Animal Farm 33

Name: Puah Edence
Student ID: I10006001
Lecturer: Mr. Steven
Section: 8V1
Course Code: MPW 1153
Title: Assignment 2 (Animal Farm)
Signature:

Animal Farm (Writing Assignment)
In ANIMAL FARM, Orwell shows how both the leaders and the followers in a society can act in ways that destroy freedom and equality. Choose one leader and one follower from the novel and explain how the behavior of each contributes to the loss of freedom and equality on Animal Farm. ‘Animal Farm’ was written by George Orwell. The story begins when Old major, the oldest and wisest animal in the farm, gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. Old major proposes a solution to the animals’ desperate plight under the Jone’s ‘administration’ when he inspires a rebellion of sorts among the animals. The actual time of the revolt is unsaid and old Major’s philosophy is only an ideal. However, the animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm. The next day after the meeting and the major died, the animals found that the situation worsens and they can bear it no more. Finally, in a battle, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones, running him off the land. Afterwards, they try to destroy and burn everything that belongs to Mr. Jones which is a night mare for them. The other animals think that Mr. Jones’s house is not a suitable place for them to live, except for Napoleon. Meanwhile, snowball gathers the other animals and organizes a new society with several rules: 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy and goes upon four legs is a friend. 2. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 3. No animal shall drink alcohol. 4. No animal shall kill any other animal. 5. All animals are equal. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves to achieve the Major’s dream. Under the pigs’ leading, animal farm is well-managed. The cart-horse Boxer commits his great strength to the prosperity of the farm and he always is the one who works the hardest. The animals have more time to figure out some resolutions when there’s enough harvest to be saved at home. It is always the pigs to make the resolution. In a big barn meeting, Snowball plans to persuade the animals from other farms to join the animal revolution. However, only those animals that are treated badly interested towards the animal revolution, but it’s not, for others that are happy with their current situation. Besides, snowball works at teaching the animals to read. He also set himself to solve the problem of distribution of power in the farm. On the other hand, Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. When the weather turns bad, inexperience management brought some problems for the animal farm and Snowball has to work harder to plan for their futures. At the meantime, Napoleon also starts to set a new plan to take over Snowball. Snowball concocts a scheme to build an electricity-generating windmill, but Napoleon solidly opposes the plan in the meeting. At the meeting to vote on whether to take up the project, Snowball gives a passionate speech. Although Napoleon gives only a brief retort, he then makes a strange noise, and nine attack dogs—the puppies that Napoleon had confiscated in order to “educate”—burst into the barn and chase Snowball from the farm. Napoleon assumes leadership of Animal Farm and declares that Snowball is a traitor; there will be no more meetings. From that point on, he asserts, the pigs alone will make all of the decisions—for the good of every animal. Napoleon now quickly changes his mind about the windmill, and the animals, especially Boxer, devote their efforts to completing it. All the animals are provided with little food, while the pigs get plenty of food for their supervision. One day, after a long day work as usual, Boxer and his good friend Benjamin discover that the pigs have go against the rules when they sleep on the beds in Mr. Jones’s house. Some animals remind the pigs about law against the bed, but their advices are not taken. After some time, the pigs started to trade with Whimper, the pigs trade the chickens’ eggs. The original Animalist principles strictly forbade such activities, but Squealer, Napoleon’s propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals, convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is making things better for everyone. However, the chickens remember that the Major said that their eggs should never be taken away from them. Thus, they start to defend their eggs when the pigs try to take it from them. Despite this, the chickens’ uprising does not last long. The pigs go against the law again when they decide to kill those who oppose them. Any animal who opposes Napoleon’s uncontested leadership—meet instant death at the teeth of the attack dogs. Trades between animal farm and the outside become more and more active and soon Whimper get a lot of profit from the trade he made with the animal farm. This makes other farmers start to feel jealous and they decided to chase the animals out in order to take over the farm, Mr. Jones is not invited. At the end of the battle, the animals succeed to defeat the farmers. Unfortunately, the windmill that they built with all efforts is blown up by Mr. Jones because of his jealousy. The animals watch in tears as the windmill been toppled. During the battle, Boxer receives major wounds. Then, the animals start to rebuild the windmill again, as when it was the first time; Boxer and Benjamin work the hardest. But now, supervisions by the pigs are hardly needed. Napoleon also begins to act more and more like a human being—sleeping in a bed, drinking whisky, and engaging in trade with neighboring farmers. While all the other animals have to face cold, hungry, and overworked, the pigs lead carefree and relaxing lives. Boxer’s injury becomes more serious day by day because of the overdue works that he has done. Finally, he falls while working on the windmill and senses that his time has nearly come. While Napoleon and Squealer make plan for Boxer, Benjamin hopes that Boxer can gain a good rest and retire. A white van comes the next day, but Benjamin realizes that it is not the ambulance. The van belongs to Whimper’s glue factory. Napoleon has sold his most loyal and long-suffering worker to a glue maker in order to get money for whisky. Squealer try to convince other animals that Boxer has been sold to the Whimper’s glue factory is just a rumor. Although the animals feel frustrated towards what the pigs have done, but no one dare to question it. Years pass on Animal Farm, and the pigs become more and more like human beings—walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothes. Eventually, the five principles of Animalism, inscribed on the wall of the barn, become reduced to a single principle reading “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Looking in at the party of elites through the farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell which are the pigs and which are the human beings. Orwell states, "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer- except, of course, for the pigs." When animals from other places hear about the great change that has occur, they head to the animal farm from everywhere in dismay and indignant, they are uniting once again to fight for the common aim. The animals feel that the moment has come, for them to do something about the unfair and suffering lives they lead under the ruling of the pigs in the animal farm. Finally, the pigs are all defeated.

