Animal Farm By George Orwell

What can the past teach us? This is a very widespread and very used question, but if we think carefully of this question that seems so simple and innocent it has so many meanings and importance to mankind, the present and what may be the future. The past can teach us many things, where we come from, who we are, who were our

He chases a sheep named snowball who was the leader off the farm and takes over with the pigs. Throughout the story the animals are lead to believe that Napoleon and the pigs were doing what was best for them. Soon the pigs and Napoleon started breaking laws and quickly change them to make it look like they did nothing wrong. They were starting to act like humans, and not animals, which is the whole reason they rebelled.

Orwell reveals the corruption of the farm’s rules, which mandated, “they were not as other animals. If they were hungry, it was not from feeding tyrannical human beings; if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves. No creature among them went upon two legs. No creature called any other creature ‘Master’, all animals were equal” (Orwell 62).

At first the animals questioned Napoleon but couldn’t fight back for the fear Napoleon struck on them with his newfound army. Napoleon came to power with his oppressing rule and the animals could do nothing but watch everything they believed in be slowly taken from them.

This all went very well for a while, but the revolution then took a drastic downfall. The animal’s freedom and individuality was slowly taken away. Napoleon took the dogs freedom away by “making them bow, “ and obey him only. The animals also began to have no freedom of speech, “ raised their voices timidly but they were promptly silent by a tremendous growling,” which shows us that the farm was no longer run by all the animals but rather by the pigs, anything they say is right and you may not argue. The animals no all had to be the same, which can be taken as equality, but it was taken to the extreme. The animals had to call each other, “comrade,” and they weren’t even allowed to stick out in the smallest ways, ” Molly’s ribbons were taken,” which was fine at first but then slowly the animals started forgetting who they were.

The animals go from a society in which they believe to be unacceptable to a life which becomes even worse than it began. The worst part, however, is that the oppression stems from an animal himself. Napoleon, the totalitarian leader, changes the founding ideas in which their ideal society was formed in order to increase his control, but continuously tells the animals that things are significantly better than before. Eventually, “the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any animals in the country.” The animals allow this to happen because they placed their trust in leadership and were wrongly educated on the circumstances. They are fed lies until they no longer remember their history, which allows the oppression to come full circle.

the inability for local, state, and federal actors to coordinate effectively. The first step for

Good intentions from the government have caused many problems in the past few decades for

If there is one thing all Americans can agree on, it is that the government is slow acting. Too slow acting, almost like it doesn’t do anything, and when it does something, its not the right thing. The easiest answer to the problem of this inefficiency is to place blame on one person or branch of the government, such as the President or Congress. However, what most Americans either do not remember or do not know is that the government was designed to be inefficient. Contrary to popular belief, the government is not meant to answer every complaint we have. The founding fathers were classically liberal, meaning they believed that the American people should and would live their lives how they desired, and the government would only interfere when one’s actions were, as philosopher John Stuart Mill described it, “other-regarding and harmful.” Today, the vision of the founding fathers is still strong in our political system, where its inefficiency is intended by design, and the discontent seen today is due to the modern-day perspective of this deliberately inefficient government.

The abolishment of Sunday morning meetings facilitated the transformation of animal farm because the animals lost their right to vote. One of the traditions established after the revolution was the Sunday morning meeting where all the animals gathered together for a general assembly. They planned out the work for the following week and debated the resolutions. The pigs always put forward the resolutions because they were smarter animals. However, all

Animals could live off the food and protection provided by humans and the humans prospered off the meat and other byproducts the animals provided back. The result was these animal breeds evolved in order to improve their species as a whole. Using Darwin's trial and error Pollan states these species sought it fit to domesticate themselves and so they conformed. "...domestication happened when a small handful of especially opportunistic species discovered through Darwinian trial and error that they were more likely to survive and prosper in an alliance with humans than on their own." (qtd. in Singer & Mason 772) As told here, this is very similar to the contract that God gave man yet it seems to reside within the animals to continue though humans have quit. This is true not just for factory farmed animals, but also on animals such as dogs and their wolf counter parts. As Pollon shows "...that there are now only 10,000 wolves in North America, but 50 million dogs. From this he draws the conclusion that "From the animals' point of view, the bargain with humanity has been a great success, at least until our own time." (qtd. in Singer & Mason 779) Through time is has become apparent that a life on the farm is in their nature, and if they live a life to be killed early, it is fulfilling their wishes as a species. Fearnley-Whittingstall states this "And I believe that these short, domesticated lives are, on balance, better than no

The actions of people arbitrate the inquiry of our past, yet it seems that everyone lives in the present and for the future, not bothering with “what has been”. Historian Peter N. Stearns constructs a valid argument as to why he believes it is critical for human beings to access the “laboratory of human experience”, thus gaining knowledge of the study of history. Stearns holds firm in the notion that history is a unique discipline in itself, differing from more tangible studies, such as math. No longer is history being justified through education to differentiate social statuses, rather to take advantage of the seemingly indispensable benefits of learning about the past. Stearns affirms that history harbors beauty because it is essential to understanding individuals and society, as well as the changes society has undergone over time.

Animal farm is a book that describes the harsh reality of inequality and injustices towards people of different races in the form of animals on a farm. In a fictional world, talking animals on a farm overthrow the owner, Mr. Jones, and drive him out of his own farm. These shockingly human animals have many of the characteristics that humans have, notably greed and social class differences. In Animal Farm, the revolution and rule of the animals is used as a metaphor to show how corrupt power can lead to inequality and unfair social classes.

We can see remnants of ourselves in the past but not until the 1300s when we start to see a distorted reflection of ourselves. Looking back at how we came to be we can learn about developing ideas that started in the past that we are revisiting once again. We can look back at the path and obstacles we have taken to reach where we are now. Revisiting the later middle ages, the age of the Renaissance, exploration, and reach the new worldview will reveal a lot of our society.

have created a weak central government that is unable to protect the interests of our country. It is