Summary:
Reviews the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell and the movie "Animal Farm." Compares major themes and points out differences between the two works.
Have you ever thought too hard about something, some topic or idea, and you realized that because you were thinking too hard you were keeping yourself from finding an answer or from finding a solution? Well, when you think about the book Animal Farm I believe that you can't think too hard about the themes or about what the book is trying to represent. If you do, it will keep you from really seeing what the point is that the book is trying to get across. It really isn't all that difficult to understand at all. The themes of the book are all wrapped into important ideas and main points in the book; you just have to know what those important ideas and main points are. Let's take the theme of power corrupting.
The book describes how as the pigs gained power it becomes harder and harder for the rest of the farm animals to realize what it was that the pigs were actually trying to do to the farm, because of the pigs great ability to persuade. In the book the animals are portrayed as being more stupid than they are in the movie. The book made it so the animals are too naïve to keep themselves from being brainwashed by the pigs talent of persuasion. This is first shown when, in the novel, Napoleon takes control of the food in Chapter Two. He gets the food by persuading the rest of the farm animals that that is what is right for them. He does the same with Jessie's puppies. He convinces Jessie that if she wanted what was right for her puppies she would let him take them. He also told her that he was going to 'educate' her puppies which was like a persuasion technique. I think that the movie de-emphasizes the theme of power corruption because the book just had a much better description of how everything happened and how it was being turned around. All of the persuasion examples show how easily it was for the pigs to begin trying to gain their power. This is first shown when in the novel Napoleon takes control of the food in Chapter two. Also, he shows his power by removing Jessie's puppies to supposedly 'educate' them.
Unlike the novel, the movie shows the pigs casual attitude towards changing the commandments. They seem to have no problem, in doing that. When Napoleon took away the right for the animals to have debates and elections, he went against the 'all animals are equal' commandment. Napoleon did not see the point in the elections and the debates, so he did what ever he could to restrain it, and did so very easily. When the animals were hung, there was a violation of the 'no animal shall kill another animal' commandment. Eventually, the commandments were being changed behind the other animals' backs, which helped the pigs move the rest of the farm in the direction they wanted them to go, and helped them gain power. In this case, the movie emphasized the theme of power corrupting because it gave more of an explanation as to why, when, and how the commandments were changed, and showed a more clear view of what it did to the rest of the farm.
Next, in the movie the pigs were very careful about their sources of information having to do with any subject, especially when they broke a commandment, they knew that the animals would probably question it and they weren't about to let the animals find out what was going on. This is shown in the way that Napoleon uses Squealer's ability to turn things around or "turn black into white" to convince the animals that his actions and decisions were the right ones and that he knew what it was that was best for the farm. We also get a taste of this when we find out that Squealer agrees with Napoleon and believes that the windmill should be built in chapter five. We also see this as we constantly hear Squealer praising Napoleon, saying that he has lots of wisdom, is very kind, and says that he has very good judgment. This is shown when we find out that Squeaker agrees with Napoleon and believes that the windmill should be built in Chapter Five of the novel. This is also shown when the novel constantly describes Squealer's praises to Napoleon, saying the he has lots of wisdom, is very kind, and has very good judgment. In this instance, the movie and the book do an equally good job. Neither one emphasizes or de-emphasizes the theme, they both describe everything very well and get the point across about the pigs and their power.
Why is it that the pigs were able to do so much to the farm? Well, a big part of it was that the pigs had the education to do so. They had the knowledge to get what they wanted and knew exactly what the other animals' weak spots were and they were able to corrupt them by constantly hitting those spots. Very few of the animals, at least in the book, really wanted to develop the same skills as the pigs did, that is a big part of what made them so open to corruption also. The pigs were able to achieve what they wanted through a very big talent....the talent of good use of language. I think that George Orwell writes this book to say why he thinks that revolutions fail; and not only that, but many other things also, but this is one thing that he might have been trying to get at besides how absolute power corrupts. He may be trying to say that revolutions fail because once their leaders are in power they take the power that they have and make it work for the best of themselves. They are very careful when it comes to their sources of information, and use propaganda to brainwash the public into trusting them. I think that both the movie and the book do a really good job of getting this and many other important points and ideas across to the reader/viewer.
This is the complete article, containing 1,036 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
