Animal Farm *spoilers*
 

i have just recently finished reading the book "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. i found it to be a good book in a learning way and just for fun.

but anyway, what are your thoughts on the book?

I remember it was based off of Russia. The pigs were the Russians in charge and the other animals were either workers or countries Russia attacked. I really enjoyed it too especially the goat character. He was smart.

I used to really like this book. But a comparative literature course I took this year totally ruined it for me, what with their "No, this obviously means this and not that!" I still love the very last line though.

Animals are tasty.
 

I didn't think that much of it. As far as disutopian stories go, I thought 1984 was much better. Even better than either of those books is Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury (its just much spookier).

Ayn Rand has a good one too (can someone help with the title...its not the Fountainhead, its the one that is about 1/10th the size of that) up until the final chapter, when crappy-cliffhanger ending hits you like a brick to the throat.

Although, there is a certain lesson to be learned in Animal Farm...The way the rules suddenly change, or should I say, are "re-inturpretted" ("We never said you couldn't sleep in a bed. Just not a bed with sheets.") to the benifit of the few is something that goes on in our everyday lives. I can think of a few good lawyer books where that is pertinent.

At any rate, this post is long and rambling...

Anthem? I don't remember the cliffhanger, but Anthem is one of Rand's less...radical books, you know, the kind that even liberals can enjoy.

Animal Farm is fun though. It's a good novel, and the movie adaptation with Patrick Stewart rocks.

Yeah that's it
 

Anthem is the one I was thinking of, and you're right, it is the less radical of her books. The thing I never liked about Ayn Rand is that she always, always stacks the side to her favor in her books, so you, the reader, are left with no choice but to agree with her in the given situation. This sometimes works well in drama, but when you are trying to proove a point the educated, it just makes you seem one sided and "ranty" (is that a real adjective?).

And it wasn't really the cliffhanger, but rather, the story didn't continue, and it felt that it should have. The main charecter escapes from the oppressive society, discovers his own self worth, and decides to exact revenge on the former society. He vows some kind of war on that society, some kind of absolution, and right then and there, the book just ends. It felt like the book was building up to that conflict, not up until the moments just before it. Rand wrote just enough to proove her point, about absolute belief in self, and then just gave up on an otherwise great story.

Weak.

In no part of the book does it say that it happens in Russia.

I love this book. It has so much stuff with (obvious) dual meaning. And you can almost entirely compare it with some nations of the modern world, and one that no longer exists.

I believe what Jack meant, Osterbaum, was that the events in the book were allussions to the events of early 20th century Russia. During the time of Stalin, and Trotskey, and Lenin.

Or, at least, I was made to believe it was. I'm not the history buff I want to be. Shame, too. I find history to be quite fascinating.

Additionally, I'm not the English major I want to be, so I can't back up these claims on that front, either.

Its in england, but its based on the rise of the USSR. If you know anything about this you can recognize it. When the animals uprise, it represents the revolution. Old Major represented Karl Marx, who came up with the idea of Communism, and Vladmir Lennin. Napoleon represented Stalin, and Snowball represented Trotsky.
In real life, Stalin exiled Trotsky, that was represented through Snowball being run out. The gaurd dogs were the KGB. Squealer was the Soviet Propoganda, always spreading stuff like, "You dont want jones to come back do you?" and making the animals believe things were way better.
During the part when the animals were being killed by the dogs after confessions, this represented Stalin's Political purges in which he killed millions of suspected traitors.

The windmill represented Soviet Industry, when it fell it represented the Soviet depression. There is a part that represents a little of WWII. The Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact is represented through the selling of the lumber, then the attack on the farm.

The clues are out there, you just have to know alot of Russian history to find it.

Moses (Farmer Jones' pet raven) really has the appearance of representing religion (or the Church). At first when the animal takes over he's chased off, but he comes back later and Napoleon leaves him be because of how useful his stories are.

At least that's what I remember.