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.