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.