Animal Farm 8 Essay, Research Paper
Animal Farm
The animals (characters) in this movie acted as though they were humans. At the beginning, everything seemed normal, although the animals spoke to one another. Before I knew it, everything got out of hand and the people shot at the animals. Then, the animals attacked the people. The most depressing part of the whole movie was the fact that the pigs had all the power. The power to run the farm as they chose, the power to make the rules and the power to communicate
with the humans until greed took over and everything got out of hand.
In the beginning of the movie, the Pilkington s drove down the rode, their children were hitting the pigs with slingshots and it appeared to be a normal, okay thing to do. They didn t get in trouble in fact it was apparent that these boys needed some discipline. This family apparently had money and because of their social status, felt it was alright to treat animals and people, that weren t of their
caliber, as if they meant nothing to society. There was a great deal of class conflict between the family that lived on the farm, the Jones , and the Pilkingtons. The Jones owed money to the Pilkingtons and they were taunted throughout the movie about it.
On the other hand, the animals had personalities of their own and were holding meetings in the barn. They would discuss such things as how bad they were being treated by Mr. Jones. He was an alcoholic and drank all the time. He treated the animals poorly and put his drinking and fun before taking care of them. Sometimes they wouldn t get fed for days. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones heard a lot of
noise going on outside while the animals were having one of their meetings, so he took a shotgun out to the barn and shot into the barn killing the Old Major . Because Old Major was the lead pig and was shot and slaughtered, the other pigs decided it was time for a Revolution.
Soon after the shooting happened, the pig slaughterer tried to feed Jessie the sheepdog, the raw bones of Old Major . She knows it s his bones and she refuses them and decides to walk away even though she was starving.
The pigs were the leaders of all the farm animals and had all the power to make the rules. As time went by, these pigs got more and more greedy and decided they would change the rules to their satisfaction.
As all of these changes were going on with the farm animals, the Jone were having a downward mobility problem going on in their lives. They owed Mr. Pilkington money and he had decided to take the farm away from them in exchange for the money they owed him. As the Pilkingtons and other townspeople partied and drank, the animals were trying to figure out how they could run the farm without humans. They decided they no longer needed the humans around and wanted to be free from them. Things happened quickly after this decision was made.
The animals work and the pigs supervise. Some dissatisfaction arises: the animals are outraged to learn that the pigs are keeping all the milk and apples for themselves. Meanwhile, Jones and his men have set up a radio receiver to eavesdrop on the animals. They decide to attack the farm and take it back. The humans are defeated.
A few months later, Snowball (one of the pig leaders) has decided that the animals need to build a windmill. Napolean (one of the other pig leaders) opposes the idea and uses the disagreement as an opportunity to take charge.
Meanwhile, the humans learn that the animals can talk. Pilkington works his way into the pig s trust and feeds whiskey to them. At this point, the pigs are living in the house and sleeping in the beds, which was breaking the commandments of animalism.
The Jones take revenge by dynamiting the nearly completed windmill. Napoleon announces that responsibility lies with the traitor Snowball and that all animals must continue to sacrifice to rebuild it. Meanwhile, the animals are not getting enough to eat and once again, Napoleon places the blame on Snowball and now the hens must give up their eggs to sell. They refuse. Then, a film is shown to the animals documenting the executions of animals found guilt of treason.
Now it s time for an escape attempt. The animals are fed up with the pigs behavior. Jessie (the sheepdog) leads the escape. She feels guilty that she was unable to help Boxer (the loyal carthorse) from being taken away by a horse slaughterer that the pigs had previously arranged. Boxer was a victim of absolute power. He represented the humble, but because he was expendable, he was tirelessly exposed to the labor of the pig s rules. Few of the animals are able to escape because of the heavy rains. After some time has passed, they make their way back to Animal Farm and it has decayed from all the rain and pollution. Then as the film progresses forward, we see a new family arrive at the farm in hopes of finding happiness forever. The movie was about absolute power that corrupts absolutely.