Animal Farm Review

Today our group did a review on the first chapter of the classic book, "Animal Farm" written by George Owell. The story is set in a Farm somewhere in England, in a farm owned by someone named Mr. Jones. It's a pretty ordinary farm, and you can find animals there in any other - horses, cows, dogs, cats, pigs, hens, sheep, donkeys, ducks, etc. Now there is this pig which everyone calls Major, and is respected by all the animals in the farm. One night, he holds a meeting in the barn after Mr. Jones falls asleep and starts talking about the utter cruelty of Men. It talks about how it wants to teach the next generations about their cruelty and someone will hopefully start a rebellion. The animals all agreed to this idea. Then, Major taught them a song it heard during its childhood which all came back to it the night before in a dream. The song is about animals rebelling against Men and finally obtaining absolute freedom. The chapter ends when Mr. Jones hears the commotion in the Barn (animal singing) and shoots a couple of bullets into the darkness, causing the animals to retreat to their sleeping posts.

The characters in this story are mostly animals, so it's really interesting to see human beings from an animal's point of perspective. I also like how he portrays the animals to a point where we start feeling sorry for them, and the way they think about us humans - just because a group of people (Mr. Jones and his farmers) are treating them badly, doesn't mean the whole race is as evil. This is what causes rebellions and wars in reality; the author is just trying to convey this to us through his book.

The genre of this book is fiction, but then is still thought-provoking because it makes people think of the possibility of the animal rebellion turning into reality. Actually, this was what generated the most discussion in today's literature circle. We agreed that animals have feelings and thoughts just like us human beings, so there is a chance that they might actually start a rebellion. We were tempted to read the rest of the book to see what happens next.

I would recommend this book to older people, maybe teenagers and above, due to the complicated language that is used. Also, the story has content that you have to read between the lines in order to understand completely, so it will be difficult for a young child to fully enjoy this book. The storyline is great though, and the author's style of writing is really interesting. Really thought-provoking, read this and you will definitely feel wiser when you finish!