List the various leaders of Animal Farm. Looking back through the novel, find several examples of actions the leaders take that curtail the rights of the animals. There are various leaders in the story, for example, Napoleon and Snowball. In the story, Napoleon behaves like a dictator and he gave privilege to the pigs while ignore the interests and rights of other animals. Thus, we can say that he does not have virtuous characteristics that distinguish him as a moral person. He is the vice leader. His vice character makes him becomes a bad individual and has destruct him. No animal is allowed to question the decision Napoleon makes. As a consequence, the animals lead suffering lives under his ruling and the rules that were once introduced have lost its value. While for Snowball, he is a responsible leader as he always plans for the better futures of the animals. In this case, Snowball is the virtual leader. The personality virtual within him allows him to act in the best possible manner and he always knows what to do. He places the benefits of the animals at the first place and he rules equally. He leads the animals to manage the farm well and introduces rules to keep the animal farm in peace. The farm was well-organized and harmony under his ruling.

A. What specific actions does the leader take that destroy freedom and weaken equality on Animal Farm? List at least five examples from the novel. I would like to focus on the character of Napoleon. Napoleon is not intelligence and does not have virtuous characteristic. Besides that, he never makes decision based on the societal rules, he will only modify the rules to suits his decisions. As there are no virtuous characteristics within him, therefore he is unable to solve problems based on morality. Although he knows that he has done wrong, he never shows the feeling of guilty and disapproval. Napoleon starts to weaken the equality in animal farm when he permits all the pigs to work much little work but have more food compare to the other animals when building the windmill. Second, he leads the pigs to sleep on bed in Mr. Jones’s house, which is against the rules and he refuses to listen to the advices of other animals. Napoleon destroys the freedom in animal farm when he starts to trade with Whimper with the chickens’ eggs. All animals are not allowed to question about the decision he made and those who opposes him will face the penalty of death. Besides, he disappoints and dismays the animals when he sells the loyal Boxer in order to exchange for whiskeys. At the end of the story, all the pigs are dressing human-like and they are all leading a luxurious lives while other animals in the farm works very hard and suffer to supply the pigs’ needs. From the above actions taken by Napoleon, it is clearly shown that the freedom and equality in Animal Farm has been destroyed.

B. How would you judge or characterize the behavior of the leader? For example, is it selfish? Fearful? Grandiose? Manipulative? Napoleon is a selfish, self-centered, greedy and irresponsible leader. We can see psychological and ethical egoism within Napoleon. The ethical egoism within him is in the individual form. He thinks that everyone else ought to act in his self-interest. Egoism makes him always act in his own self-interest. From the very beginning of the story, Napoleon emerges as an utterly corrupt opportunist. Though always present at the early meetings of the new state, Napoleon never makes a single contribution to the animal revolution, not to the bloody struggle that it necessitates, not to the new society’s initial attempts to establish itself. He never shows interest in the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his power over it. Thus, the only project he undertakes with enthusiasm is the training of a litter of puppies. He doesn’t educate them for their own good or for the good of all, however, but rather for his own good: they become his own private army or secret police, a violent means by which he imposes his will on others. He always exploits the other animals for his own benefit instead of protect their rights and interests. At the same time, he does not set up a role for other animals when he himself as a leader opposes the rules that have been set by sleeping on the bed, drinks alcohol, kill other animals and destroy the equality. Moreover, he does not appreciate the effort and loyalty of other animals when he exchanges Boxer for whiskeys even though Boxer has made much contribution to the farm. Not only this, Napoleon is a greedy ruler. He not only does not plan to stop trading with the outsiders, on the other hand he trades more and more frequent. He enjoys the products of the hard work of the animals but never contribute anything in replace.

C. How does that leader gain and keep his power? Napoleon gains his power when he opposes Snowball and instructs his secretly trained puppies to chase him out of the farm. He convinces the animals to support him as their new leader by claiming that Snowball is a traitor. He lies to the animals that Snowball is planning to call back Mr. Jones to take over the farm and the animals have to rely on him. Napoleon implants the theory of utilitarianism among the animals. He makes the animals perform his orders or follow the rules and believe that those decisions he made will bring about the greatest good for everyone. Napoleon also uses force to maintain or keep his power and the puppy army that he trained plays an important role in helping him to keep his power. Anyone who opposes him will face the penalty of death and this makes no one dare to voice out for their rights nor opposes Napoleon even if they are treated unequally.

