He often forgot about giving food to the animals and all of the animals didn’t like Jones. The animals felt like they were slaves of Jones.
Squealer-Squealer is very good at speaking and persuading other animals. He is a pig who always explains to the animals how Napoleon is mighty and the animals believe it.
Boxer-He is the strongest animal in the farm and is very sincere. The fault of this horse was that he was dumb. Boxer said that Napoleon was always right and he would do anything if Napoleon told him to do. The other thing Boxer liked to say was that he would work more hard. At the end he dies because Napoleon sent him away when Boxer was wounded from the Battle of the Windmill.
I liked Boxer the best out of all the characters in the book. But when he kept on working and working when he was injured, I felt so bad and concerned for him. It was so sad when Boxer died when he knew that Napoleon was going to fix him and I hated Napoleon for killing Boxer. But I think all of the animals are special in a way that they actually tried to live for themselves when animals in other farms didn’t do anything. The animals are revealing the corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union which is the theme for this novel.

QUESTION 4-Animal Farm

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

It was a little bit hard for me to find the climax of this novel since there were many events that could be thought as the climax. But overall, I think the climax is when the pigs learn how to walk and dress like a real human. Clover first discovers Squealer walking with only his hind legs and she freaks out after seeing it. Even I would have fainted after seeing that sight. I think Orwell tried to describe how their new leader was turning like the former one, but worse, by walking like a human and carrying a whip. Even at the end of the book it says that it couldn’t be disguised who is a pig and who is a human. When Napoleon and other pigs were playing cards with the other farmers, Napoleon said to them the farm’s name wasn’t Animal Farm, instead he told them it would be Manor Farm. It would mean that there was no revolution or Animalism at all. I was surprised how a pig -well, Orwell probably was using metaphor, but still-go blind because of power. The other animals were only trusting Napoleon but they heard what he said and they should have felt being hit on the head. At the scene where Clover and other animals see that Napoleon brought human visitors and overhear what they are saying, I felt so bad for them because, as I said before, that was the part when the animals figured out that Napoleon didn’t care about them.

QUESTION 5-Animal Farm

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? Why?

The mood taken altogether from the book is tragedy, empty, tense, and menace. The whole story is filled with irony and bitter sarcasm. When I was reading this book, the tense of the mood was at peak when Napoleon makes the dogs kill the animals that have been in touch with Snowball. It was so gross and disgusting when it was expressed that the dead animal bodies were piled up in the barn and the blood was splattered all over. This part was the most depressing part of the book and I did feel sad when reading it. I thought that the animals who confessed that they had been meeting Snowball were so stupid. I still wonder why they confessed even when they new they were going to get killed. If I were them, I would never tell Napoleon that I was meeting Snowball. I was more sad because the animals couldn’t do anything about Napoleon killing their friends, and the remaining animals had to just watch them getting killed. I think the animals didn’t do anything about Napoleon either because they were too scared or too stupid to think what is right and what is wrong. The scene when the pigs were actually walking like humans was so sarcastic and disgusting but also funny. This part wasn’t that tense as the scene before but it had many meanings inside it. I hope there would be no situation like pigs walking or animals ruling their farm on their own in our world.

QUESTION 6-Animal Farm

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was a though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything-in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticizing, no matter what happened-they might have uttered some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-
“Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better!”
-from page 132, Animal Farm
This is the passage when the pigs walk with their two legs and the animals are terrified. I wondered how they learned to walk like that. The sheep were very supportive to Napoleon but they weren’t that smart so Napoleon made them memorized “four legs good, two legs bad!” at first when they established Animal Farm. At first, even Napoleon thought that all animals were equal but as the time passed, Napoleon got the taste of power and thought he was different from other animals. When the pigs decided to be like humans, the quote “four legs good, two legs bad” should have been a little distraction because it would mean that when they walk with two legs, they were bad. So the pigs taught the sheep the fixed quote, “four legs good, two legs better!” Seemingly, the pigs said that all animals were equal but in the inside they regarded themselves as the high classes. In the beginning, the animal farm had 7 commandments and the last one said that all animals were equal, but later Napoleon erases all of the 7 commandments and there were only one commandment left: all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. From these passages, I can see that the original intentions of the pigs were changing in a bad way.

