What were the components of Major's speech? The bad news: the animals have to work like crazy. The culprit: humans who only consume and do not produce. The solution: rebellion. What is the similarity between Major's offer and that made by Moses? They both offered a better future, though not necessarily a better present. Is that enough? What things are worth sacrificing your present life so that those in the future can have a better one?
Are Mollie's questions important ones? She asks, "Will there still be sugar after the rebellion?" and ". . . shall I still be allowed to wear ribbons in my mane?" These questions relate to freedom. Is it important to have the freedom to have those things that are not necessities? Ice cream, though not a necessity, provides pleasure in life and pleasure, though not the only reason for living, is an important component that contributes to a meaningful and contented existence.
Orwell's intention in Animal Farm was to directly comment on the Soviet Union.
How do the following quotes from Eric Hoffer's The True Believer relate to Animal Farm:
It is a truism that many who join a rising revolutionary movement are attracted by the prospect of sudden and spectacular change in their conditions of life.
A rising mass movement preaches the immediate hope. It is intent on stirring its followers to action, and it is the around-the-corner brand of hope that prompts people to act.
Not only does a mass movement depict the present as mean and miserable—it deliberately makes it so. It fashions a pattern of individual existence that is dour, hard, repressive and dull. It decries pleasures and comforts and extols the rigorous life. It views ordinary enjoyment as trivial or even discreditable, and represents the pursuit of personal happiness as immoral.
The last quote relates to Mollie's innocent, yet important question.
Chapters 7 - 10
What caused the rebellion in a practical sense? It was food. Jones neglected to feed the animals and from this, though Major had prepared them for it, ensued the rebellion.
Civilization is fragile. In Will Durant's Our Oriental Heritage from his series of books The Story of Civilization he writes in Chapter One, "The Conditions of Civilization," about the need for a "continuity of food." I believe it was the Roman Emperors who promised their citizens "bread and games." That is, if we feed them and entertain them they will not cause us any problems; they will not rebel.
In a footnote in the same book Durant writes,
Perhaps one reason why communism tends to appear chiefly at the beginning of civilizations is that it flourishes most readily in times of dearth, when the common danger of starvation fuses the individual into the group. When abundance comes, and the danger subsides, social cohesion is lessened, and individualism increases; communism ends where luxury begins.
I wonder what Benjamin's cryptic comment concerning the results of the rebellion means: "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." It may be that Benjamin was simply saying that because he will live a long time it would be ludicrous to judge the results of the rebellion so soon after it had occurred. He, quite rightly, wanted to wait before passing judgment.
At the end of Chapter Five Orwell writes,
The animals were not certain what the word[tactics] meant, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions.
In Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, from chapter 13, "Factors Promoting Self-Sacrifice" he writes,
The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth.
How do we know if what we read in the press and hear from our government is true? What things can we do as individuals to protect ourselves from falsehoods? Is it possible or practical to verify everything that we read or hear?
Why does Snowball receive all the blame? There seems to be a progression of the blame-recipients: the human race in general, then Mr. Jones and then Snowball. At various times it was Mr. Pilkington or Mr. Frederick, but there was always someone receiving the blame; there was always a scapegoat. Never was there an admission of guilt. Again I quote from Eric Hoffer,
Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil.
Napoleon always made sure that there was a devil lurking outside Animal Farm and, often, even within it.
Why were some animals willing to confess to something they had not done when they knew it meant death? Was it possible the government had threatened other members of their family? Maybe promised that they would be safe if they confessed?
Boxer has a desire to retire and lead a life of leisure so he could finish learning the rest of the alphabet. What is leisure? Aristotle said that “We are not-at-leisure in order to be-at-leisure.” That is, we work in order to have leisure. It is time away from work, but no only that. It involves contemplation and thought. In Leisure, the Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper writes,
Leisure is a form of that stillness that is the necessary preparation for accepting reality; only the person who is still can hear, and whoever is not still, cannot hear.
One of the requirements for leisure is time. Boxer had no time during his working life to educate himself—he was always working or recovering from work. How does one continue to educate themselves? Reading. Awareness. Thinking. Observation. These, among many other things, all contribute.
What does "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL/BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS" mean? Simply put, all animals were not equal in Animal Farm. What are the social differences in our own country and in the world and why do they exist?.
Why did the pigs and the humans look the same at the end of the book? The pigs had become like the very people they were criticizing.