D. What does the goal or the aim of the leader seem to be? Does he achieve it? Napoleon is power-hungry and he wants to take over the whole farm for his own benefit. He aims to lead a carefree, luxurious and at the same time he wants to hold a high position in the farm. He wants all the animals to obey his order and serve him well. He wants to enjoy but he don’t want to contribute. He achieves his aim for a short while but afterwards when the animals unite and attack him, he lost everything that he longs at the end. In short, Napoleon acts like a dictator and he never care about the interests of other animals besides the pigs.

The followers of Animal Farm want freedom and equality, but the leaders do not. However, the followers often act and think in ways that make it easy for the leaders to take advantage of them. List several followers from the story whose behavior Orwell satirizes. The examples of the followers in the story ‘Animal Farm’ are Benjamin and Boxer. They are strongly influenced by the rules of the society’s traditions and customs, they are suffering as they are not brave enough to oppose such rules which are quite out-dated but still influential in their community. They are unable to deal with the situation as their does not acquire virtuous characteristics and at the same time there is no guide to which they can refer in the complex situation. Both of them long for freedom and equality from the leader. They sacrifice a lot in maintaining and managing the farm. They are loyal to the leader and they don’t mind to put more effort or work harder than other animals, because they want everyone to lead a better life and to live in peace. However, their loyalties are used and took advantage by Napoleon.

A. How does the character act in specific situations to weaken equality and give up his or her freedom? List at least three examples. The character that I would like to focus on is Boxer. Boxer is a cart-horse whose incredible strength, dedication, and loyalty play a key role in the early prosperity of Animal Farm and the later completion of the windmill. He starts to weaken the equality and give up his freedom when he naïvely trusts the pigs to make all his decisions for him. He is quick to help and he works the hardest every time after the decision were made by Napoleon. For example, after Napoleon orders to build the windmill, Boxer, together with his good friend, Benjamin is always the first to start and last to go back from work. Besides, he never questions about Napoleon’s policy, he will just follow the orders and he believes that Napoleon is always correct. He also believes that everything that Napoleon do is for the sake of Animal Farm. Because of his behavior he is always used and exploited by Napoleon. For example, he does not stand against or opposes Napoleon when Napoleon trade with Whimper and sells the chickens’ eggs. Furthermore, he always prepares to obey and sacrifice for Napoleon. For an instance, he does not show hatred towards Napoleon when he is traded to the glue factory for exchange of whiskeys.

B. Does the character realize that the animals are losing their freedom and equality? Why or why not? Boxer does not realize that the animals are losing their freedom and equality. He always follow the rules and he didn’t realize that there are vast differences among everyone and situations, and the rules established by Napoleon cannot cover such great diversity and it does not bring the greatest good for all. This is because he always hopes for the best for Animal Farm and is willing to sacrifice for it. He shows much devotion to Animal Farm’s ideals but he only has little ability to think about them independently, that’s why he has to rely on and believes that Napoleon can make the right decision for the farm. As he is loyal towards Napoleon, thus he never realizes that he is losing his freedom and equality.

C. Does the character influence the attitudes and behaviors of other followers on Animal Farm? If so, how? If not, why not? Boxer does not influence the attitudes and behaviors of other followers in Animal Farm. Other animals will feel disappointed once an unfair decision is made by Napoleon, but it is not, for Napoleon. He will try to accept every action taken by Napoleon and believes that he will lead the farm to a brighter future. Besides, other animals feel angry and dismay when Boxer is traded to the glue company, this shows that Boxer does not influence the thinking of other followers.

D. Is the behavior of the character typical of that of most other followers on Animal Farm? Can you identify a type of behavior that puts the ideals of freedom and equality in danger? The behavior of Boxer is different from most other followers in Animal Farm. Other animals will try to question when an unfair decision is made but Boxer never do so, instead he will sacrifice his benefits to accomplish Napoleon’s order. Not only this, he never suspect the decisions made by Napoleon. He is loyal towards Napoleon. And this is the behavior that puts the ideals of freedom and equality in danger. From the story, we learn that leaders shouldn’t be power-hungry and greedy. Leaders who are greedy and selfish will only care for his own benefits instead of fighting the rights of his followers. And he will slowly lose his trust and supports from the followers as their lives do not change for the better. Besides, a greedy and selfish leader will cause the followers to suffer. Not only this, a leader should rule equally and fairly. He shouldn’t care for the interest of the kind which is same as him only, he must give the followers freedom to voice out their opinions. Moreover, a leader should appreciate the loyalty of his followers. He will slowly lose supports when his followers feel that they have been betrayed. Last but not least, a leader should be a role model to the followers. He should obey the regulations that were once introduced and shouldn’t set up a bad example by going against the rules. These are the warnings that Orwell is giving the readers.
References:
1. http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/ , The Literature Network, George Orwell, ‘Animal Farm’. 2. http://www.novelguide.com/animalfarm/ , Literary Analysis, Summary, ‘Animal Farm’.

References: 1. http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/animalfarm/ , The Literature Network, George Orwell, ‘Animal Farm’. 2. http://www.novelguide.com/animalfarm/ , Literary Analysis, Summary, ‘Animal Farm’.