Jones Vs. Napoleon

Jones Vs. Napoleon

Animal Farm by George Orwell is about this farm located in the countryside of England. He based his book on the Russian Revolution, and each of the characters in the book represents a person or group of people important during that time. Mr. Jones, the farmer of Animal farm, was a cruel person and revolted against him. The pigs then stepped up and Napoleon became dictator, but much harsher than Jones. The animals do not realize that the pigs start to against them and Napoleon gets what he wants. The farm was better off with Mr. Jones because the animals got Sunday off and worked less hours, there was more equality on the farm, and were able to retire.

One of the reasons why the animals were better off with Mr. Jones was because they worked less hours during the week and got Sunday's off. But, once they revolted and Napoleon came to power, the animals worked "throughout the Spring and Summer…a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well" (73). Napoleon had also added that this work was firmly voluntary, but any animal who did not take part in the work would have his or her rations dwindled by half. During Jones' days, the animals were all treated equal in that all animals woke up and went to bed at the same time, got Sunday's off along with Jones, and most importantly, each received the same amount of food. Now that Napoleon made all decisions, he decided that the pigs would "get up an hour later in the mornings than the other animals" (80). Squealer made the excuse that the pigs have very important jobs of running the farm and needed the sleep to think and not be tired. But in reality, they didn't do very much work at all. In fact, the pigs pretty much sat around for a good part of the day, discovering new human items, and making up excuses on why they can use them.

The second reason why the animals had a better life with Mr. Jones was because all the animals were treated equal. During the days when Jones was around before the animals revolted, all the animals were fed the same amount of food, and either worked or did something that contributed to the farm. For example, the cows couldn't work—they just couldn't. There was just no work for them that suited their body. But, one thing they could do was produce milk. Some of the milk Mr. Jones took to sell and the rest he mixed up in the animals' food with apples from the apple tree. But, after the animals started to get the milk for themselves into a bucket, they got distracted by something. And behind their back, napoleon stole the milk. "The mystery of where the milk went was soon cleared up. It was mixed everyday into the pigs' mash" (52). And for the apples, they "…were now ripening, and the grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed…that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness room