Animal Farm; Hope

1. Animal Farm; Hope By Kainan, Tabitha & Liam

2. Why is it important to have hope? What does it give people? In Animal Farm, it is important for the animals to have hope so they rebel against Mr. Jones and hope for a better life without man and with animalism. The song ‘Beasts of England’ inspired the animals to rebel and gave them hope. They hoped for a life where all animals were equal, they were their own bosses and where there were no humans to tell them what to do. Old Major says “remember your enmity towards Man and all his ways’’ this makes the animals think about their hatred towards Man and it makes them hope for the life without Man; taking the hens eggs, taking the cows milk, making the animals pull the plough, and Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.

3. If Moses raven represents religion, what is his view of heaven and how does this offer hope to the animals? In Animal Farm Moses the raven thinks Heaven is Sugar Candy Mountain. Moses describes Sugar Candy Mountain as “that happy country where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labours” and “everlasting fields of clover and the linseed cake and lump sugar growing on the hedges.” The animals believed everything that Moses said about Sugar Candy Mountain and it was something for the animals to look forward to after they die. They believed that they had somewhere good to go after they die and they thought that it would be better than the life they already have because they won’t have to work and they have unlimited amounts of food. Compared to their hungry and laborious lives now Sugar Candy Mountain was their hope and their light at the end of the tunnel.

4. What do you think each of the main animals on the farm hope for ? I think that all the main animals in Animal Farm hope for “a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak.” This shows us their dream or hope for the future when the plan of the rebellion had first been thought of. Also “their sense of honour and privilege in being member of Animal Farm. They were still the only farm in the whole of England to be owned and operated by animals” This was what they wanted from the start so this is what they had hoped for when they rebelled.

5. What is the philosophy of Animalism and how does it represent hope for the future? The philosophy of Animalism is “All animals are equal.” This gives the animals hope in a way that they believe that no one should be their boss, they should be the bosses of themselves. It gives the animals hope for the future because the lives they had before were lives in Totalitarianism so the thought of Animalism gave them hope and it gave them something to look forward to. But when Napoleon began to take the lead, their dream for the future seemed to fade away and the philosophy was changed to “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” This showed that Totalitarianism seemed to be coming back and Napoleon ruled Animal Farm in the same way as a Tsar.

6. Explain Old Majors speech and the ways in which it offers hope. Old Major gives the speech about how bad the animals lives are compared to humans and how they can change it. He explained what an easy life humans lead and what they get away with and how unfair it is. ‘ Man is the only creature that consumes without producing, he does not give milk or lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough and he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of animals’. This small part of what Old Major said about humans gave the animals an understanding of how much they actually have to deal with and it hurt them to think about how much they really have to do yet still they are lower than men.

7. Explain Old Majors speech and the ways in which it offers hope. Animals have it so much harder and Old Major rubbed this in to get it into their heads what they’re letting the humans get away with. ‘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 useless has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty’. This was the tuning point for the animals, it had taken them time but then they finally realised what they had been going through for most of their lives and Old Major told them straight that they had to do something to stop it. Old Major said again and again ‘man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever’. Old Major gave the animals hope that theirs lives would get better if they get rid of man and he told them over and over so they built all their anger up so that as soon as man’s gone, their lives would instantly improve and they’ll be happy forever. Old Major finishes him speech with ‘rebellion’ and this is how they will get rid of man.

8. How does education, or lack of it, influence the hopes and dreams of the animals? Education influences the animals into thinking that without it, they will grow old without a good job so they are constantly hoping that they will get educated somehow because they want to live the best lives they can get (which is what they see the pigs doing, who are educated and can read and write). Also because it makes their lives more exciting. A good example of an animal who is determined to learn is Boxer, he is always trying his absolute hardest in everything because he wants to be the best, however Boxer isn’t very intelligent. This is shown in chapter 3 where Boxer is trying learn the alphabet, ‘Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, and D, in the dust with his great hoof’. That is just a small part of the quote which backs my point that Boxer is trying to learn but he cannot learn more than 4 letters of the alphabet so he therefore must be hoping and dreaming on a regular basis that he will get the chance to learn more (by being educated).

9. In chapter 10 are the animals to be admired or pitied for never giving up hope? In my opinion I pity the animals but its only because I think they’ve been stupid as Napoleon and the other pigs ended up behaving like the humans anyway, right in front of them, when they were supposed to be against them and the animals haven't even realised how much the pigs have changed, its unbelievable how it hasn’t even occurred to them. Its also very obvious that they still believe its all about Animalism, when actually they’re the only ones left out of all of the animals who are still dedicated to what they had first decided about removing man from their lives; the pigs have returned to non-animalism ways. This shows how stupid the animals have been and this is why I pity them.