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Falcon School
Dahlia Avenue, West Fairview, Q.C.
Junior High School
SY. 2017-2018
A Literary Response Essay to
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
In partial requirement of the
course requirement
in English 9
Submitted by:
Jimwell Z. Fradejas
Submitted to:
Dahn Samuel Jusay
English Teacher
November 10, 2017
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All men are created equal. IT is just that men themselves that place themselves up above
equality. The Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is a satirical and an allegorical fable that
depicts the life before and after the farm animals had rebelled against the humans. The
fable represents the events leading up to the Russian Revolution and then to the Stalinist
era of Soviet Union, Russia. The animals all started from having a dream of being free
from the tyranny of their human master. It was Old Major’s dream to be exact. But after
those months, he died silently, but this didn’t stop the animals from pursuing their
dreams, so they went on. Old Major’s dream was not put to waste, they continue on with
their leader being the pigs, Napoleon and Snowball. The rebellion succeeded and now
they lived peacefully without the evil humans with their way, they even had this rule that
the animals are good while the humans are bad, but things have past. After the connection
that everyone made with one another, things started to gradually change. There had been
a conflict between Napoleon and Snowball that caused the gradual fall of the farm. The
leaders, which are the pigs changed gradually to being what they mostly hated which are
the humans. Everything seemed utopian until its flaws were exposed. In Animal Farm, Old
Major’s utopian vision of the farm for all the animals have resulted to turning to its
opposite. The destruction of the vison can be seen throughout the story, betrayal, lies and
deceits, corruption, fear, and inequality
People betray for lots of reasons, it could be they want something, it could be someone
is stopping their way to achieve something, or sometimes they just hated that person. But
one thing for sure is that anyone could this unto someone, each can betray someone, a
friend, or even a family. So, meaning, trusting someone is really hard and that one
shouldn’t be trusted easily for anytime, they could stab your back, for as they say, keep
your friends close but enemies closer. In Animal Farm, betrayal is one of the reasons why
Old Major’s vision didn’t do well, though at first it seemed right, until it doesn’t like at
first, the animals’ goal is to rebel against their owner, Mr. Jones. He is the one who’s taking
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care of the farm and also the one that sustains it, but because humans are superior to the
animals, they felt that they also deserve to be equal with them, so they betrayed Mr. Jones
the one that took care of them, this could be seen in the 2nd chapter of the novel where
when the animals were forgotten to be feed they threw off the humans even though it is
just an accident. After a few years after the gradual change of the farm was done,
Napoleon, who is now the leader, made a trade with Pilkington but he switched the offer
and traded it to Fredrick, because he is trying to drive up the price, but what he didn’t
know that Fredrick also had his plans, “Mr. Whymper comes running back to tell
Napoleon, "The bank-notes were forgeries! Frederick had got the timber for nothing!"
(Chap. 8). Then after this Fredrick attacked Napoleon but they lost. Then travel to the last
part of the book, it can be found here how the pigs betrayed the animals, the betrayal can
be seen through when at the end the pigs became equal with the humans and that the
animals can’t tell apart to which from which. “The creatures looked from pig to man, and
from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which
was which” (Chap. 10). This tells that the pigs are now in par with humans and all that they
are doing to the animals are being done by the pigs also, meaning, they also punish and
let the animals suffer, which was the reason they betrayed the humans in the first place.
People will do anything they can just to get what they want.
What you see is not what you think, not everything that you see is true, sometimes people
tend to lie to someone because they want to prevent one from seeing what they don’t
want to see, the world will lie to you telling only the things that satisfies your ears. In
Animal Farm, lies and deceits became one of the reasons why the vision died out. One of
it is the promises of the pigs, they promised the animals to have the best farm, they
promised that they will be free and that they will lead them to success but it didn’t work/
Instead, they actually just used the animals for them to be successful, they became just
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like the humans, they lied about everything, from start till’ the end, like when Squealer
changed the rules of the farm constantly. He would go change the rules just to fit with
what Napoleon’s had been doing, in order to trick them into believing that everything
they do illegally is not against the rules, they are just tricking themselves like how they
tricked the animals. “No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS” (Chap. 8) "No animal shall
kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." (Chap. 8) “Four legs good, two legs better” (Chap.
10). Then another is the sad life of Boxer, the horse. Boxer had been a great horse, famous
for his great strength, but low intelligence. Because of this, Napoleon used him as a tool
to succeed, Boxer fought in the wars that happened and even help them do what they
needed to do like fix the windmill and such, but after few years, when the winter have
passed, Boxer got old and weak, and after that when he got sick, at first hey tried to give
him medicine and even thought of bringing to the hospital, but then Napoleon decided
to just give him away to the horse slaughterer or the glue boiler, everyone thought he will
be fine but they lied, they excused that he died in the hospital but he didn’t. “After Boxer's
lung collapses, Squealer tells everyone that Boxer is going to be taken to a veterinary
hospital in Willingdon for surgery. But he's lying. Benjamin reads the side of the van to
the gathered: "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler". But it's too late for Boxer; he tries to
kick his way out of the van, but he's just too old and weak.” (Chap. 9). Then, after Boxer’s
death, the minds of the animals were manipulated, they all believed that Boxer really
didn’t went to the horse slaughterer and also, they had this meeting where Squealer said
that it was actually Napoleon who did all the good work and not Snowball, and everyone
believed in him and until then, this just kept on continuing till’ all that is left is pure lies.
