Animal Farm) Question 8

*Blog Entry of your choice:
What are the things that you did learn from Animal Farm? How does it apply to your life?

At first, I was very happy to read this book, because I wanted to know the story I think the reasons were that I didn’t know much about politic parts, and usually I was not interested in politic-related topics. However, this book was about Russian Revolution but in fact, can be any situation. It introduced me into the world of politics, that I had never paid attention. As I mentioned in the part of previous blog, I learned what makes a leader and how you need to use your power to make better life. This book also gave me chance to think about the world we live.
This story shows us a lot about our life. In the beginning the rebellions have common goals and ideals, but after some time it changes. This book also tells the story of the Russian Revolution of 1918. There the same development took place in the years after the initial changes.
This book had touched me in a strange way. I am afraid that this will happen once more, that some intelligent, bad people will triumph.


For the last comment about blogging itself, reading the novel and writing a journal is a hard task and sometimes I get annoyed, but I think it really helps me to understand the book better. Hopefully this will be applied to everyone. While I am doing it, I get to explore into the book, and trying to find the meaning, and it is the purpose of the assignment.

Animal Farm) Question 7

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 story takes place on a farm in England in the first half of the 20th century. I found the memorable setting that is close to the ending part of the book, and relate to the question five and six. The setting I chose is described, when the deputation of neighboring farmers was invited to the Animal Farm and they looked around there. Then they were drinking wine in the table. The setting I picked is viewed from the animals that followed up with wonder to see the inside the house. So these animals are outside of house and looking at the inside. This setting is memorable to me because I feel warm and comfortable like the way I came to home when I imagined (like these animals see) talks of roar between the men, I feel warm and comfortable. To explain it clearly, the mood of the overall novel was strict, cold, but it was the first time I felt warm and comfortable. Maybe it is because this is close to the ending. So I feel the way of exciting and comfortable and warm because I am almost finishing the book…haha.
In addition, the major settings in this novel are windmill and the animal farm. When I see the common windmill and animal farm, they look peaceful, and friendly like my grandmother’s house. But in the novel, the moods in the setting are not really peaceful, there are strict rules that other animals must follow, and pigs are inspecting.

Animal Farm) Question 6

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

I found the passage that is significant to me in the very last sentence of the story.

“There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? …Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three……Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

This is the passage that mostly shows the purpose of writing this book. The purpose of writing, he tried to show our human nature by putting animals as the characters instead of human. In fact, after I read this quote, I could get the purpose of writing of the book. He directly gave us clue pigs and human looked similar. Animals described in the book displayed human ourselves and vice versa. Also in this passage, these pigs or humans are laughing and cheering, and shouting. The figures illustrated here are violent, but kind of friendly.
This passage is visual. I can imagine the whole scene obviously in my brain.

The one thing I don’t understand in this quote is when the author talks about number of chins. What does that mean…? Or is it just description of facial expression?

Animal Farm) Question 5

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

The story of Animal Farm is told over the point of view of the common animals. From the most part, the mood of the novel is described in a way of objective, stating outer facts and rarely expressing emotions. There are emotions of anger, enthusiasm, and so on. I could easily find these emotions when I was reading. There is no freedom at all. The animals had to work even though they don’t like it. The overall mood is being one tension. I feel tight the way when I wore small clothes. On the other hand, though this novel is not containing many emotions, I found myself it saddens me anyway. It is when Boxer died. He was the favorite character in this story. He died because of betrayed pigs. Boxer is old but he is patient and clever. The pigs just sent him to the glue factory to be slaughtered. His famous saying, “I will work harder,” and “Napoleon is always right,” made me to think he is clever and patient.
He tried to work harder and believe in Napoleon until right before he died.

The description of the humanity portrayed throughout the book is severely evil. I am sad because the way our society is like this. The animals had full of hope toward their future at the beginning; it’s shown when they were singing ‘Beasts of England.’ Nevertheless, they lost hope as Napoleon conquers the Animal Farm. I feel I am lucky because I live in the rule of democracy, not communist. I am free to go to another country, free to study, free to do things. How lucky am I!

Animal Farm) Question 4

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

I don’t feel I found an accurate climax of the story, but I guess climax begins after Snowball is kicked out from the Animal Farm and some animals are executed because Napoleon made them to confess at the Battle of the Cowshed. The climax is in chapter 8, happens when the battle with Frederick taken place in the Animal Farm. At this moment, the opponent destroyed the windmill and animals were angry. So the animals attacked the opponent almost crazily. The nine dogs of Napoleon barked to the humans and these human ran away. Animals had won the victory. The Squealer said they are going to rebuild the windmill, he thought a matter of winning the fight was important than the windmill was damaged (I think it is because he didn’t work to build the windmill, he just gave orders. So he didn’t know how hard the animals worked to build the windmill for last year). However, the animals were exhausted and injured; some of them were died in the fighting. They were disappointed when they saw that windmill was destroyed. What I noticed in the climax is that the destruction of windmill represents the destruction of faith in this society. The whole story of novel doesn’t describe detail things, but I think the next chapter after the climax, the animal seemed to be reluctant to work for the farm and they ran a lack of food, money to rebuild the windmill. So I could see the animals lost the faith to finish the achievement.

