The “Animal Farm” novel

The novel "Animal Farm" is about animals who lived on a property known as the Manor Farm. Mr. Jones, their farmer, was a cruel and inebriated guy who exploited the animals. The animals thought that they needed some freedom so that the fruits of their labor may be theirs rather than those of humans. After the death of old Major, who held a meeting to explain his dream to the animals, they were guided by the animalism ideology, which was based on the seven commandments. The Beasts of England song revealed the dream. After a while, Snowball and Napoleon began to vie for power. At the end of the novel, Napoleon and the other pigs started exploiting the other animals and took advantage of some. They broke the animalism rule and started interacting with human beings for business. After that, they started walking in twos like the human beings and started wearing clothes.

The animals imagined freedom in the farm. This is portrayed by the dreams of old Major who dreamt about the “Beasts of England”. Major did not like the nature of life they were living as animals in the farm. “I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to speak to you” (Orwell, George). This was after he had dreamt when he called for the animals meeting. The main aim of calling the meeting was for Major who was old enough with few months of living to share his wisdom with the other animals that they need freedom.

They lived in a land which was controlled by the human beings at the expense of their exploitation. This is because whatever they produced was stolen by human beings. Major imagined that their freedom can be achieved through elimination of human beings. “There, comrades is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word—man. The man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever” Major says (Orwell, George). To make their imagination for freedom come to reality, Snowball and Napoleon started to lead the other animals for the preparation of a rebellion. This was purposely to revolt against Mr. Jones the owner of the farm for the animals to take over the land.

After Jones was thrown out of the farm, still no freedom is achieved. Although the animals tried to create a fair and free society by being guided by the animalism principle and the seven commandments, there was still some barriers. To summarize the commandments the animals came up with a statement that “Four legs good. Two legs bad” meaning that no animals should practice the ways of human beings. All animals are equal commandment was also emphasized so that the animals can work together to achieve their freedom imagination.

The efforts of the animals to achieve the freedom leaves us with a question, did they really achieve the freedom? It is true that the animals tried their best to achieve freedom and live in a fair society but this was not really achieved. Although after Jones was thrown from the farm the animals enjoyed some freedom. The produce they harvested from the farms became theirs and they did not suffer from hunger and exploitation like before. This is because of some impediments. The first barrier was the human beings. The fact that the human beings depended on the animals for survival means that they were superior to the animals. Doing away with the man was the only solution for them to gain their freedom but it was also the biggest challenge. They first managed but as the story ends, Napoleon was influenced by the man again and started doing business with him. He also started exploiting the other animals. This meant that the animals produce will still benefit their enemies if the start engaging it business activities with human beings.

Another impediment was power greediness. The animals were all equal. After the death of Major, Snowball and Napoleon became the leaders. With time they started fighting for leadership. This was during the building of windmill which was the idea of Snowball but Napoleon did not support it. He announced that the Sunday morning meetings which were conducted by Snowball should come to an end. He also said that “In future, all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself” (Orwell, George). This meant that the committee and himself would meet in private and thereafter communicate their decisions to the other animals. Napoleon became the dictator of the firm. As he used dogs to silence those who were against him, no animal who rejected his will. This resulted in him coming up with a new policy of engaging in business with the animal’s enemy the human beings. The pigs started sleeping in beds with sheets which were against the seven commandments and animalism. All this changed the freedom the animals had achieved as their produce would start being used by man.

Napoleon used his power to exploit the animals. For instance, the hens underwent this. Although he made a contract with Whymper of four hundred eggs a week, he was ruthless because he ordered hens rations to be stopped that the animals found giving the hen much grain should be punished. This resulted in the death of nine hens. The way in which Napoleon treated some animals was questionable and this could facilitate the entrance of the human beings back into the farm. This is because the pigs and himself treated them bad and even led to their death like Boxer. In the end, the pigs started behaving like human beings by walking win their hind legs and wearing clothes. This changed the old say “Four legs good. Two legs bad” to “Four legs good. Two legs better”. All this shows how it was challenging for the animals to achieve their freedom.

The impediments to realization of the animals were the human beings and power. The novel well suggests that this impediment cannot be overcome. This is because although they managed to throw man away from the farm during the cowshed rebellion, he still manages to enter the farm again. Even though he entered indirectly by engaging in business with Napoleon, human beings still used the produce of the animals. The animals thought this was exploitation by man and that their produce was only supposed to benefit them only. The animals tried their best to keep their animals away but due to the greediness of power, it was not achieved.

In the seven commandments, the seventh commandment stated that all animals are equal. In this case, the pigs felt that they had brains than the other animals and also thought to be better than the others. This shows division, dictatorship, and exploitation on the farm. Before the animals could make decisions together but after Napoleon came to leadership there was a special committee. This means that the interests of all animals were not presented. This also influenced the policy to engage in business with human beings which was against animalism and the seven commandments but it took place due to the dictatorship nature of Napoleon. All this proves that the impediments cannot be overcome as human beings are aggressive and some of the animals, pigs, are selfish.

Work Cited

Orwell, George. Animal farm. Vol. 31. Penguin UK, 2000.