ROAR Blog #1: Animal Farm

Courtney Patterson
Roar Blog
June 1, 2010

Roar Blog #1
Summary:
In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the readers met Mr. Jones. He is the owner of the Manor Farm, but he is a careless owner at times because he allowed himself to get drunk and he was unable to lock the animals behind the gate. The animals were able to wonder around and talk about the dream that old Major had. Old Major was a middle while boar, who was well respected throughout the animals. He knew that he would soon die, so Old Major wanted to tell the animals some life lessons and a dream he had the previous night. Old Major’s life lessons were about the fact that animals didn’t have long lives, their lives were hard, and how they usually die a horrible death. Old Major blames all of the animals’ hardships on humans, because they allow this to happen.
When Old Major talks about the dream, he has all of the animals’ full attention and he tells them that he dreamed about a world without humans. There were only animals and they were in charge of everything that went on. The animals would be able to be happy, live their lives the way that they wanted to, eat anything, and died with joy in their hearts. Of course, the point of Old Major telling the rest of the animals of this dream was to plan the idea in their minds: get rid of the humans and have a real animal farm. In order for this plan to work there would have to be leaders and the way that the animals decided who were the leaders of the movement were by gaining their “perfect comradeship.” This is where they decided which animals are best fit for the leadership roles.
In the next chapter, Old Major’s plans are still in effect after he dies. The pigs are seen as the cleverest animals and they soon decided to take over the whole movement. Three of the main pigs are Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball. They came up with this phase called Animalism and it meant that the animals were taking care of themselves; they no longer had Mr. Jones as their leader, and they enjoyed the new change.
*Summarized Pages 15-43.

Quote:
“Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend” (Orwell 21).

Reaction:
My reaction to this quote is that the animals quickly changed their minds about humans and what they did for them. They wanted every animal to know that change was happening and if they knew best then they would get with the movement. George Orwell’s writing style is very creative because he makes the animals seem realistic. If humans could read the minds of animals, then they probably would be thinking the same things as the animals in the book. They probably would want to be in charge and able to do as they please.