Animal Farm by George Orwell

This summer has been crazy and I found I had very little time or energy to read. By the end of the day I just wanted to sit down and do absolutely nothing which sadly meant turning on the tv to watch the History Channel and Connan. Yep, not the greatest use of my time so I finally decided it was time to start working out again and reading. To get back in the mood I decided I needed to read something with a little more literary value since Blake has really been pushing that instead of the young adult and romance books. He is actually very against the clean romance books I've read. So I looked through his shelves of what he deems good literature and chose something I had never read, was a short story, and something I felt I should probably be familiar with since it is a book you hear many people talk about. Sadly, I have never read Animal Farm. There are many classic books out there that I feel I should read since they seem to be basic books everyone else read in high school yet somehow I missed all of them. Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, just to name a few. I honestly do not look forward to reading these since it takes time and is something I have to really concentrate on and think about. I have not yet moved past reading simple, easy-going books for ones that require some thought. Blake only enjoys reading when he feels he is learning something from it and finding himself evaluating himself and society. I wish I was to that point, but I find when I read these books I get irritated with the injustice going on. I have really found that I do not like anything (movies or books) that cause me to be scared or irritated. I read books and watch movies to relax, feel good, and laugh. So onto Animal Farm. It is a very easy read and a short story. It is about animals taking over their farm and driving away the humans. The pigs take over and at first life is much better for all of them, but like many societies, there is that one person that desires to be in complete control and get a lot while doing nothing. This happens when Nepolean, one of the pigs, drives away the other main pig that seemed to work towards the greater good for everyone and keeping to their 7 Commandments. Nepolean makes the other animals work harder with less food while the pigs live in the farm house and in the end start walking on two legs and wearing clothes. It is interesting that the last page the other animals realize that there is no longer any difference between the pigs or humans. So Geroge Orwell wrote this book to show how revolutions in the beginning are for a just cause, but in the end they can become worse than what they had before. I hit to the Soviet Union and other governments that were supporting the Soviets during WWII. I really felt that it was portraying the ignorance and lack of education that the common citizen has which causes governments to become corrupt and take away your rights. Most of the animals just went along with whatever the pigs said because they did not understand, could not read/write, and would not take the time to really learn. The pigs where able to play on each species weaknesses to keep control of the whole farm, making it impossible for anyone to question or even think about another revolution. Even today, I would say a majority of the public has no idea what is going on with the government and have no desire to educate themselves and become involved. They just expect others to do that for them and keep their lives going good. I am one of those that does not keep myself informed or vote in county elections. This could be very damaging since things could be passed that are not in my best interest, but I, along with many others, do not get involved or seem to care. Our ignorance and lack of education in the end could cause us to loose our basic rights if someone like Nepolean where to ever get in control.