QUESTION 7-Animal Farm

Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? Or disturbing? Or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

The setting which was found to be disturbing was the yard where the execution was held. One of the 7 commandments was that no animal shall kill any other animal, but Napoleon ignored it even though he made it. Later the animals noticed that that commandment had been changed by Napoleon to no animal shall kill any other animal without cause. I think this was so unfair to other animals in the farm. If the pigs made the commandments they should try to maintain the rules more than other animals but instead they changed it whenever they broke the rule. When the animals held the execution, I was surprised that many animals were in touch with Snowball but I wondered why they didn’t do anything like run away from the farm or resist to the pigs. This setting was meaningful, not in a good way, but it was the beginning of the dictatorship of Napoleon.
To the contrary the scene after the execution was described very beautifully. When the animals came back, they all sat next to Clover and stared at the sight of their farm. It was described like this: the long pasture stretching down to the main road, the hayfield, the spinney, the drinking pool, the ploughed fields where the young wheat was thick and green, and the red roofs of the farm buildings with the smoke curling from the chimneys. It was such a paradox showing a beautiful view of the farm after the brutal kills. This scene was meaningful because it showed that cruel things could happen with the background of a beautiful farm.

QUESTION 8-Animal Farm

Entry of your choice.

Comparing characters from Animal Farm & Russian Revolution:

Revolution of the Animals/Russian Revolution
The animals thought the rebellion would make their life better than the Jones’ time. But to the contrary, it got worse than Jones’ time. Animals thought the leader, comrade Napoleon, would do much better than Jones but it got worse at Napoleon’s time. It was the same at the Russian revolution time. Stalin became a leader to make the country better but instead, he was a tyrant and it seemed that the leader before him, Czar, looked like a nice guy. So the rebellion of the animals and the Russian revolution wasn’t that successful.
Napoleon/Stalin
Napoleon wasn’t that smart as his rival Snowball. He was very cruel and selfish. He didn’t become a leader to lead the other animals to make a better place to live but to have power. He killed animals who betrayed him with his dogs. Stalin was a tyrant, too. He killed people that opposed him and also he killed people even though they didn’t do anything. He was mad for power and he stepped on his rival Trotsky.
Snowball/Trotsky
Snowball was the smartest animal in the farm and he tried to make the life of animals better than it had been before. But Napoleon restrained him and tried to kill Snowball with his brainwashed dogs. Trotsky was also a pure communist and wanted to improve Russia but Stalin didn’t let him.
Old Major/Karl Marx
Before Old Major died, he told the animals to rebel against Jones and he was the pig who taught Animalism to other animals in the farm. And Karl Marx was the person who invented Communism.
Jones/Czar
Jones didn’t care about his animals. He didn’t give them food to eat. Jones was very irresolute man; he was sometimes good to his animals, but sometimes bad to them. Similar to Jones, Czar was sometimes good and sometimes bad.

QUESTION 1-Fahrenheit 451

What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

The theme of this book is the conflict between knowledge and ignorance. In Montag’s world it is forbidden to read any books because books are regarded as unhappiness for the people in the society. The people started throwing away books when presenting information in a quickly digestible, visual form became possible by televisions or radios. Therefore people naturally stopped reading books and it became a pressure for a book to be easier to read. People began to pursue only instant pleasure so there was no need for books for that reason; firemen became a job to burn books. Even though Montag was a fireman, he kept stealing books from other houses and hid it in his house. When Montag finally read the books, he figured out that burning books wasn’t right and he wanted to spread the books remaining to other people and wanted to make them understand what is true. But the society and the firemen try to stop Montag from running away with books. In this novel, Montag is seeking for knowledge, but the society is preventing Montag and others from it.
The theme of Fahrenheit 451 is important to the teenagers living today to encourage them to have passion for learning and reading. Many teenagers, but not all, only chase instant pleasure which can lead them to tragedies. In the book, because they only seek pleasure, there were no humanity and reality between people and also they were unconcerned by others near them. These cold indifferences could lead our society to an end.

QUESTION 2-Fahrenheit 451

Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

The similar situation to this novel, Fahrenheit 451, is the North Korea’s policy to their citizens. The president of North Korea isolates his country in order to keep his political power in North Korea. Because of him, the North Koreans are cut off from the communications with the other countries. The government keeps their citizens out from reading other countries’ books and to contact with them because they are afraid that the citizens might become aware of their country’s wrong policy and resist to the government.
The North Korea’s policy relates to the futuristic world in Fahrenheit 451 by banning books which they think is “harmful” to their society. The North Korean defectors would be similar to Guy Montag in a way that they tried to live in a better condition and think for themselves freely without someone restricting them. Also the North Korea’s government would be the firemen and policemen who are trying to stop people from reading books in the novel.
In the novel, it ends by having a war and the society being destroyed so I can’t say that this novel sheds any light on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed” but I think we can get a hint from the novel. Just like Montag, we should have courage and be brave enough to stand out for our own thoughts about what is right and what is wrong even though a large majority of people are against us. That way I think we can make our world better by thinking creatively without limits.

