Animal farm

Biographical information:
George Orwell is a pseudonym for Eric Hugh Blair. He was born in Bengal and did a lot of different jobs, as dishwasher, private tutor and teacher in a third rate boarding school.His father, a servant, sent him to England where he first went to prep school and then to Eton.He became police officer in Burma, after 5 years he stopped and decided to devote his life to writing.To be a writer had always been his dream.His first success came in 1945. In that year he publishes the novel Animal farm. He wrote his last novel, 1984, before he dies in 1950.

Title:
Animal farm

Year and place of the first print:
Great Britain, 1945

Title explanation:
It is a story about an animal farm. The name of this farm is changed in “animal farm” later in the story.

Genre:This book is a politically coloured novel.

Subtitle + explanation:
No subtitle

Motto (with translation and explanation):
No motto

Plot:

Characters:
Napoleon is a very intelligent pig. He also s a real ‘good’ dictator. He also chooses the right persons to do the right things.

Squealer is a very charismatic pig. He is a fabulous talker and he manipulates the animals on the farm so that they always will follow Napoleon

Short survey of the story (max 150 wrds.):
The story starts when an old pig, called Major, is dying. He says to the animals of the manor farm that he had a dream about a country ruled by animals. He says that the animals have to revolt against the humans.The animals start a revolution and they chase away the farmer. Napoleon becomes the big leader, and Squealer becomes his communicator. They make seven commandments. Napoleon raised a nest of dogs, so they protect him against all ‘bad influences’.In the beginning, the pigs make seven commandments, they say that every animal is equal, and that the Human is their enemy. At the end of the story, one commandment is left, but it has totally changed “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal then others”.At the end the pigs changed into humans.

Narrative structure:
The story is told chronologically. There is not really a person who is always followed in it, but it is told from the third person narrator.The time span is ±15 years, some horses and other big animals are alive at the beginning and at the end. So it has to be something like that.

Theme:
The theme is communism. In the story, the pigs are the communistic leaders of the soviet-union and the animals are the workers.

Opinion:
I liked the story very much. George Orwell did very well describe the communism in the future. It maybe not really ended as in the book, but the communistic countries gone the same direction as the story after 1945.Sometimes, I liked the way the author described things, very detailed, very punctually. But sometimes it was not good for the story because he was just describing some things when I thought that the story just had to go on a little quicker.

extra assignment
Who is boxer? What is his character and what happens to him in the story?
Boxer is a hard working horse. He is a real workforce. He never thinks about doing a little slow on. The only thing he thinks about is work. He also is a very believing horse. He thinks that Napoleon is always right. For the farmer Boxer was already the best horse and under Napoleon he stays. He is the example of the indoctrinated animals. He believes what the ‘big leaders’ say. When the production slows down, Boxer just has one motto. “I have to work harder”.It doesn’t really matter to him. He is very sober. He does not change in the time. He is the only animal that stays itself. He plays a key role in this story because he is one of the animals who motivate the others to do the work. He does that by working the hardest of them all. He also always says that Napoleon is always right. Because he has so many friends, many animals just think he is right and that he thought abut it. An example of his mentality: When the animals are constructing a windmill, Boxer works very hard to complete it. When it is completed, it is destructed. Napoleon says that it will take at least 6 month to reconstruct it. When Boxer hears that he says that he will wake up one hour earlier and work one hour longer. When he is old. He goes with all the old animals in a sort of rest field. When he becomes very ill, Squeeler says that he goes to the animal hospital. The car in which he carried off is, in fact, a Horse slaughterer’s car. Squeeler says that it was an ambulance that they forgot to re-paint. A day later Squeeler says that Boxer died in hospital.