People would tend to lie to one another either because they want it for themselves or
they want it for the sake of others, meaning telling them what satisfies them.
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Words are dangerous things, having the power to abuse language could lead to abusive
power that will be hard to control, and once this has taken over you this will cause
corruption, and this could happen to anyone. In Animal Farm, corruption can be seen
throughout the story. In the beginning of the story, the humans are the leaders of their
own farm, the animals had to work just to satisfy the needs of their human master, they
are only good to do animals if they are not above one year old, but past that, thy don’t
care. The animals will work hard and even suffer but just getting not even half of what the
master receives, they only have few food and they don’t live happily, the humans took
advantage of the animals being intellectual inferior to them, the animals even questioned
why are the humans became the leaders even though they aren’t even that useful in life,
they are not strong, they are not big, they are just average but then they still get to own
the farm. But after the rebellion of the animals from their owner, after the few years have
passed, the pigs now are in control of the farm, but because of having too much power,
this lead to the corruption of the pigs, they destroyed Old Major’s dream and became
corrupt, they just became from what they have hated from the start, humans. They
became the leaders and became those who command even though they aren’t even that
powerful, large, and useful, but because they have the brains, they conquered. And this
became the start of Napoleon’s reign. Napoleon became a dictator and also became evil,
he was corrupted by the power he had, which controlled him and caused him to do things
that shouldn’t been done, he ruined Old Major’s vision and also everyone’s dream. Words
are not just any toys you could play with, having the power to use this is very dangerous
and should be used carefully, having too much power could lead to corruption.
A leader would be nothing if no one would ever fear him. Fear is something someone
draws out power from, these good leaders only became good because people fear them
but abusing it would cause fall. In Animal Farm, after the conflict between Napoleon and
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Snowball had happened things started to change, Napoleon’s reign became something
no one wished for, and because of his way of ruling, the animals feared him and can’t
even fight back, this can be seen when Napoleon changed the rules to satisfy himself,
none of the smart animals even fought back or even tell that Napoleon’s wrong, because
they can’t, they are too scared because Napoleon could easily kill anyone with his dogs,
then also the animals are forced to do work, this made everyone exhausted but still, they
can’t talk, they are too scared to fight back, all they do is just follow Napoleon’s rules. And
then there had been a meeting in the Animal Farm, where Napoleon asked anyone if
anyone wanted to share something to them, because of their stupidity, some of the
animals even revealed that they plan to kill Napoleon which resulted to them being killed,
but no one cared, because again, they are too scared to fight back, just like when the hens
and cows told their mistakes, they were killed yet it felt like it was nothing. Fear could
draw power from someone.
The world will never be a perfect place for anyone, there will never be equality, there will
always be an inequality. In Animal Farm, Inequality became one of the reasons to why the
vision just died out, at fist being the humans to control over the animals, they never loved
it but they can’t do anything but to follow, all that they even wanted was to be on par
with the humans but they are not that smart enough to be, the animals suffered from
inequality and also living in a bad life until they had a rebellion. But after this when the
animals have rebelled against humans, they thought that they would be free but they are
not, the pigs ruled the animals and controlled them, at first all that they say is that they
are not taking advantage of the animals but in reality they actually were, they would use
the animals to work for them and build the windmill, it can be seen throughout the
chapters. Then at last at the end, the goal of being equal with the humans only happened
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to the pigs, the other animals were left down, and was placed back to their original selves
or even worse. There will always be an inequality,
In Animal Farm, Old Major’s vision has been put to waste, his dream never went to come
true but was almost, but because of the gradual changes that happened in the farm, it
died out. Those are the betrayals of one another, the lies and deceits told them which
made them believe, the corruption of the leaders because of having too much power, fear
to those who abuse, and the inequality that was shown to them. Animal Farm is a good
novel that was used to attack the Russian Government before, showing how the humans
had been manipulated into believing in their lies and how they were abused and suffered
from the happenings like that much in the book. The novel was done greatly and also
smart because of how they used the animals to portray the bad old times of the Soviet
Union, I would recommend this to those that are interested in fables and those that like
to be surprised, because this book has a lot to offer to you. So, for you? What is your
vision of utopia, and if you were the leader, do you think you can handle everything
without doing what the pigs have mistaken to do before?