Think Before Speaking Essays -- George Orwell, Animal Farm

The author George Orwell earned a reputation for standing apart and making a virtue of his detachment. In 1948, he created an image of communist Russia in the form of animals. Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, depicts this huge allegory. Animal Farm tells the story of a farmer overthrown by his animals who then take over the farm. The animals want an anti-human-like society with equality for all. When the pigs become more and more like humans with a social hierarchy, the farm’s society is destroyed. The ignorance of other animals leads to the pigs’ oppressing others. The author Will Rogers once stated, â€Å"When ignorance gets started it has no bounds.† The ignorance of a horse, a donkey, and the sheep play an enormous part in their suppression by the pigs in Animal Farm. When a horse named Benjamin becomes unaware of actions going on on the farm he tends to lean on the leader Napoleon’s opinions for support. After the animals were slaughtered, Boxer said, â€Å"I do not understand it. I would have believed that such things could happen on our farm. It must be due to some fault in ourselves. The solution, as I see it, is to work harder.† (Orwell 85). By ignoring the fact that many of his fellow animals were harmed, Boxer is showing that he does not understand the reason of the slaughtering. The real reason for the animals being killed is because of them opposing the pigs. The pigs could simply execute additional animals for a second time without Boxer and other animals not knowing the motive. A different time Boxer shows that he lacks knowledge is when he only takes Napoleon’s opinion as an answer to difficult questions. Boxer states, â€Å"If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.† (Orwell 56). This is Boxer’s response towards eliminating ... ...en interrupted the Meeting with this. It was noticed that they were especially liable to break into `four legs good, two legs bad` at crucial moments in Snowball’s speeches (Orwell 47, 48). The sheep’s only saying to support their opinion was â€Å"Four legs good, two legs bad.† Rather than, making speeches and creating debates the sheep only yelped one saying in their support. Bottom line- ignorance leads to oppression. Why is this important? By using Animal Farm to represent communist Russia Orwell showed that ignorance and oppression are still present in the modern world. Boxer’s, the hens’, and the sheep’s lack of knowledge is still present today. To stop oppression through ignorance all should think before they act or speak. Oppression through Ignorance can be stopped if all notice how much power they have in their hands. Works Cited Orwell, George Animal Farm