Animal_Farm

arm The basic role of education in a society. (based on “Animal Farm” by G.Orwell) Megi Zhamo ENG 105 Lecturer: Timothy Hagen 20.11.2009 Essay # 2 Honor Statement: I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others’ use of unauthorized aid. Megi Zhamo Nowadays we live in a world where everything is evolving at the speed of light so the role of education in a person’s life is of the utmost importance. However, human society was not the same as it is today when it was first created. At first people based their living only on what nature gave them. With the passing of time they began to use their brains and skills to survive the wild life and thanks to man’s skills today our houses are equipped of the latest technology. Throughout history, people always have faced the need to be educated, but this has not always been possible and liberal as it is nowadays. Examples of this are the communist countries which did not offer to their population a proper freedom of thought and of opinion. In these countries people were all forced to believe in the communist principles of their government, they were all forced to work hard and take no benefit of it for themselves but just for their government and the owner of everything and everyone was just one person: the dictator. By reading this description, by all means, we can say that it is similar to the organization of society that Orwell writes on his “Animal Farm”. All animals in the farm were forced to believe and follow strictly The Seven Commandments that were written on the tarred wall in white great letters (16), they worked harder and harder but they always took less food to eat, and they obeyed what Napoleon; their commandant said. However, what is concerning, is the question whether all this would have happened if the animals (referring to “Animal Farm”) and people would have had a proper education' Apparently, no and the reason is simple: Education not only gives information to the people, but it also develops a person’s logical, analytical and expressing ability. By means of education people not only get to know new things, but they also are capable of reasoning and giving their own ideas in speaking or writing. Moreover, if liberty of thought and speed were allowed in communist societies, things would have been really different and surely better because education doesn’t influence only one person but it affects the prosperity of a whole society or organization. Considering the animals in Orwell’s book, a good example the consequences that lack of education can bring, is Boxer. He represents a hard-working character but who does not have the skills to use his logic. Therefore he works harder and harder without taking in consideration his age and the limits of his powers: ”I will work harder”(38), obeys the rules without discussing them, ”If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right”(35), but ends up drained and killed, “Do you not know what that means' They are taking Boxer to the knacker’s!”(73). If he had had the logical ability to object Napoleon, his end would have been definitely better than being sold and killed. Furthermore, we can mention the sheep whose lack of intelligence made them reduce the seven commandments to just one simple sentence which they would memorize and repeat all day long: “Four legs good, two legs bad”(21) until they were taken and forced by Squealer to learn the “improved” commandment : “Four legs good, two legs better”(80). If they had understood the meaning of what they said, maybe they wouldn’t have ended up in a farm destroyed from the war between humans and pigs. In addition to this, we can mention Clover, which differently from others had thinking capacity. She understood that even after the rebellion things were not as they thought they would: ”She knew that, even as things were, they were far better off than they had been in the days of Jones”(53) but her lack of proper education influenced her ability to express her thoughts and opinions exactly and properly: “Such were her thoughts, though she lacked the words to express them”(53). Maybe if she had been clear in expressing her ideas, she would have influenced the other animal’s ideas too and therefore had stopped Napoleon’s powerful influence of the whole farm. “If” doesn’t give us the sureness of what might have happened, but we surely know that the life conducted by people in communist societies was the hardest. All people were considered to be equal, their thoughts were same and never changing, their work benefited only the society which they belonged to, they were forced to think to be the happiest and wealthiest population in the world, they lacked individualism 1 , and most important of all they lacked education. This was because tyrannies controlling the country knew the crucial role education had its ability to make people reason and think and therefore understand that the life conducted by them was not as good as they were obliged to think it was. Proper education and liberty of thinking would have never allowed people to work hard and live miserably without taking the fruits of their own work. In the end we can say that education plays a crucial role not just in one person’s life but it affects the whole society. Even though, communism is absent in most of the world’s countries, in some of them there is still a lack of education, civilization and are exactly these countries considered to be the poorest and less developed. Communism may not be present in its real form, but it is present through stealing and corruption. Meanwhile there exist other countries who strongly believe in the role of education and liberal opinion expression. These countries are considered to be the wealthiest and more civilized. They base their development on studying, learning, analyzing and freedom. They should be considered an example to follow for anyone who aims to reach prosperity. 1. individualism- refers to the behavior of someone who likes to think and do things in their own way, rather than imitating other people – English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (Collins Cobuild edition) Works Cited: Orwell, George “Animal Farm”. 1984. London: Harcourt, Inc. 1945, 1949. Print.