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Alissa Brennan
Mrs. Compton
English
31 May 2016

All it Takes is One

The year is between 1920 and 1945. The place is a rather sedentary farm in England. This
is a farm like no other. Why is it so different? Well, because it is run by animals and it is
extremely unethical: Rules changed to benefit one species, lies told, all animals treated harshly
by one smarter, better species; the pigs. This is the infamous book known as Animal Farm,
which is about animals running their own farm, but eventually the farms republic soon
becomes more like a dictatorship. The author, George Orwell had a deeper meaning in mind
when he began writing this novel. The farm actually represents Russia, its government, and its
nefarious leaders. This opens my eyes to the fact that individualism is so important. According to
the oxford dictionary individualism is the habit or principle of being independent and selfreliant. I believe that individualism is more important than collectivism because a person needs
to grow and discover the kind of influential figure that they want to be in order to work hard, and
from there create a society that is strong, powerful, and helpful.
First off, the importance of individual growth can be shown by our literature. For
instance, the infamous book Animal Farm the farm is lead by one pig, named Napoleon, who is
malicious and a mercenary, that will break or change any laws necessary to get what he wants.
Now, as the book progresses deeper into the plot this certain quote from page 11 of Animal Farm
is often foreshadowed All habits of man are evil. And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise
over his own kind. All of the animals on the farm believe this is the right way, but the views of
the other animals and Napoleon are irreconcilable. A quote on page 141 of Animal Farm goes
like this The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to
man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. This shows that all along
Napoleon never shared the same views as the animals on what was fair and ethical. He only
cared about what he could do for himself to have the best life possible, which to him was being

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as similar to a human as he could achieve. How does this relate to individualism? Look at this
quote from page 113 of Animal Farm They knew that life nowadays was harsh and bare, that
they were often hungry and often cold, and that they were usually working when they were not
asleep. The quote proves that. under Napoleons rule. things got much worse on the farm.
Things on the farm were almost as bad as, if not worse than, when Mr. Jones was running the
farm. Individualism is more important than collectivism because all it takes is for one diabolical
leader, in this case Napoleon, to create a dark, dystopian society that fails to function properly as
revealed by the quotes from Animal Farm.
The most recent studies on individualism have shown that only 78% of high school
students will graduate with a regular diploma in 4 years. This quote from Your Identity
Matters is one of many that show how important individualism really is. The article states that
people cannot thrive when they perceive themselves to be stuck in a bubble, when they have
lost confidence in their ability to even get and retain a good job, let alone progress through a
career that will ensure they can provide for themselves and their families If this quote cant
convince someone how important individualism is, there isnt much else that will. Not only had
this article shown that individualism is crucial to yourself and to create a strong society, but it is
also important if you want to be able to love and cherish needs a strong parental figure to help
them grow and become a stupendous individual.
Looking at the article Happiness in Collectivism it is clear that the information and
claims are not valid. Look at this quote from the passage, A recent study from John F. Hellivell,
Haifang Huang and Shun Wang on the Journal for Happiness Studies suggests that humans are
happier and feel more supported in collective environments where they get to work together and
help each other out. Its fairly obvious that this statement is invalid due to many things. First off

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how do we know that we can trust this study because it is the only study that contains
information like this. Also the claim uses words such as suggests and more supported
showing that they are not one hundred percent certain that the methods described actually work.
Now we can prove that this article on collectivism is not a valid source due to some of the claims
that cannot be justified.
Collectivism is defined as a political system in which the group or society is the
fundamental unit of life (Merriam Webster) In this we see the word group used, but there
would be no group without separate, singular, individuals. The importance of an individual
comes before the collective because achievement occurs within and by individuals. This is why
we need to put ourselves and our work before others and take advantage of all of the resources
that we are given to help make ourselves the best we can be. By doing this we can help to change
todays society little by little if we focus on ourselves and work to achieve amazing things. A
group of hardworking individuals can achieve great things if they collaborate together. Hopefully
you will strive to be a better individual and you will spread this knowledge to others.

Works Cited
"Definition of Individualism in English:." Individualism: Definition of Individualism in Oxford
Dictionary (American English) (US). N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2016.

Graham, Stedman. "Your Identity Matters." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d.
Web. 31 May 2016.

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 02 June 2016.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954. Print
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Pereda, Arturo Romero. "Happiness in Collectivistic and Individualistic Societies |." AFS
Intercultural Programs. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 June 2016

"UsingEnglish.com." UsingEnglish.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2016