Animal Farm Mini-Essay

The power to lead a civilization can be very tempting not to abuse. Though there are a very few who obtain power and keep it intact, most will abuse it and lead themselves to corruption. In the book, Animal Farm by George Orwell, there are two major characters that stand out: Major and Squealer. How these two characters use their words, tone, and topics to influence the lower animals on Animal Farm to lead them to power are uniquely different.

In the first chapter of Animal Farm, the animals are living their typical lives working for Mr. Jones on Manor Farm when the eldest of the pigs, a boar named Major is introduced. The rest of the animals of the farm (so-called “lower” animals) respect Major and are willing to contribute anything to his ideas. Because he is the eldest of the animals, he has experienced many hardships throughout his life as a boar and due to this fact, his tone of confidence has become to be very reliable by the animals. His topics have also come to be reliable because of his longevity on Manor Farm. In his speech to animals, he states:

 “Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It I summed up in a single word---Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever” (28).

Major is the only one at this point in time to be able to put forth these words of wisdom and actually convince the lower animals. His experience and knowledge of Manor Farm has put him forth as a leader they can look up to. With such confidence he says these unheard ideas and topics that the lower animals cease to think it cannot work. When Major speaks, it’s as seems nothing can go wrong.

Squealer on the other hand uses a different approach to influence the lower animals. Squealer represents a  military-like character by always referring to the lower animals as “comrades”. Squeler's ideas sound very communist-like and his ideas makes him and the pigs sound like dictators. He does this by speaking in a confident tone but his topics and words make his confidence unlike Major's. Instead, his words and ideas are meant to bring fear upon the lower animals and encourage them to work more into following the pigs’ ideas.

“Bravery is not enough. Loyalty and obedience are more important. And as to the Battle of Cowshed, I believe the time will come when we shall find that Snowball's part in it was much exaggerated. Discipline, comrades, iron discipline! That is the watchword for today. One false step, and our enemies would be upon us. Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?” (79).

Based on this dialogue he gives to the lower animals, Squealer uses a loud and angry tone to bring fear upon the animals and make them do as he pleases based on fearfulness than based on their will, like when Major spoke. This brings communist feeling into Animal Farm, especially how he always brings up the topics of Mr. Jones and his men coming back to take over the farm. He also brings upon them fear when he tells the lower animals that “one false step” and the enemies will be back upon them, bringing him a feeling of more superiority.

While Major depended on the voice of what was right for the animals to influence them (democracy), Squealer used fear to influence them into fighting for his more power to the pigs (communism).

Opening Statement: Wikileaks

Wikileaks has been an extremely debatable topic recently. Currently, the Pentagon is taking action to try to prosecute and take it down due to the release of numerous documents chronicling the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Created by Julian Assange, Wikileaks was created to keep government activities open worldwide. What was unique about the site was that it allowed for anyone an “innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to [its] journalists”. So, the question arises: is Wikileaks overall more harmful or more beneficial to society?

In my opinion, Wikileaks overall is more beneficial to society because it leaves people with the knowledge of their government’s censored actions, something that should be available to the public without the hassle of Wikileaks. When America was first founded, all decisions were to be made public to the American people. But as time has gotten by, we are moving more towards corruption by making private decisions and committing censored actions. What is the need for these decisions and actions to be censored? If it is because what is being done is wrong, then why are they being done at all?

Jeff Cohen is an associate professor at Ithaca College, TV commentator for CNN and MSNBC, and has numerous columns in daily newspapers such as USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globes. He once said:

"Media is the nervous system of a democracy. If it's not functioning well, the democracy can't function."

The point that he is making is that the media is responsible for keeping the people informed of the government. The media inform us on our politics and their actions. The media of today can only go so far in reporting the daily activities of the government. Sometimes, the sources of the media aren't even primary sources but instead released statements from spokespeople or rumors spread from other sources. The point is that the media is no longer functioning well and Wikileaks has become the solution into bringing order back into the media. When Wikileaks started publishing the war diaries of Iraq and Afghanistan, it was a big surprise to a majority of our country. If our media was functioning properly and our democratic system was functioning properly then the stuff that were released out of Wikileaks should have been well known by the people.

Political Corruption

In my opinion, yes, political power (in most cases) does corrupt those who attain it. When we look back into history, our thoughts pass by infamous leaders like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. These two notorious leaders provide this topic with perfect examples as to why or how political power corrupted those who attain it. Adolf Hitler served his country in World War One before gaining interest into politics of Germany.  His experience in war started to gain him support from his people before ever becoming chancellor of Germany. Once chancellor of Germany, the ambition for more power gets to him, leading to a campaign to take over Germany by making promises of a better country. It heads downfall from there. After becoming head of state of Germany, he changes into a whole different character, likely from this ambition for political power, and starts another World War that takes even more casualties than the last one. Hitler single handedly destroyed the lives of many of his home country and others around the world. His ambition for more power eventually led to corruption. Another example is former president George W. Bush. He ran for office bringing hope of a better America. Instead, he left the country to deal with two wars, over a trillion dollars in debt, and a troubling economy all in eight years.