QUESTION 3-Fahrenheit 451

Who are the main characters in the novel? Do you like them? Why or why not? What is special about them? What do they reveal about the universal human experience?

The main characters are; Guy Montag, Mildred, Captain Beatty, Faber, and Clarisse.

Guy Montag- Montag was a fireman in the beginning of this story and he thought he was actually happy and enjoyed his life. But he suddenly finds out the emptiness he is in and he tries to fix it by trying to find the solution from the books he stole which was supposed to be burnt. Montag is really special in a way that he tried to get out of his ignorance while the other people in the country just sat in their couch watching their televisions, not even thinking of what is the true meaning of their life. Montag is my favorite character in this book because even though he did not have enough strength to change things in the society for himself, he tried to make things better even so many people were against him. I think he symbolizes justice in his and our world.
Mildred Montag- Montag’s wife Mildred, is obsessed with watching televisions so much. She committed suicide by taking sleeping pills but she denied it. Mildred does not think deeply and does not want to talk seriously. She has no affections for Montag and later she betrays him by putting on the alarm.
Captain Beatty- Captain Beatty explains about history of firemen and why the books were banned form the society. Beatty himself has a lot of knowledge about books but he hates books and enjoys burning it. Later he is killed by Montag.
Professor Faber- Faber is a retired professor and he met Montag in a park at night. He really values books but doesn’t have courage to stand up for his thoughts. When Montag first asked Faber to help him, he refuses Montag but later he decides to help him by telling him what to do. Although he decided to help Montag, he was still not brave enough to fight with the firemen directly. Faber reveals the typical coward because although he new that burning books wasn’t right, he didn’t do anything about it unlike Montag.

QUESTION 4-Fahrenheit 451

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering mannikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him. There was a hiss like a great mouthful of spittle banging a red-hot stove, a bubbling and frothing as if salt had been poured over a monstrous black snail to cause a terrible liquefaction and a boiling over of yellow foam. Montag shut his eyes, shouted, shouted, and fought to get his hands at his ears to clamp and to cut away the sound. Beatty flopped over and over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent.
-from page 119, Fahrenheit 451

The climax of this novel starts when Mildred turned on the alarm and the firemen including Montag came to his own house to burn the books. At first, Montag didn’t know that his house’s alarm went on but he notices it when the salamander arrives to his house and when he sees Mildred going out from her house with bags. Beatty told Montag to burn his own house and after when Montag did it, he burns Beatty too. Montag himself was so shocked after he had thought what he had just done. When he heard the police coming, he pulls himself together and runs away from his house to nowhere. He later realizes that he was running towards Faber.
I was really surprised when Montag killed Beatty because I thought Montag would never do such a thing. I think Montag could have gotten away from Beatty without choosing a extreme way to kill him.

QUESTION 5-Fahrenheit 451

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you in any way? Why?

The mood of this novel changes through the scenes but the main mood is very disoriented, menacing, tense, and depressing. The mood enhances when it comes to the climax of the novel, when Montag kills his captain. I think the elements which make the mood overall depressing and tense are because Montag is doing what he is not supposed to do and later he is on a run; so the story stimulates the readers to be strained. But in the beginning of the book when Montag met Clarisse, it felt mystique and a little bit of disharmonious because there were two people who were very different from each other, talking about their life.
This novel is a futuristic novel of United States, so it means that it could actually happen, not to us, but later in the future when our descendants would be living. When I thought of this concept, it made me sadden because it would be crazy to live in a world like in Fahrenheit 451. In this novel, everything is so harsh and it is a tough world to live in. I could see it really harsh when Clarisse said that the sign board of the stores were getting longer and longer because everyone is driving a car so fast that they can’t see the signboard if it’s too small since they go pass the stores so fast. Montag’s world was lack of conversations and they didn’t even care for their own family. One of Mildred’s friends, Mrs. Phelps, said that her husband is in the army and there is going to be a quick war but Mrs. Phelps told them that she isn’t worried about her husband. If a time this cold like Montag’s world comes, it would be a big problem for people to face.

