Question 8 Animal Farm

*Entry of your choice: Letter to Napoleon

I decided to write a letter to Napoleon because I wanted to give him an advice how to be a good ruler. I will tell him about how the animals felt about the situation they are at.

To: Napoleon,

Hi. This is Jennifer Seo.
I have decided to send you a letter right after reading the story of “Animal Farm.” How can you act so cruel, hypocritical and selfish? One example of you being cruel is when you chased away Snowball from the Farm with the help of your dogs. Looking at this, you should be ashamed for the fact that you almost killed one of your comrades.
You should know better and how inhumane you are! Examine what you have done! You have deteriorated animals’ hearts, took away their freedom, and turned the whole farm into a chaos! I am going to speak for the animals and teach you a lesson today. Please don’t grant a privilege to animals you favor especially to pigs and dogs. All animals are and should be treated equal. You think you possess special rights while other animals were starving and working as slaves. You should respect the others and try to share your love. Treat them as how you would want to be treated by others.
Evil doings that you have done will come back to you and will a burden that you’ll have to carry for the rest of your life.Remember… what goes around, comes around!
February .25 .2007

From Jennifer Seo

p.s. Please keep in mind what I said and be nice!

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.

I hardly found a beautiful setting in this story but if I was to depict one, I would choose the big barn where the animals had their first assembly with Old Major. I choose this setting extremely attractive because it was the very first time the animals united as one with a common vision. At this time the Old Major motivated the animals to start a revolution and the animals agreed with him collectively. Another impressive scene illustrated in this story is when Clover made a wall around the ducklings with her forelegs, which lost their mother, to protect and comfort them. The strong helping the weak instead of disregarding warmed my heart. Finally, the reason why I found this setting beautiful is that the farm was a classless society in the beginning. All animals were equal, there were no assigned seats, and had freedom of speech. Equality looked peaceful and delightful to me. However, later in the story, things slowly started to change and Napoleon executes four pigs, three hens, a goose, and a sheep after their confession. This scene was most disturbing to me. I was quite shaken and frightened of their cruel retribution. One of the seven commandments in the beginning was “No animal shall kill any other animal,” But Napoleon later changes it to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause” It portrays that deep inside; they carry violence of some sort and causes brutality to over power and achieve their goal. I felt miserable at this setting because there was no one who was opposed to his actions. Everyone seemed to be cowards, not being able to say the right things. I was hoping that they would oppose and strongly stand up for their rights but unfortunately, nobody was able to and I was very disappointed at how naive they can be.

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.

The novel contains many significant passages, however if I was to depict one, I would choose the following:
“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 who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep-and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word-Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay egg! s, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to cat ch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labor tills the soil, our dung fertilities it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin.”
(http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/1/)

As I was reading this passage, I agreed and felt concurrent with the animals. The reason for this is because I know how much we, humans, take away the animals’ possessions and their lives. This passage was significant in the fact that it reveals how humans can be so selfish. It states that a man is the only a creature that consumes without producing. Yes, it is true! We never lay an egg nor give milk to sell. It indicates that human are vulnerable and solely relies on the produce of animals’ labor. For example we use animal fur to make warm coats, even though it’s illegal in many countries. Some hunters rummage around animals that are in danger of extinction to sell and make money. These are the aspect of human selfishness that we must improve on. We should not utilize animals only for our benefits but moreover, admit our wrong doings and respect the animals as one precious life. In order to initiate the actions, I myself should first change and appreciate living things whether they are huge animals to the tiniest insects. This quote helped me to reach to another thought. I do not only think that the humans cause the animals disaster and cause dark clouds over their lives. By reading the book I have noticed how much pigs take advantage of the rest of the other animals over shelter, food and labor. Pigs act just like humans, maybe even worse. I conclude that although humans only consume from animals and seem to cause their lives to be miserable, pigs can act the exact same way.

Question 5 Animal Farm

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

The overall mood of this story is dark and gloomy since it deals with the issue of dystopia. There were several situations in the novel that made me feel this way. First, when Boxer was taken to the slaughter house I felt sad and depressing. I wondered how they could be so cold-hearted to the horse that was most devoted of all the animals at the farm. After that, chickens and some pigs were killed by Napoleon and I was irritated and disheartened. He punished all the animals those that reserved him. Although Napoleon was a selfish and hypocritical ruler, nobody disobeyed him. If animals were braver and initiated one last rebellion to overthrow Napoleon, the farm would have become a little brighter and peaceful place with a new leader. I was devastated to see Napoleon gaining total authority over the farm whereas later in the end his social status corresponds with humans concurring uniformity with their utmost supposed enemy. However, the main reason I found this story dark and gloomy is because I know that the novel actually portrays the real life of this world. There are still many people out there who don’t care about anything else but for their own success and desire. I hope to see that one day the world will change and become a peaceful place to live in creating an idealized perfection – Utopia.

Question 4 Animal Farm

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


The moment when Napoleon banishes snowball from the Animal Farm would be considered a climax of this novel. Napoleon wanted absolute authority over the farm but Snowball was the biggest obstacle to him since Snowball was intelligent and compatible enough to combat with him. In order to make the condition advantageous to him, he decides to expel Snowball from the farm and brings into action right after the "Battle of Cowshed." Snowball’s completed project plan of windmill is acquired by Napoleon, and Squealer becomes the spreader of propaganda and gains power and maintains political control through twisting the truth. After the expulsion of Snowball, everything starts to disintegrate and it foreshadows the future that there is going to be a political chaos in the Animal Farm . Later in the story, pigs start to possess human items such as playing cards, clothes, drinking alcohols, beds, and eventually make peace and unite with humans. First I felt sad when Napoleon expelled Snowball that he only focus on his benefit and didn’t care about other animals ease. But gradually I became angry of his greediness and selfishness. This story gave me a message that it is impossible to make a classless society where a men’s desire for power never disappears.

