1) Retell the climax of the story. The pigs became the most powerful animals of all. They changed the Seven Commandments one by one so that everything they would do would be legal. The other animals had to work harder than the year before and are worse off than in Jones's days. But Napoleon, who behaved more and more like a king, told them that the production of food had increased greatly. Again farmers attacked the farm, but the animals succeed in sending them away. During the cold winter the animals had not much to eat, while the pigs kept the best food for themselves and even drunk whisky and beer. In the spring Animal farm became a little republic and Napoleon is elected President. Later on, the Seven Commandments are replaced by a single commandment: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THEN OTHERS. The other animals could no longer see any difference between the pigs and the farmers. 2) Describe the main characters. Napoleon: The pig Napoleon is a large rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar. He is not much of a talker and he has a reputation of going his own way. The strange thing is that his character doesn't change trough the story, although he becomes the leader of the farm. He has probably always had it in him to be a dictator and he felt his chances right after the revolution. Because from then on he secretly started training the dogs that had to protect him. When he finally becomes the leader of the farm, he knows to manipulate everybody so that he can do whatever he wants to. He has the dogs for protection, the sheep as his yes-men, the horse boxer as the ideal worker and Squealer as his spokesman. The reader knows, feels that Napoleon doesn't behave fair, but the other animals don't see his power abuse. You can compare Napoleon with Stalin.
Boxer: The carthorse Boxer is an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gives him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he isn't of first-rate intelligence, but the other animals respect him for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work. Boxers two personal motto's are: "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right" of what he has been doing. You can compare Boxer with the Russian working class. He doesn't see that Napoleon is terrorising the whole farm. 3) Give your personal opinion + Why? I liked reading the book because it remained me at my history lessons. The author George Orwell showed clearly that the communism system isn't working. He showed that, whatever there may happen, the leaders always want to enrich themselves. The story is mostly like communistic Russia, because the animals are comparable with the politician in Russia, e.g. Napoleon with Stalin, Snowball with Trotsky and Old Major with Lenin.