Brooke Gonzales Humanities 09-29-11 Education in Animal Farm
In 1946 a man by the name of George Orwell would write one of the most controversial and insightful books of all time, a book by the name of Animal Farm. Animal Farm takes place on a farm called Manor Farm. One day a pig by the name of Major has a dream, and in this dream he dreams of a free England with no humans. When he tells his dream to the fellow animals on the farm he instills a thought of revolution in their minds and hearts. Some days later, Major dies and the animals revolt and take over Manor Farm renaming it Animal Farm. The story is about what takes place after the revolution and if the animals can survive on their own. It it said to reflect the Russian Revolution. Through his novel Animal Farm , George Orwell tries to teach and emphasize the importance of being educated. In this essay the story of the disasters that fall upon the uneducated animals of Animal Farm will be told. These include putting their trust in the wrong hands, getting played and controlled, and not being able make a decision for themselves. Constantly throughout the story, the uneducated animals put blind faith in the in the animals who were smarter then them and let them decide how their life were to be lived. For example, when Snowball (one of the leaders of the revolution) was removed from Animal Farm, Squealer, another pig on the farm, told the animals that Snowball had to be removed because he had been secretly been plotting against them and that he had all written it down in these “secret” journals. When the animals don't believe him, he tells them, “ I could show you this in his own writing ,if you were able to read it.”(p.81) And because the animals cannot read, they were forced to believe something that in the end wasn’t true and if they knew it wasn't, it could have saved them from so much misery. This is one of the reasons of why George Orwell tries to teach the importance of education through his novel. Another important point Orwell tries to teach is about dictatorship and being played. In this story the animals pass the leadership role to Napoleon, a pig who can read and write. Napoleon uses his power to play and control the animals. One way he does this is by changing the rules. When the animals first established Animal Farm, they came up with seven commandments to live …show more content…
For example, when ever the horse Colver, couldn't read something, she would have to depend on the goat Muriel who could barely read. Every animal had to depend on the pigs and even though the power went to the pigs heads, the animals still listened because the pigs were smarter. In the end, the pigs became dictators and started to turn the farm into every thing the animals revolted against in the first place. The animals worked day and night to try to make Animal Farm something special, and because the animals couldn't make a decision on their own, everything they worked for went down the drain. This is just one more reason of why George Orwell tires to show the importance of education through his