Reading Report on Animal Farm

屈紅賢

Abstract：The animals in Manor Farm overthrew Mr. Jones （the owner of the farm） cruel rule， and established their own government with the slogan： ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL. After that， they began to learn ABC， but most of them learned nothing except pigs， Benjamin and Muriel. They defeated two farms which adjoined their farm. But before long， the two leaders， both of which were young boats， had conflict with each other because of the desire for power. Napoleon one of the leaders who was more sophisticated and slier chased the other leader Snowball away and declared that Snowball was traitor and an agent for Mr. Jones. Animals built a windmill very hard for they believed that the windmill would ease their burden and they could live a better life.

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE

EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Finally， the pigs came to resemble men. They acted in mens way， such as they walked on two legs and drunk wine. They were also in league with human. Other animals were in bad situation again.

Key words：Human Nature； Greed； Vanity； Ignorance； Narrow Vision； Indifference

About why the writer， George Orwell， wrote this book， there are many opinions. The writer himself mentioned that he wanted to expose a lie——the myth of Soviet Union.

In order to learn better about a book， one should know the background of the writer. George Orwell was born in India in 1903， which was the British colony at that time. He witnessed the sharp conflict between colonists and the colonized. He felt sorry for the Indian. George Orwell was educated in Eton College. Then he was dispatched to Myanmar to work as a policeman. There he found that people were in poor situation. So he thought that Capitalism was bad and Socialism might be better. In 1936， he went to Spain and joined in Communist Party. But he was chased by the Communist Party in the end because of the Soviet revolution. After experiencing all these， he found many disadvantages of Soviet policy， and he wanted to write something to tell others about that. Whats more， in order to make his book understandable to everyone， he came up with an idea that writing story about animals was a good way. And what happened in the farm symbolized the situation in Soviet.

I think human are greedy. As long as men get the power， they want to gain more things by making use of the power. Men conquered other animals thousands years ago and became the king of the animals. They kill animals for all kinds of reason and take it for granted that other animals should be in their control. The irony is that men also claim that we should be animal-friendly for all animals are equal. Until now there are still many cases of cruelty to animals and over hunting for wild animals. To some extent， almost everyone is like Mr. Jones.

Greed can change anyone. At first， pigs felt that the rules set by Mr. Jones were cruel and inhumane， and then they overthrew it. They desired the freedom and just wanted to work for themselves. But after the pigs had enjoyed the advantages of being the supervisors， they were unwilling to lose it and forgot what they had promised at the very beginning. Finally， they just did what Mr. Jones used to do in past.

We human beings are some kind of Mr. Jones and pigs. We are greedy. Almost no one can resist the temptation to gain without pains. We have no sooner gotten the privilege than we forget what we strive for initially. We cant get out of that privilege.

About the pigs， in my opinion， they were also feeling after vanity. They wanted a good reputation though they did evil things. They wanted the other animals to worship them and treated them as good leaders. For example， Napoleon enjoyed it very much when the other animals were shouting “Napoleon is always right”. So do human. For instance， students cheat in the exam. They do so because they want to get a high score so that others will think he or she is clever and talented. This is the result of pursuing vanity.

If human were ignorant and couldnt think of anything themselves， we would still stay in primitive society. It is the knowledge and independent thinking that push our development of society. But we have to admit that there are still some people that are no so knowledgeable and cant think too much on themselves. Take the teenage drugs addicts for example.

The last animal I want to talk about is Benjamin， the donkey. “Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm， and the worst tempered.” “He seldom talked.” In fact， Benjamin was clever. He could realize that he worked harder but received less food than before， but he didnt point it out. “Benjamin could read as well as any pig， but he never exercised his faculty”. He thought no matter what had happened， there wasnt any change in his life. I think the reason is that he was numb and indifferent. If he could stand out and told others that the pigs had cheated them， maybe it can make a difference. We human beings， in a way， are numb and indifferent， too. There are many stray cats and dogs in the street. Most of us leave them alone. We turn a blind eye to them. Because we think that our life will not change after we help them. So it is waste of time and energy to do so. Whats more， it is impossible to help all the stray animals. Those animals usually die of undernourishment and disease finally. But if we can lend them a hand， we will make a different to their lives. At least， in that way， we can change ones life which we help.

Greed， vanity， ignorance， narrow vision， indifference， all these are human nature. We are born with them. We have so many shortcomings， but society doesnt become worse and worse. On the contrary， it becomes better and better. Why？ Because human become better and better by learning.

Trying to complete ourselves and become a better person is what I have learned from this book.