So, I was gone the day of the discussion on the book Animal Farm, which I would totally recommend you to read. It’s a very good book and has a lot of connections to the Russian revolution. Since I was gone, I want to share some of my thoughts on the book. But first, so visitors aren’t lost if they hadn’t read the book I shall share…THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION PEOPLE CONNECTIONS!!

• Napoleon, the main pig leader=Joseph Stalin, a man responsible for the death of million. He pushed Trotsky out of leadership and blamed all future problems. Cross his path, disagree with him, or refuse his orders? You’re probably dead. By himself, he managed to turn the new republic for of government into a monarcy, or even a dictatorship. 
• Snowball, the co-leader with Napoleon until he was banished from Animal Farm on Napoleon’s orders=Leon Trotsky, a man that, after Lenin died, tried to continue the new republic with everything he had. However, his plans were foiled by Stalin who banished him from Russia (later to be killed).
• Old Major, the most respected pig at the beginning of the book before he died of old age=Vladimir Lenin, a man that started the revolution and got it moving. He soon died from a disease. 
• Mr. Jones, the human owner of Manor Farm (Animal Farm with humans in charge)=Nicholas II, a man that was a dictator (but was called King). He was overthrown by the people of Russia.
• Squealer, the pig that lied to everyone to make Napoleon look good and was the speaker of the farm=the newsletter or newspaper that Stalin made everyone subscribe to that made Stalin look absolutely fabulous because it was full of lies. 

Ok, now onto the thoughts on Animal Farm. First of all, let me say this: for a teacher’s pet that’s a stickler for the rules and the execution of rules, this was a hard book to read. Napoleon and Snowball started off by making Seven Commandments that were fairly straight forward; they were simplified to “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Late in the book, after Snowball’s gone, Napoleon changes the rules so much by telling the animals they remembered them wrong. In fact, “four legs good, two legs bad” was changed to “four legs good, two legs better” so that the pigs could walk on their hind legs and not be breaking a rule. The funny thing is, if any other animal tried to walk on their hind legs, Napoleon probably would have found a reason to kill the animal (which was another rule he changed).

Furthermore, whenever Squealer is justifying something that’s bad that Napoleon did, he always ends with saying something along the lines of, “You don’t want Jones back do you?” It really wasn’t fair. It wouldn’t have worked if the pigs weren’t in charge, but they were. Not to mention, no, the animals didn’t have Jones back, but it was almost like they did: working super hard for little gain. It was unjust, but was what was happening during the revolution (“Surely you don’t want the monarcy back?”). 

More about Snowball and Napoleon’s relationship. While Snowball was on the farm, Napoleon was only pretending to like him. When Napoleon had the chance to take down Snowball, he did, and lied to everyone about Snowball. Later, when Snowball was gone, he was Napoleon’s scapegoat (yes…vocab word!). Everything bad that happened, it was Snowball, not Napoleon or the other pigs. Anything Napoleon did before Snowball was gone, was still Snowball somehow.

All in all, Animal Farm was a very good book that I’m sure to read again on my own for fun. I hope that, because of this post, you either think differently about the book or have stronger opinions (if you’ve read the book). If you have yet to read it, go and buy it because it’s fantastic. Comment what you think!