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Schule > Englisch > George Orwell - Animal Farm > "Animal Farm" von George Orwell

Chapter One

Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen- houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his latern dancing from side to side he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery and made his way up to bed , where Mrs Jones was already snoring. As soon as the light in the bedroom went out there was a stirring and a fluttering all through the farm buildings. The word had gone round during the day that Old Major, a very old pig with much charisma, had had a strange dream on the previous and wished to communicate it to the other animals, that were now coming him. When all animals (hens, pigeons, sheep, cows, pig and horses) sat down, Old Major started to speak:

``Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream I had last night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first:
Comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefullness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. (...) Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word- Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.''
The Seven Commandments
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
This Seven Commandments are very often changed by the pigs.

Examples:

The change of number 7 :
`` No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.''

The change of number 8:
``No animal shall kill another animal without cause“

And in the end of the story theres is only one commandmnet existing (but changed, too!!!):
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL.
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
George Orwell, ``Animal Farm''
The novel, Animal farm, is written by George Orwell and published in 1946. George Orwell's Animal Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability an allegory for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917 ( that's what we had discussed in history). The animals of the ``Manor Farm'' overthrow their human thier human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing, that they are working for themselves, not longer for the humans. But more and more, the pigs become dominant, become more power and advantage over the other animals, so much that they become corrupt and power- hungry as their predecessors, the humans. In the end they behave like humans, go upon two legs like humans and betray the other animals on ``Manor Farm'' like humans had done it.

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