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?

There are many characters in this story. They all have different personality and special features. Out of all the characters, Napoleon is closest to being the main character. Other main characters would be Squealer, Snowball, and Boxer. Napoleon is the ruler of the Animal Farm, He is selfish, cruel and hypocritical. He uses military power (which means a loyal attack dogs) to intimidate other animal and consolidate his power. Moreover, he violates seven commandments and punishes the animals. I hate this character because he is two-faced, and oppressed animals that were weaker than him. Squealer, another important character, acts as mouth for Napoleon, in other words he is spokesperson. He spreads Napoleon's propaganda and twist the truth to maintain social control. His habit was mentioning Mr. Jones like "Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?" I bear hatred of him because he acted craftily. He always defends Napoleon from the animals by any means and tricks them into working harder. That's the reason why I hate Squealer as well as Napoleon. In contrast Snowball was an intelligent and passionate ruler competing with Napoleon. He challenges Napoleon for control of the Animal Farm. Later on Snowball was used as a Scapegoat for animal’s troubles. I like him because with his intelligence he had chance to take over the authority by deceiving other animals yet, he decided to stay less subtle and cunning than Napoleon. Instead, he used his knowledge to make the animals comfortable and therefore won the loyalty of the other animals. In the novel, Snowball had made plans to build a windmill to lower the burden of work for the animals and promised them the retirement age to be earlier than ever. However, all his plans were stolen by Napoleon. Lastly, Boxer is a cart horse with a credible strength, dedication, and loyalty. He is bit slow-witted and much devoted. He's motto was " I will work harder", and "Napoleon is always right." I liked him because he was honest and devoted however, I feel something about his character was lacking. I would feel less sorry for him if he had a brighter side in him and be more enthusiastic about life. Boxer was one of the best characters in this novel for his positive attitude and always being helpful even when he was sick.
These animal characters are revealed in universal human experience. For example, we can compare the characters with the people in the work place. Napoleon, as high officer, who never works and instead of that only give orders to subordinates acts as a boss. Squealer can be revealed as an employee who does whatever he can to be promoted at work even if it’s an act of bribing or telling lies to other co-workers. Then Snowball would be the counterpart of squealer (other co-workers) who is betrayed by those who play the devil. Boxer can be also revealed as employee in a different way. Among many employees some will stay devoted as Boxer and only focus on what need to be done not caring about anything else but their own duty and responsibility.

Question 2 Animal Farm

*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"?
There are many current incidents and situations that can be related to the novel. "The ignorance of animal" can be portrayed through an example of Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, who announced that he found a stem cell yet, it revealed to be a false claim. He made people believe that his experiment was true in his false thesis. Majority of the people believed and wanted to believe that Dr. Hwang’s discovery was true and had no doubts or whatsoever until later when it was revealed worldwide that Dr. Hwang had been lying about his research. That’s when confusion started and put the whole country in chaos. In the novel, Napoleon played a similar role to Dr. Woo Suk Hwang. Napoleon claimed that he was the one who planned to build the windmill and Snowball was the one who stole idea to take over the authority. Despite of Napoleon’s sly behavior, if the animals acted wisely by not just listening and believing everything Napoleon was saying but questioned him at times the result would have been much different. The animals were foolish and it clearly shows that sometimes skepticism is necessary. This novel doesn't show the exact way how to resolve or fix current situations, nevertheless teaches us a lesson from the stories (animals mistakes and their imprudent behavior). It also teaches us that education is important in making a healthy society. Chickens, lambs, horses were foolish so they never suspected the pigs even though the seven commandments constantly changed. Therefore we can acquire knowledge from the novel 'Animal Farm' that we should learn constantly educate ourselves and progress in enhancing our knowledge to defend our country. Another fact that we can learn from the novel is that people need to actively participate. The donkey, Benjamin, had a high IQ, but he rarely participated in the animal committee. If he had been more active and shared what he knew the animals could have prevented pigs from becoming too powerful. Nowadays, there are many well informed and well educated people but who doesn't like to speak the truth to the government as well as to the society just like Benjamin. In this case we can learn that active attitude can change the society in positive and better ways.

Question 1 Animal Farm

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

Animal farm mainly depicts human hypocrisies, selfishness and class stratification. According to the book, pigs are portrayed as human beings which look out only for one's own interests. They develop class tyranny and establish class structure. In the novel, animals expel Mr. Jones from the farm and later the social status is internally divided even though their common enemy (human) is eliminated. This clearly shows that animals form a class structure themselves, although they all promised equality before the Rebellion. Napoleon drove out Snowball and becomes the leader of the Animal Farm. He gradually changes the seven commandments for his own benefit and oppresses other animals. These actions relates to the theme of hypocrisy and selfishness. The theme delivers a message that there will always be a discrimination between social classes and the force it brings to the community (or society) threats the democracy and freedom (which resulted in totalitarianism of Napoleon in the case of Animal Farm).

'A man's desire for power leads to where a classless society is impossible.' This theme is important to teenagers because it indicates and teaches teenagers how to live in this community. Sooner or later teenagers will also become an adult, and they will be the ones leading and representing their own country. It is important to open teenager’s eyes through knowing how the dictatorship could corrupt the society and cause harm to the citizens allowing them to sacrifice. I hope that nowadays teenagers do not make those kinds of mistakes by acting like pigs. Instead of that, I expect teenagers will respect each other and make an equal society that lasts forever.