The Environment

It feels like Orwell hasn't put in any effort to descrivbe the environment. He descirbes everything briefly, but you are still able to get the picture. As following example: "Huge boulders, far too big to be used as they were, were lyingall over the bed of the quarry." (Animal Farm, 1945. George Orwell, p. 40). The details aren't in the environment, but the actions of the animals. This might be a reason why the book is short. Since he explains quite briefly, I connected the environment to my own experience, a children TV-show. The show is about the animals, especially the sheeps, not the humans. From there I got the picture of Animal Farm. When Moses the raven returns to the farm, after he had been away for some time, he describes the Sugarcandy Mountain.

'Up there, comrades,' he would say solemnly, pointing to the sky

with his large beak-'up there, just on the other side of that dark

cloud that you can see-there it lies, Sugarcandy Mountain, that

happy countrywhere we poor animals shall rest for ever from

our labours!'

(George Orwell, p. 78)

As the previous example, somehow you can get the picture of a place where you never have been. Even though you haven't experience any type of farms, I hope you can imagination a picture what the enviroment looks like. With the seasons and weather continuously changes after every chapter, it might be hard to describe the environment. But since the author doesn't explain more than briefly, the actions and the thoughts of the characters are more importent than the environment. Since you can imagine how a person freeze, or bleeding. And most people sure have a picture already of a farm, when they read the title. There is an old stone house, barn, fields with crops and grass fields. In many book the author usally begins to describe the environment. But Orwell started like this:

MR Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for

the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.

With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side

he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door,

drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery,

and made his way up to bed, where Mrs Jones was already snoring.

(George Orwell, p. 1)

As I wrote before, the environment is described briefly. And not more detailed than this. In some book, like this one, the story is straight to the point, with no futher explainations. Then the environment is not needed as like other books. Even if descriptions are few, it doesn't mean that the novel is a bad book. In my opinion, this novel is worth to read.

The Characters

There's many animals on Animal Farm. Cows, horses, dogs, hens and sheeps. Animals that usally lives on a farm. All the animals have a role in the book. However, there is 3 characters that have a bigger role than the other animals. 2 of those characters are all pigs. Snowball and Napoleon. You may wonder why they are pigs. It's more or less because pigs are more intelligent than any other animal according to the book. "The work of teaching and organising the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognised as being the cleverest of the animals." (Animal Farm, 1945. George Orwell, p. 9). Napoleon is a young boar, fierce-looking Berkshire boar and the only Berkshire boar on the farm. He is not much for a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball is described as followed "Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character." (George Orwell, p. 9). These two are considered as main characters, mostly because of their intellect. They are the ones who organizes the duty for each animal. They are also the only ones to debate when there is any chance to debate. Mostly because they are one of few animals that are even able to debate at all.

The third character is Boxer, a horse, but he has a important role in the book. He is their main sorce of strength. He is strong as three horses together, and his personal motto is "I will work harder!". Without him, they would not survive, they wouldn't even able to harvest the corn. The other animals sees him as a good example, he gets up early to volunteer for extra jobs.

The Explosition

The book started with a meeting, not between humans but between animals. Animals on a farm called Manor Farm. There's horses, dogs, pigs, cows and soo forth, and it's the oldest pig that called everybody to the meeting. He explains how humans have tortured animals for centuries and used them for his own sake. He tell the others how he lived his live, and talks about a song called "Beasts of England". A couple of days later, the old pig dies. The mening with the meeting was that the old pig wanted the other animals to prepare for the Rebellion. It could be them or a later generation, that would overthrow the humans. After some time, the rebellion started. It began of a simple reason, the farmer hadn't given them any food more or less because he was too drunk. They chased him and his men away from the farm, and renamed it to "Animal Farm". Then they all turned the farmers house upside down.

"MR Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs Jones was already snoring."

This is the beginning, how the owner of the farm, Mr Jones, makes his way to bed. This gave me the expresion that this book maybe wasn't really too interesting. But as soon as it came to the "meeting" part, things started to get interesting. A pig that talkes about freedom. The "Man" that comsumes without producing anything.

"Then Snowball (for it was Snowball who was best at writing) took a brush between the two knuckles of his trotter, painted out MANOR FARM from the top bar of the gate and in its place painted ANIMAL FARM." I thinks might be the reason to why the book is called ANIMAL FARM. I thought that the book was about how the animals were able to take over the farm. However, it happened in the very beginning. Then what is the book really about? How the animal will survive, now when they doesn't have (what they call) a "Lord", that provides them with food. Will the two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, be able to take care of the farm? "Animal Farm" maybe is about how they survive without a "Lord" and how they can tell other animals on other farms to stand up against their "Lords".