Writing:
After reading up to chapter seven of Animal Farm by George Orwell, it becomes extremely clear that communism leads to corruption. While in theory, communism should be the best method of distributing resources, it can never be enforced properly. In order to have equality, there needs to be a governing body to ensure that everything is running smoothly. It is only natural for one to want more for themselves. In the book, the farm started off with equality, where all animals had equal say in decision making, and they were given the same resources. However, the pigs began taking more, but not too much that would raise suspicion with others. They took just a little with enough justification so that the other animals wouldn’t rebel, and that the extra they took did not majorly affect anyone else’s well-being. In the beginning, everyone is satisfied with the pigs’ leadership, but the problems arise when they begin to take more.
When Napoleon used the guard dogs to remove Snowball from the farm, it was the beginning of totalitarianism. He first asserted his dominance physically by having guard dogs trained and tailored to his liking. He then began to control the farm by manipulating the animals’ thinking, and filtering the information entering and leaving the farm. This even went as far as Napoleon trying to change history by convincing others that certain things had happened when they clearly had not, even going as far as giving himself awards. Once the government has total power, the area begins to be overrun with corruption. Napoleon began taking more, leading to the other animals having less, while forcing them to work more. In addition, Napoleon began to ruthlessly kill those who opposed him, making sure that everyone on the farm would be obedient. Overall, it seems that George Orwell’s message so far in Animal Farm is that while communism may be good in theory, over time those that are required to enforce it become corrupt, leading to a lower quality of life for the general population.
Reflection:
a) These two paragraphs that I have shared are part of my analysis on the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell. It was an analysis of communism, its effectiveness, and how power changes leaders. I did it as part of my novel study in the past few weeks of humanities. My goals when preparing it were to summarize the moral of the book within a few paragraphs.
b) This assignment makes me very proud because of high level of deep thinking that was involved in doing it. As a result, I produced very high quality writing that I feel strongly represents the overall message of Animal Farm.
c) I overcame many obstacles in the writing of this assignment. The main challenge I faced was summarizing such large ideas into only two paragraphs. I also faced many challenges with understanding how communism in the book changed and led to a lower quality of life for everyone, as it required a lot of deep thinking in the text.
d) If I were to do it again, I would likely include more information and detail in my writing. Throughout the process, the writing could have been enhanced if the use of external research was included. The final product could have also been more effective given that I proofread it more, and write in more powerful ways.