Animal Farm Novel Reflection Essay Example

Animal Farm is a classic story with many ties to our society, and not without reason. Understanding key components, such as the themes and conflict found in Animal Farm is crucial to fully grasp and take in everything this story has to offer. While reading through the book, it seemed that all signs pointed towards a victorious win for the animals. I thought that hidden underneath all the trials and tribulations would await a grand reward, the reward of freedom and peace. But instead of the animal's glorious triumph, a much more sinister ending arose. To fully understand the theme and conflict, let's first take look at a summary of the book.

A farm located in the heart of England resides the animals of Animal Farm. It quickly becomes apparent that these animals aren’t your typical animals. In fact, within the first 2 chapters, Mr.Jones, the farm owner, gets kicked off the farm by the animals in pursuit of freedom from the oppression of the humans! With the animal's ideals of freedom and equality, they create a belief known as animalism, in which the overarching law is the equality of the animals. Following a successful defense of the farm, the animals advance as a civilization with the pigs, the smartest animals, being the masterminds behind it. However, times of peace and tranquility would soon turn into nothing more than a distant dream. Napoleon, hungry for power, exiles his rival Snowball off the farm and gains full leadership over the farm through usage of fear and manipulation. After the careful consideration of the sole leader behind the farm, Napoleon, the building of the windmill commences. This will serve to be a labor-intensive, and crucial project. Soon after, the hens, refusing to give their eggs to Napoleon, lead to the first-ever protest against Napoleons’ rule. Tragically, the first-ever murder of animals, the hens dying for their cause, comes as the result of the protest. But this will quickly seem to be meager compared to the mass slaughter that was to come. Soon after, any animal associated with Snowball is sent to the grave. This event established Napoleon as the true enemy to many. Afterward, the human’s attempt to regain the farm leads to a bloody war with large losses on both sides. Animal Farm wins the war but loses the windmill. After Boxer gets seriously injured, Napoleon decides there is no more use for him and he gets sent, unbeknownst to anyone else, to be executed. With suspicions of the animals on the rise, the Pigs change the commandments, the principles of their society, to justify their actions. You may now think that there may be a glimmer of hope for the animals, but alas, no such hope arrives. The ending leads to the pigs sitting down and having a meal with the humans, with them acting almost indistinguishable from them. With this in mind, we can now look at the main theme and conflict in this story.

The overarching theme I picked up while reading this story is how power leads to corruptness and the breaking of promises. Let me elaborate. When the revolution against humans first began, the animals were doing so in search of hope and freedom against human oppression, their power over them. When Jones was chased off the farm and all power was eliminated with the introduction of animalism, the animals enjoyed a moment of peace. Power had not yet had its reign on anybody and thus, this becomes the only peaceful time Animal Farm will get to experience. However, Napoleon, the person who became the leader of the farm, got a taste of what power tastes like, and from there, it all went downhill. As soon as he was put in a position of power, the power corrupted him, as power has done so many times throughout history. He implemented unrelenting labor for all and harsh punishments for the disobedient, often leading to death. He disposed of the unneeded and he became corrupt from the inside, turning more and more human, breaking the one principle the animals swore to uphold. Power turned the promises of freedom for the animals into nothing but a mere wish. The story of the Russian Revolution and the USSR, this story’s allegory, shows us an example of this theme applied in real life. How a leader with a promise of freedom becomes corrupt from power. This is why how power leads to corruptness and the breaking of promises is the dominant theme.

Although there are many smaller conflicts in this story, I will be talking about the main clash, the pigs vs the animals, a person vs person conflict. The conflict first starts shortly after Napoleon assumes his power and exiles Snowball off of the farm. It quickly becomes clear that Napoleon isn’t working for the animals, but rather against them, using the animals as mere pawns for his and the pig’s benefit. However, the oblivious animals aren’t able to catch on until much later, despite Napoleon’s evident usage of fear and manipulation to gain power over the animals. It is this seemingly small error will prove to be the downfall of the animals and why the animals never stood a fighting chance. The first conflict between the 2 parties came at the time when the animals rebelled against Napoleon and refused to give up their eggs to him. However, by that time the pigs had so much leverage over them that their rebellion served as no threat to the pigs. Many hens died and the pigs used this opportunity to gain greater power over the farm. The mass slaughter of those connected to Snowball served to be a huge wake-up call to many. But by the time the animals finally realize that the pigs were against them, it is too late. The pigs, using fear and manipulation, gained so much power that the animals were completely overruled by them. The pigs, who are the antagonists of the book, come out victorious, acting like the humans they swore not to be. The naivety of the animals ended up being their downfall. The end to this conflict, although not expected, really tied up everything that made Animal farm such a deep story, driving down the major themes of the story even harder. 

While reading the story, the connections that I found present from the book to my personal life were plentiful. I will be going through the 2 connections that stood out to me the most. As I was reading the section of the story in which the pigs were deceiving the animals into submitting to them, the story of the Canadian government deceiving the first nations into signing the treaty was the first parallel that crossed my mind. Using underhanded tactics to deceive the targeted group is a deceitful trick that both the pigs and the Canadian Government both excel at. A future of oppression and grieving was awaiting both the First Nations and the animals on Animal Farm. Being compared to the pigs, the antagonist, really struck me and reminded me how oblivious we’ve been about how we treated the First Nations. It reminded me of how we, as Canadians, are the antagonist of the First Nation’s story and why reconciliation is so important. I mean, do we really want to be compared to the evil, deceptive pigs in Animal Farm? Another connection that I made hails not from the real world but rather the fictional world. May I present, 86. An anime that follows the very similar idea of corruption due to power. In this story, a race known as the Alba has absolute control over the other races who live in the 86 districts of San Magnolia. While all races once lived in harmony with each other, when faced with war, one race stood above the rest and sent the other races to fight the good fight. The principles upon which the republic stood, freedom, equality, brotherhood, justice, and nobility were all disregarded as the Alba sent the others to die in war. Disregarding the main principles was also what the pigs were doing, constantly breaking the 7 commandments. Both of these injustices can be traced down to one idea, power and corruption that come with it. Just like with Animal Farm, the Alba, using leverage as their main attacking strategy, oppressed the others with little standing in their way. These small connections allowed me to gain a deep interest and appreciation for the book.

Investing the time to grasp the theme, conflict, and all the details mentioned in the story adds so much to the story. It allowed me to fully understand what the author was trying to convey to me, a crucial aspect of reading that I haven’t done a whole lot in the past. Despite spending so much analyzing and spending time in the story, the ending that came was one that I did not expect. Is this really the end for the animals? I pondered that question as I flipped through the final pages of the book. I thought that, just like a standard story, the protagonist would end up overcoming the antagonist.  I mean, how could I think otherwise? The bread and butter of writing, the protagonist being victorious, is found in countless stories and is by far the most common ending to a book. However, this common ending just did not find its way into the book, making the ending a key part of what makes this story so great. By choosing a road less traveled, Animal Farm drove down the key lessons and theme so much better than it would have with a standard ending. It also strays away from the standard cliche ending that has come to be quite overused, making the story unique and interesting. These are the theme, conflict, how I connected with the story, and why I didn’t see the ending coming.