Algemene gegevens
Auteur: Geore Orwell
Titel: Animal Farm
Uitgave: 1945, Eerste druk
Longman, The Bridge Series. 1979 VI druk.
ISBN:0-582-53008-3 97 Pagina’s


A2. Samenvatting: IN ENGLISH
The animals of Manor Farm are mistreated since Mr. Jones is always drunk. A old boar, called Major, told the animals of an old plan. One day animals all over the World has started to talk about rebellion. They would take over all of the farms, and scare all people away of their areas.

after Major’s death, the animals started with fulfilling the old plan, they remembered the old song ‘The beasts of England’ and made it their ‘folksong’.


The animals quickly came in rebellion and scared Mr. Jones away, after that they wrote 7 commandments down. (the pigs where able to write after a lot of self-study) All animals are equal, that was their point 1 of the commandments.

The pigs forced every animal to work, even on Saturdays and after a while even on Sunday. The animals thought it was alright, because they were working for themselves and not for the humans anymore. Clover and Boxer were working the hardest, they were the carthorses, and Boxer thought he had to work especially hard because he was the strongest. Boxer’s motto became ‘I will work harder’ and he even woke up earlier than the other animals to do what he thought was right.

The other farmers were afraid and took revenge. The animals won the first fight.

After Snowball (the smartest pig) had the idea to build a mill, but Napoleon, another pig, was against. He raised some puppies and used them to try to kill Snowball. Snowball fled and Napoleon was the new –self chosen- dictator. With him the animal farm went downwards. But the pigs were smart and the other animals were dump, they believed anything the pigs told them and Napoleon told that he was the leader and they had to listen to him.

Than Napoleon made his first mistake: he wanted all animals to make confessions about helping the traitor –Snowball. All the animals who had confessions were killed by the dogs Napoleon had raised.

After Boxer got injured, Napoleon told he would sent him to a doctor, but he called a slaughter, only the donkey knew this.

After a while, the pigs started to walk on 2 legs (the 7th commandment they broke) and the animals couldn’t see the difference anymore between pigs and human.


A3. Achtergrondinformatie

informatie over de schrijver.
Eric Arthur Blair, ofwel: George Orwell, geboren te 25 juni 1903 in Londen,en gestorven op 21 januari 1950 is een Britse schrijver. Hij was fel tegen het communisme en stalinisme en heeft hier dan ook veel kritiek op geuit in zijn boeken. Vooral zijn laatste 2 boeken zijn bekend geworden: 1984 en AnimalFarm. Deze boeken gaan over communisme.

Eric heeft nooit gestudeerd omdat er geen geld voor was, zijn schotse ouders hadden het niet heel breed, maar ook niet slecht. Eric heeft op school veel kritiek gehad, de ene leraar vond hem niet gedisciplineerd en de ander vond hem juist erg sterk in z’n schoenen staan. Onder andere hierdoor heeft Eric een afkeer gekregen voor de hogere kringen, in zijn boeken komt dit ook weer naar voren. (citaat uit Animal Farm –All Animals are equal-) later heeft de ‘communistische’ leider uit zijn boek ervan gemaakt ‘…-but some are more equal than others- om aan te geven dat er veel onderdrukking is in de wereld. http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell


A. Verwerkingsopdrachten.

B1 Tekstfragmenten fragments so clearly English!
Kies drie tekstfragmenten die jou bijzonder aanspreken. Vertel van elk fragment waarom jij dat fragment zo bijzonder vindt en waarom het belangrijk is binnen het boek als geheel.


Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again; he had spoken for barely thirty seconds, and seemed almost indifferent as to the effect he produced. At this Snowball sprang to his fee, and, shouting down the sheep, who had begun bleating again, broke into a passionate appeal in favour (oude spelling) of the wind mill. Until now the animals had been about equally divided in their sympathies, but in a moment Snobwall’s eloquence had carried them away. In glowing sentences he painted a picture of animal farm as it might be when sorbid labour was lifted from the animals’ backs. His imagination had now run far beyond chaff-cutters and turnip0slicers. Electricity, he said, could operate threshing machines, ploughs, harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater. By the time he had finished speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote would go. But just as this moment Napoleon stood up and casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball, uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind o one had ever heard him utter before. At this there was a terrible baying sound outside and nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws. (blz 37)

Dit fragment is erg belangrijk. Hier word Snowball( de goodguy) weggejaagd. Snowball en Napoleon zijn de 2 verstandigste dieren op de boerderij, maar ze zijn het nooit met elkaar eens. Snowball wilde een molen bouwen om de andere dieren vooruitgang te laten boeken met electriciteit en dergelijke. Napoleon was om onduidelijke reden tegen. Maar Napoleon had de puppies van de hond ‘geleend’ en opgevoed op zijn manier. De dieren gehoorzaamden enkel aan hem en verjoegen Snowball in hun pogingen hem te doden. Na deze dag was Napoleon de leider van de Farm. Hij heeft alle dieren voorgelogen in zijn voordeel en de domme arme dieren (het volk) was te dom om dit in te zien.

-Boxer, het oudste paard van de boerderij is overleden na een val tijdens zijn vrije tijd die hij besteedde aan meer werken, hij was een goed dier, maar niet erg slim. Zijn slogans waren: I will work harder’ en ‘Napoleon is always right’

“It was the most affecting sight I have ever seen!” said Squealer, lifting his trotter and wiping away a tear. ‘’I was at his bedside at the very last. And at the end, almost too weak to speak, he shispered in my ear that his sole sorrow was to have passed on before the windmill was finished. ‘Forward, comrades!’ he whispered. ‘Forward in the name of the rebellion. Long live animal farm! Long live Comrade Napoleon! Napoleon is always right.’ Those were his very last words, comrades.

