Animal Farm by George Orwell

“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.”

                                                                                                            ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

Photo credit-Goodreads 

Synopsis

Under the feckless husbandry of Mr Jones, the Manor Farm has fallen into disrepair. Pushed into hardship, the animals decide to stage a revolt, and, led by two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, they overthrow Mr Jones and drive him away from the farm. In the subsequent struggle for power, it is Napoleon who emerges as a victor: he renames the place “Animal Farm”, gets rid of his enemies and, by the way he behaves – expecting to be glorified above the others and turning the screw on his fellow beasts in order to keep them subjugated – begins to resemble more and more the former rulers of the farm, the hated humans.

Review

Rating: ★★★★★

This book is just amazing and brilliant. Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution and Stalin’s dictatorship. A political satire that shows how power can corrupt even the most noble cause.

Here’s what  each character represents:

Mr Jones - tsar Nicholas II

Old Major - Marx and Lenin

Napoleon - Stalin

Snowball - Trotsky

Squealer - propaganda

dogs - secret police

Moses - Russian orthodox church

Mollie - old Russia wealthier class

Clover - soviet women

Boxer - working class

Pilkington - Churchill

Frederick - Hitler

The book is a critique to the revolution and a tale about the abuse of power. The book starts with Mr. Jones controlling the animals and the farm, and it ends with napoleon controlling everything the same way or even worse than Mr. Jones. Orwell just shows how easy someone can be corrupted by power and how revolutions sometimes don’t work. At first, the animals established that "all animals are equal", but in the end, "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". It shows how the animals became what they hated the most. It is such a powerful message that happens a lot in real life. 

I found Orwell’s writing brilliant, how each animal represent an important historical figure in this event. I thought it was hilarious how the pigs represented the politicians from the time. Both works I have read from George Orwell, Animal Farm and 1984, have such a powerful political message that I think everyone should read at least once in their lives. 

The book is such a fast yet reflexive read. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to start reading classics but don’t know where to start.