# Lifestyles & Discussion > Family, Parenting & Education > Books & Literature >  Animal Farm

## LoneWolf

Has anyone else read this? I just started it 2 days ago and its very good book I am interested in it. I don't agree with it 100% though. I disagree where its says all animals are equal I translate that to be all humans are equal and obviously we are not. Just wanted to share my view of it so far and see what everyone else has to say about it.

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## acptulsa

Obviously the animals agree with you.  As you'll see by the end of the book.

After reading it, see if you don't think Snowball is Vladimir Lenin and Napoleon is Josef Stalin.  You might need to do a little research before you know what you think about that.  Some say Trotsky is in there somewhere...

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## Cowlesy

Great book.  Like acptulsa says, you'll see by the end of the book.

Napoleon and Snowball are glorious leaders!

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## heavenlyboy34

Read it in 8th grade.  I'll have to read it again someday, as I don't remember it very well.

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## Demigod

That is a book for kids as far as i remember.




> Obviously the animals agree with you.  As you'll see by the end of the book.
> 
> After reading it, see if you don't think Snowball is Vladimir Lenin and Napoleon is Josef Stalin.  You might need to do a little research before you know what you think about that.  Some say Trotsky is in there somewhere...


Snowball is Trotsky.

Old Mayor is Karl Marx or Lenin .

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## acptulsa

> That is a book for kids as far as i remember.


Plenty of adults in the U.S. who need to read it.  Preferably before this election.




> Snowball is Trotsky.
> 
> Old Mayor is Karl Marx or Lenin .


Get that straight out of Orwell's mouth?  Well, it does make considerable sense...

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## paulpwns

This is one of my all time favorite books. Here is a chart. Charts are cool.

http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~sbennet3/...animalfarm.htm

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## Demigod

> Plenty of adults in the U.S. who need to read it.  Preferably before this election.
> 
> 
> 
> Get that straight out of Orwell's mouth?  Well, it does make considerable sense...


Well it was a book that was analyzed during foreign literature class in the 7 grade and you had to know what every character represented.

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## heavenlyboy34

FWIW, you can read Animal Fram free here: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwe...79a/index.html

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## donnay

Animal Farm should be required reading in schools!

I just purchased this book, 1984 and a Brave New World for my future son-in-law who wants to work for TSA.

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## Cowlesy

> Animal Farm should be required reading in schools!
> 
> I just purchased this book, 1984 and a Brave New World for my future son-in-law who wants to work for TSA.


Kids should read it in 8th grade, 12th grade and then again as Seniors in College (if they go) or as young adults.

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## heavenlyboy34

> Animal Farm should be required reading in schools!


+a zillion  It was required reading when I was in 8th grade, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is long gone now.

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## JeNNiF00F00

...

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## osan

> Has anyone else read this? I just started it 2 days ago and its very good book I am interested in it. I don't agree with it 100% though. I disagree where its says all animals are equal I translate that to be all humans are equal and obviously we are not. Just wanted to share my view of it so far and see what everyone else has to say about it.


The "equal" deal turns on the meaning in the particular usage.  The most basic sense of equality does not apply here, for it means sameness.  The sense in which all people are equal relates largely to the property right.  We are equal in that we are each the proprietors of our own lives.  Nobody else may legitimately claim superior rights to the life of another.  Our just and legitimate claims to life itself are also equal.  This must be the case, for if Johnny held a higher claim to life than does Jimmy, there is nothing in principle from barring Johnny from enslaving or killing Jimmy.  In such a world the only arbiter of "right" is might.  From a purely practical standpoint this would not prove very satisfactory, but the non-propriety of this arrangement can be demonstrated in other ways as well.

If we accept as the base premise that our claims to life are equal, the entire body of natural law follows axiomatically therefrom.  If, however, we reject this primary postulate, and entire can of worms is opened in the form of the most obvious questions.  For example, if we are not equal in our just claims to life, it follows that some hold superior claims to the right to live.  Who are these people?  By what standard are they judged superior to the rest?  Whence came the standard?  Who established it?  By what authority did they do so?  Whence arose that authority?  How do we know that it is legitimate?  Who says so?  By what standard is that decision made?  We can go on and on ad infinitum down the chain of questions with no absolute bottom ever to be found.  This very nature of the assumption of unequal claims should tip one off to the fact that it is the wrong answer.  I have found nature to be very compact and elegant in its truth.  Rejection of the postulate of equal claims is decidedly non-compact, arbitrary in its very fabric, and eminently inelegant.  What follows from acceptance of the postulate of equal claims is indeed small, efficient, elegant, and beautifully symmetrical.  I personally hold vanishingly small doubt that the postulate of equal claims is untrue.  This is what it means when one refers to "equality" among people.  The socialist/progressive/communist sorts have it hopelessly backward, revealing to the world what corrupt and scurvy little imbeciles they really are.  There - I said it and I feel better.

Given the common understanding of "equality" it is no surprise that you disagree.  Good to see your brain in in gear and going somewhere.

Try this:  http://freedomisobvious.blogspot.com/2010/12/common-principles-of-free-living.html

Maybe it will help clarify things in better detail.

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## LoneWolf

I will read 1984 after this...I bought this one for 25 cents at the library book sale.

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## Exam Papers

Not yet, but this sounds interesting...

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## Keith and stuff

Read?  Nah.  I watch the movie, though.  It is on Netflix instant.

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## phill4paul

> Animal Farm should be required reading in schools!
> 
> I just purchased this book, 1984 and a Brave New World *for my future son-in-law who wants to work for TSA.*


   I could just imagine the conversations between him and AF. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

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## FreeTraveler

> Animal Farm should be required reading in schools!
> 
> I just purchased this book, 1984 and a Brave New World for my future son-in-law who wants to work for TSA.


I think it's very brave of you to admit that your daughter wants to marry one of "those people." They're not like us, you know.

And I mean that sincerely. I'm not a big fan of "othering," but I have a problem dealing with authoritarians at all. Not sure I could be civil about it if my daughter wanted to marry one, and I sure don't claim that some of my best friends are authoritarians.

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## Enforcer

> That is a book for kids as far as i remember.
> 
> 
> 
> Snowball is Trotsky.
> 
> Old Mayor is Karl Marx or Lenin .


Unless you have had a lot of exposure from patriot types, Animal Farm can be utilized by any adult AND is entertaining years after you've read it the first time should you have some time to kill and want a refresher course.

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## seraphson

LoL I didn't know people actually aspired to become part of the TSA. I just thought they were desperate for a job so they can pay for their serfdom, or couldn't get a real job.

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## brushfire

I read it about 20 years ago.  Its even more relevant today...
In the last 20 years we've gone from red scare to red craze.  I used to think we won the cold war, but I suppose the war only appeared to end with the collapse of the USSR.

Kinda like what happened to "acorn"...  The "enemy" has fragmented/dispersed, resorting to guerilla tacticts.

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## thoughtomator

I have been buying up copies of Animal Farm and handing them out to every 20-something I can find (and a few people older than that). I should invest in the publisher...

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## Jusenkyo

I love Animal Farm! I just finished reading it again maybe about 2 months ago. You should also check out It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.

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## Anti Federalist

> I could just imagine the conversations between him and AF. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.


Actually, he never brings it up when I'm around.

I think, personally, he likes getting a rise out of Mrs. AF. 

I have a shipmate buddy of mine that does the same thing.

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## emazur

The animated movie is as good as or better than the book

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## DerailingDaTrain

I've got a paperback version of it that I got in middle school.

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