Animal Farm) Question 3

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 in the novel are Napoleon, Snowball, Boxer, and Squealer. I will describe each character by their role in the novel and what do they represent in our society each character’s special features and whether I like them or not.

Napoleon: He is a direct model of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator. He uses military force, which is his attack dogs, to threat other animals. He seems to not show any interest in the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his power over it. The only thing he does with enthusiasm is training dogs. He doesn’t teach them for their own good or for everyone, but rather for his own good. Also I dislike Napoleon based on these qualities.

Snowball: The pig who challenges Napoleon for control of power of Animal Farm. As a character of Leon Trotsky, Snowball is clever, ambitious, and less cunning than Napoleon. When his zealous projects such as building the windmill was informed, he seems to get the allegiance of the other animals. However, this too much idealistic imagination leads him to the corruption of position where Napoleon will be standing later on the story. If I would have chance to choose a leader between Napoleon and Snowball, I would rather choose Snowball.

Boxer: He is a huge horse and described the most sympathetically in the novel. He has a strong faith to Napoleon. When he pitifully dies, it was a result of pigs’ betrayal. I felt so sad when he died at a glue factory, because I thought he was the only one who can really work for the Animal Farm. I hardly found Boxer as a favorite character (because the characters were described very outward features). I think this was the symbolism how this kind of class in society lives; the author uses Boxer to represent working classes.

Squealer: A very clever pig, who always announces to the other animals everything Napoleon wants him to tell. I don’t like Squealer because he always obeys to Napoleon’s order, I want to know if he really obeys his leader inside of him or if he is just pretending to be obey.

Animal Farm) Question 2

Are there 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"?

Anyone who read Animal Farm certainly gets to know that the story is satirized from Russian Revolution. In the nowadays, North Korea has a connection with this situation based on the basic elements that made up this novel. From now on, let me discover some similarities for both government systems: Soviet Union and North Korea. First of all, both countries have a communist government system. The dictator Kim Jung-Il has a power to control the country. Also in the novel, Napoleon, who can symbolize as Stalin, controls the entire Animal Farm. On the other hand, they have in common when they take crops that people had gained by working terribly hard. In North Korea, thousands of people are dying of hunger even right now. But the government doesn’t seem to care about it at all. This situation makes me to think of a passage that I had read from book (Kareel, Jamison. Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. FL: HCI Teens, 1997. p.1): ‘All kinds of relationships are like sand in your hand. If you hold loosely, the sand remains where it is. But if you close your hand and squeeze tightly, you will loose some of sand. A relationship is like that.’ This quote exactly applies to current events in the world, actually applies to anytime and anywhere in the world. According to this passage, the author of Animal Farm wanted to give the message the readers about power. If you hold too tightly your power, you will loose it, and eventually it can cause to bring corruption. Also North Korea was famous in the recent time, for it the issues of nuclear weapon whether to use it or not. It had made other countries nervous and they threatened by nuclear weapon. It is like Napoleon whom tries to threaten the other animals by his military force. I think the novel shed light on the current situations to be resolved. As I mentioned, it gives message how to use power.

Animal Farm) Question 1

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

Animal Farm is a fairy story to give critique of the history of Russian Revolution. The author retold the story describing the rise of the power of the dictator Joseph Stalin by using many symbolisms. The theme of this novel is ‘Once you have a power, you should use it in an appropriate way.’ It means that you need to control self greed. Since pigs had natural intelligence, they didn’t work but conducted and controlled the other animals what they need to do for farm. They were smart among the entire animals in the Animal Farm, especially Snowball and Napoleon. The book is clearly written whether a focus of power in one person is healthy for a society. It also encourages the reader to dig in whether rebellion is going to be turning into a way of dictatorship and whether this particular power in society is only part of human nature. This is displayed in the action of the pigs, through the way how they drive their own power. As a teenager living in 2007, this novel gives me a sense of what is really important beyond power, and about the leadership. I think a true leader is the person who doesn’t control people, but listens to them and trying solve any conflicts to lead to improve our life. Therefore, George Orwell is trying to criticize the Stalin’s communist government and showed that he was the boss, not the leader, who didn’t listen to the others, only took the profits.