I think that George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, would answer this question similarly. His reason for writing this book was to show the message that political power does corrupt those who attain it and about the many different forms of political nonsense such as dictatorship (in the book’s case, the farmer Mr. Jones is the dictator).

In the book, Animal Farm, a meaningful quote in the book that signifies the corruption of political power reads as follows:

“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself” (Chapter 1)

The leader of the animal is leading a plan for a rebellion against their leader (Mr. Jones) so that they can control the power that occurs around the farm. The leader, who dies not too long after his announcement, has started an ambition for power by the animals of the farm that will eventually lead to corruption and downfall.

Freewrite - Last Semester

Looking back over the first semester of sophomore year, I can say it was the worst I have experienced so far in high school. It went wrong in so many ways, I didn't know if it would end or not. Luckily, the three week winter break came in and gave us a break. But before that, things weren't looking too good for my grades.

One problem that I was having that played a huge part of my downfall was procrastination. I would get home, take a nap, watch some TV, etc. and end up starting on my homework at around 10pm and finish around 2 or 3 am! And even after that, I still wouldn't finish up all my homework. This leaves me with no sleep at all for the next day and almost always zoned-out when teachers spoke in class. Some might think I'm anti-social but the truth is I'm too sleepy to talk to anyone. Another problem I had was taking shortcuts. Instead of reading over the material we received in class or as homework, I would go straight for the questions at the end, sometimes not knowing if anything I was writing down made sense or not. What I would do instead is wait till the last day before the quiz and study which made it even more stressful. Even though it would work out with my test and quizzes, how I studied for them wasn't worth it. This habit also made me forget a lot faster because i was learning it all in one day.

One other problem I had was not taking advantage of opportunities and time I had. Instead of working steadily on a two week project throughout the two weeks I'd wait until the last few days to work on it and most likely get nothing out of it. What was even worse were the awkward presentations that would come out of it, knowing that I barely took any serious time into it.

So far, a week has gone by in the second semester and I've made sure to avoid the troubles I had last semester. So far its looking good: I've completed all my homework, went to sleep around 1am (better than 2 or 3 am), and studies ahead of time. By looking over these mistakes, I hope to avoid the stressful trouble I went through and finish off Sophomore year on the right track.

Debate - Elite Colleges

Will you have a better life if you graduate from an elite college or university? Why/why not?

Like Mr. Sutherland says, it is a tough question. What college or university you choose to attend or if you choose to attend a college at all will determine how the rest of your life will be spent. Whether the road you chose is what you wanted or not is based on YOU, not what college you go to. That's why I thought the article "What You Do vs. Where You Go" by  Martha (Marty) O'Connell, executive directer of a non-profit organization called Colleges That Changes Lives (not part of an university, which a lot of the articles have shown to show some bias) exemplified the strongest points. She begins her article with the scene of high school students participating in an activity dealing with college, which is the phase in our lives where we will most likely make our decision on what we want to major in and what college we apply for. That's when she begins to lead on to one of her main points:

"The key to success in college and beyond has more to do with what students do with their time during college than where they choose to attend. A long-term study of 6,335 college graduates published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that graduating from a college where entering students have higher SAT scores -- one marker of elite colleges -- didn't pay off in higher post-graduation income."

In other words, elite colleges do not contribute to a higher income or "better life" as it was once thought. Furthermore, elite colleges can likely make it harder for students to learn properly. There will certainly be a number of high profile professors at these elite colleges who have won awards, discovered cures, won noble peace prizes, etc. At first glance, you assume that these professors are amazing to be taught by. But the truth is that these professors will end up giving students less attention and focus more on their own work and finding the next cure. Same goes for these so called "elite colleges". They are attracting students to enroll and pay tuition that they forget that what they should be working on is the material they teach.

Response to Childhood

One quote that I found was appealing was Vincent Liu's opinion on what role childhood plays in our lives:

“Childhood is a period of time that I think is the most important moment of a person's entire life. The life of being a kid is such a wonderful and beautiful thing to have… Childhood is the time where we experience many things for the first time… Without a beginning, how can there be a middle or an end? Everything has a beginning and have to start somewhere. For us, our Childhood is where it all begin.”

My childhood revolved mainly around appreciating my family. Anytime we would plan to visit a cousin's house, i knew it would be a good day. Whether it was the trips to Reno in the snow, a ride to Six Flags, or just playing a game of basketball in the backyard. Being around my family during my childhood was one of the best memories of my life so far and i have a feeling these memories will last.

I knew my childhood came to an end when every single one of my cousins, uncles, and aunties left California for New York not too long ago. It hit me hard knowing that the people I seen almost everyday and enjoyed spending time with were now moving on. Playing a game of basketball in the backyard had no meaning to it anymore.