Animal Farm (Chapters 4-7) Review

Today our group did a review on the fourth to seventh chapter of "Animal Farm" by George Owell. Our group decided to read on until we finish the book. Lots of things happened in these chapters - the humans attack the farm to try and regain control but are defeated by the animals; the idea of constructing a windmill was proposed by Snowball and he starts planning out the structure, hoping it would make life easier for all the animals on the farm; Napoleon went against Snowball's idea and unleashed three fierce dogs at him in a meeting, chasing him out of the farm; later it is "revealed" that Napoleon was the one who actually designed the windmill and Snowball was just copying his ideas; it was about then that the pigs moved into the farmhouse and started taking up residence there; the constructing of the windmill starts and all the animals work hard to get it finished as soon as possible; however, one night there was one heavy storm and when the animals hurried to the windmill the next morning, there was nothing but debris left; Napoleon claimed to have picked up Snowball's scent around the mess, declaring that the culprit is indeed him and will award any animal that captures him.

In these chapters, we can see that the pigs are starting to become more and more like the human beings who have once tortured them to no end. They order the other animals around, threaten to slaughter the ones who betray them, take in all the best harvest for themselves, and even reside in the farmhouse, the home of their enemies! At the start, they made a law that they must never use the farmhouse in any way, but now they themselves are the ones breaking the rules and making up excuses. What do you think is going to happen next? Read the book to find out!

The story gets more and more interesting as I flip through the pages of the book and makes me want to keep on reading it. The plot and the character setting are amazing, and the twists and turns surprise me greatly. Also, I realised that the story is based on the actual happenings of World War 2 - the argument between Snowball and Napoleon (which ended with Napoleon taking control of the farm on his own) had happened in reality between two generals who were fighting for control over a country.

The genre of this book is fiction and is also thought-provoking because things seem to be getting worse than it was when Mr. Jones was still reigning over the farm. The prime reason is due to the pigs' dramatic change. Fighting over leadership, residing in the farmhouse which has once been their enemies' home; they have definitely dropped to the level of the humans they hate. This was what generated the most discussion in today's Literature Circle. If the pigs continue doing this, the farm will soon be a chaos with animals fighting against each other for harvest, leadership, and maybe even start a rebellion.

I would recommend this book to teenagers and above due to the complicated language used, as I mentioned in my previous review. Reading between the lines is very essential if you want to fully enjoy the story, so it will be difficult for a young audience to understand the content of this book. The storyline is really good though, and the author's style of writing is really interesting. Lots of new vocabularies can be learnt as well! Really fascinating book, read it and be amazed.

Animal Farm (Chapters 2-3) Review

Today our group did a review on the second and third chapter of the book, "Animal Farm" written by George Owell. Our group decided to continue reading on since we were all interested in finding out what happens next. In chapter 2, Major dies and the other animals start rebelling against Mr. Jones and his farmers - instead of doing their jobs, they start attacking their "owners"! The men get scared because they have never seen the animals behave this way; without any choice, they run away from the farm. Finally freed from their hated enemies, the animals rejoice. With the smartest animals (the pigs) in lead, they decide to run the place on their own. Everything is better than it had been when Mr. Jones was here.

In chapter 3, it shows the pigs bossing the other animals around more intensively than before, and things are starting to look bad for Animal Farm. They always take the best harvest and the others only get hay and water at the least. What's going to happen next? Are the animals going to rebel against the pigs? Or is nothing going to change? Find out the rest by reading the book!

The characters, as I said before, are mostly made up of animals, and the way the author portrays each species is really interesting - for example, the pigs are the smartest yet bossiest ones; the horses are hardworking and kind; the donkey is old and stubborn, etc. The personalities he set for each animal is what most people have in mind, so it's easy to picture the various scenes described in the book.

The genre of this book is fiction and is thought-provoking because even when the animals are freed from the human beings they hate, things are still not going as good as they have thought it would. I think the reason to this is because the pigs are starting to act like Mr.Jones themselves - ordering other animals around, then getting all the best things in the end without doing much. This is what generated the most discussion within our group in Literature Circle today. If the pigs go on like that, they won't be able to change anything in the farm - it will be the same as when Mr. Jones was there.

I would recommend this book to teenagers and above due to the complicated language used, as I mentioned in my previous review. Reading between the lines is essential if you want to fully understand the story, so it will be difficult for a young audience to enjoy this book. The storyline is really good though, and the author's style of writing is really fascinating. You can learn a lot of new vocabularies as well! Read this book and be amazed.