QUESTION 6-Fahrenheit 451

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“Faber?”
“Yes?”
“I’m not thinking. I’m just doing like I’m told, like always. You said get the money and I got it. I didn’t really think of it myself. When do I start working things out on my own?”
“You’ve started already, by saving what you just said. You’ll have to take me on faith.”
“I took the others on faith!”
“Yes, and look where we’re headed. You’ll have to travel blind for a while. Here’s my arm to hold onto.”
“I don’t want to change sides and just be told what to do. There’s no reason to change if I do that.”
“You’re wise already!”
-from page 92, Fahrenheit 451

In this novel, most of the people who live in this time are simple-minded. They only think what they want to think and do only things which please them. They do not think deeply enough to know what they are doing and what they are doing for. Montag was like that, too. He did not question himself why he burns books for his job. He only did things what he was told to do. This passage is very meaningful in a way that Montag learned that he has to think for himself and do what his own mind tells him to do, or else, reading books and spreading it to other people would mean nothing.
This passage was very significant to me because I saw love and true friendship between Montag and Faber. It was hard to see kind feelings for each other in this book since the people were so cold and careless to each other. I think in this passage, Montag found out about true meaning of life. He found out that following what other people said to him wasn’t the meaning of life; at least he didn’t want to live that way. I could see in this passage that Montag’s thinking improved since the beginning of the book when he thought he was happy and was satisfied with his life.

QUESTION 7-Fahrenheit 451

Are there any settings in this novel which you have found to be beautiful? Or disturbing? Or memorable? Describe these settings and comment on why they were meaningful to you.

“What have you got there?” he said.
“I guess it’s the last dandelions this year. I didn’t think I’d find one on the lawn this late. Have you ever heard of rubbing it under your chin? Look.” She touched her chin with the flower, laughing.
“Why?”
“If it rubs off, it means I’m in love. Has it?”
He could hardly do anything else but look.
“Well?” she said.
“You’re yellow under there.”
“Fine! Let’s try you now.”
“It won’t work for me.”
“Here.” Before he could move she had put the dandelion under his chin. He drew back and she laughed. “Hold still!”
She peered under his chin and frowned.
“Well?” she said.
“What a shame,” she said. “You’re not in love with anyone.”
“Yes, I am!”
“It doesn’t show.”
“I am, very much in love!” He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face. “I am!”
-from page 22, Fahrenheit 451

The setting which I have found most beautiful is the sidewalk where Montag and Clarisse used to meet to talk to each other and have conversations. The passage above was the most beautiful but simultaneously it was criticizing Montag’s love for Mildred. I liked the sidewalk setting because it was when Montag had a time to think deeply with Clarisse asking innocently about his life. When I was reading the part when those two were in the sidewalk talking together, it made me feel really comfortable because there were no lies and there talk was very humble.

The most disturbing setting in this novel was the parlor where there were 3 televisions which Mildred calls them “families.” The parlor was always noisy because Mildred turned them on most of the time; in addition there were 3 televisions on at the same time. Montag didn’t like the parlor families either, because he thought the televisions gave nothing but only light pleasure. But the parlor and the 3 televisions were the most important things to Mildred, even more than her husband. Mildred wanted another television so she could have one for each walls and ultimately she would be trapped inside a room with television walls. She would talk with her friends only about what was on TV the previous night.

QEUSTION 8-Fahrenheit 451

Entry of your choice.

I think this book was especially harder to read because of the symbols, paradoxes, and metaphor used in the novel so I tried to find some of the symbols, paradoxes and metaphors that are used in this book.
“Not empty” but “Indeed empty”- In the beginning of the book, Bradbury says the room was not empty at first by indeed empty. Mildred was lying in the bed but the author said it was empty because she had taken almost a bottle of sleeping pills and she was almost dead. I think the author was trying to explain the emptiness in Montag’s world.
The Hearth and the Salamander- This was the title of the first chapter in this novel. Hearth is the floor of the fireplace and the ancient people believed that salamander lived in fire. These two are symbolizing fire which is very important in this novel since Montag was a fireman and fire destroyed knowledge which Montag was seeking.
The Sieve and the Sand- In the book, the author tells a story about the sieve and the sand. When Montag was young, a cousin of his told Montag to fill the sieve with the sand and if Montag does, the cousin would give him a dime. Montag tried to fill the sieve, but the faster he tried, the faster the sieve was empty. There is no way that a sieve can be filled with sand. When Montag figured that he could never do it, he cried. Montag thinks the sieve and the sand is similar to the Bible. If he tried to read the Bible faster, there could be some left, but the details would fall through the sieve. This metaphor is telling how we can’t achieve something very instantly.
The Phoenix- Granger said phoenix was similar to the war they had. The phoenix destroys itself after a few hundred years. From this passage, we can predict that the world would be rebuilt like the phoenix after being destroyed.