Here Squealer’s demeanor suddenly changed. He fell silent for a moment, and his little eyes darted suspicious glances from side to side before he proceeded. It had come to his knowledge, he said, that a foolish and wicked rumour had been circulated at the time of Boxer’s removal. Some of the animals had noticed that the van which took Boxer away was marked “Horse Slaughterer”, and had actually jumped to the conclusion that Boxer was being sent to the knacker’s. It was almost unbelievable, said Squealer, that any animal could be so stupid. Surely, he cried indignantly, whisking his tail and skipping from side to side, surely they knew their beloved Leader, Comrade Napoleon, better than that? But the explanation was really very simple. The van had previously been the property of the knacker, had been bought by the veterinary surgeon, who had not yet painted the old name out. That was how the mistake had arisen. The animals were enormously relieved to hear this. (Pag85/86)

Dit is een van Napoleons leugens, hij laat Boxer naar een slager brengen, en liegt zijn volk voor. Maar niemand is achterdochtig omdat ze te dom zijn het te snappen en omdat Napoleon altijd slimmer is en geen tegenspraak duld. Bij tegenspraak kunnen de dieren zelfs worden geëxecuteerd, wat al eerder gebeurd is. Boxer geloofde heilig in wat de varkens te vertellen hadden en omdat zijn laatste woorden (gelogen door Squealer) positief waren is de rest hierin nog meer gaan geloven.

It was a pig walking on his hind legs.

Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard. And a moment later, our from the door of the farmhouse, came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs. Some did it better than others, one or two were even a trifle unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the support of a stick, but every one of them made his way right round the yard successfully. And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gamboling round him. He carried a whip in his trotter. There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off and when, in spite of everything- in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticizing, no matter what happened- they might have uttered some word of protest, but just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating of-“four legs good, two legs better!’’(pag91)

Dit is een belangrijk deel, De varkens gaan op hun achterpoten lopen, dat is commandment 7. Mensen lopen op 2 benen, dieren niet. De varkens breken alle geboden en worden deels mens. Op het eind zelfs helemaal. De schapen zijn dom en zeiden eerst altijd :4 legs good, 2 legs bad’ wat dus veranderd in ‘better’. De varkens slaan door en de schapen laten zich manipuleren. De dieren snappen er niks van. 20 regels later krijg je dan ook het 8e gebod, dat alle andere geboden wegvaagt. All Animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. De Varkens voelen zich verheven boven de andere dieren.



B2 Kies vier van de volgende opdrachten –in English-
• Snowball and Napoleon are the main characters. They are the farm’s most clever animals, and both are pig. Snowball is smart and good, he wants all animals to be equal and says they’re the same. He wants to build a windmill to help the animals survival on the farm. Napoleon is the –communistic- badguy. He treats the animals in a wrong way and even kills them. He is very smart and suspicious. But he knows how to manipulate the animals so that they always follow him.


• The title is ‘Animal Farm’ because the animals took over the Farm. First it was Manor Farm but since it was ruled by animals the name Animal farm was better. This farm was also the only farm in the whole world where animals ruled everything, there was not one human on the place. So the title is pretty well chosen. Another opportunity would be: How Animals turned to be Human’ because the pigs in the end where more human than animals. They changed after they got more power into human, from innocent to the bad guy in the world.


• http://www.caritasschijndel.nl/Roemenie.html There is spoken about the manipulation from the communistic leaders to get the votes of the people. 80% of the people even voted for communism, but most of arguments were lies. They has had chosen the wrong guy, because he was the best manipulator in their parliament. In the article it’s about Romanian, but in the book it’s at the farm of the animals.


• The main theme of this book is in my eyes the slogan: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Because it says that there are creatures, who are less worth than other creatures. Communism says that everybody is has the same worth, but in communism there’s a leader and an army who are above the people. First the pigs (Snowball) said that all animals are equal, but later Napoleon says that there are some animals better than others, he means that he is better than the other animals on the farm.

the other main theme is the part where the 7 commandments are told the first and last time. After then, the commandments are repeated sometimes in parts, but never all at one time. The commandments are all broken one by one by the pigs. The commandments are: the cursive parts are what the pigs made of it later in the story.

1 Whatever goes upon two legs, is an enemy. Four legs good, two legs better.

2 Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And has to work


3 No animal shall wear clothes. Made by human.

4 No animal shall sleep in a bed. With sheets

5 No animal shall drink alcohol (the manor farm’s farmer, Mr Jones drunk too much)too much/at work time

6 No animal shall kill any other animal. Without a reason

7 All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others.



C Geef in ongeveer 150 woorden je eigen mening over het boek als geheel .
I think the book on itself is a really good book. It’s about animals so it sounds a little childish but if you start reading you sometimes think: wow, the writer knows exactly what he’s doing! In a pretty easy way, he tells you the story, and you know from the beginning that something isn’t right but you can’t lay a finger on it. During the story the animals changes, in the beginning they’re happy but dump, after the rebellion they’re happier and free! They work hard but that’s not a problem because it’s work they like, and it’s for themselves and not for human beings. But later they work harder, receive less food and are still happy because the pigs told them to be happy. I think the pigs changes into really mean creatures because they are evolving into humans. After Snowball is gone, you can see there’s a revolution in the beginning with a rebellion. But after that, the communism comes up. Human greed takes over everything, just as in our world. There’s a clear link between the farm and our society, that’s nice to see.

I never thought it would be such a good book because I drew a book without really looking what I get. I’m happy it that is was this book because the story was good and I was amazed by the way it’s written. I think it’ll never gets old.

I would absolutely recommend it to my classmates who’ve got interests in communism and has to read an English book.