Entry #6

Q. Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment about what you think about the passage.

The passage I chose is from the exposition of the novel Animal farm. This is the front part of Major’s speech, inspiring the animals for independence.

"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.
"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep-and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is 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.
"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. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies. And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold at a year old-you will never see one of them again. In return for your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had except your bare rations and a stall?
"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span. For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old and have had over four hundred children. Such is the natural life of a pig. But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that horror we all must come-cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when they grow old and toothless, Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.

A. The passage I chose goes kind of off from the theme of this novel. The main point of this passage is how the humans treated the animals. The part after this speech directly inspires the animals to rise up, but this part talks about the bad deeds about human being. As I was reading this passage, I felt somewhat sorry for the animals. I have always thought that animals are dumb and stupid so that they can’t think of these things, and I have never imagined being an animal who could think like a person. However, when I read this passage, which is pretty much a point of view from an animal after the process of personification, I started to think about the animals that are being abused and killed.

Although this is not straightly related to the theme of this novel, I felt sorry for the animals when I read this passage. Each word Major spoke was touching to me, because I knew such abusing was implemented, but I didn’t know that it was “real” in terms of seriousness. I think this passage gave me a stronger impression because it was spoken to convince others. My personal thoughts about this passage are “touching,” “well written,” and “desperate.” The final thought that came up to my mind is, since I can’t do anything to stop the killing of animals, I should at least always thank for the animals that were sacrificed by human’s foolishness. Of course, if I could stop this kind of abusing, I would stop it without hesitation.