Animal Farm

Written by George Orwell

A book for readers in grades 8 and up reviewed by Olivia

    

George Orwell's Animal Farm captures the themes of tyranny, revolt, and the repetition of history. The book starts as an ambitious children's tale. When Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, falls asleep in a drunken stupor, all of his animals meet in the main barn at the behest of Old Major, a twelve-year-old pig. Major makes a rousing political speech about the horrors imposed on the animals by their human guardians and their desire to rebel against man's oppression. Shortly after Jones forgets to feed the cattle, a revolt takes place, and Jones and his men are chased off the farm.

Manor Farm is renamed Livestock Farm, and the Seven Commandments of Animalism are written on the barn wall, the most important being, "All animals are made equal." This is then changed to, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Via the reform of the commandments, Orwell shows how political dogma can be transformed into malleable propaganda.

Animal Farm does not have children's book content! It has a lot of heavy things. According to Orwell, the novel represents the developments leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then to the Stalinist period of the Soviet Union. He claimed that the Soviet Union had been a ruthless monarchy founded on a cult of personality and implemented by a reign of terror. In his 1946 essay "Why I Write," Orwell wrote that Animal Farm was the first book he attempted with complete awareness of what he was doing, which was to "mix political intent and creative purpose into one whole." In my humble opinion, he mastered that with flying colors.

I am not a history buff, and I am not familiar with all of the historical developments reflected in Animal Farm, but Orwell's narrative can be applied not only to the Russian Revolution, but to revolutions and changes of leadership in general. The animal protest against Farmer Jones is Orwell's comparison with the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. The Battle of the Cowshed was meant to reflect the Allied invasion of Soviet Russia in 1918. The rise of the pigs to preeminence represents the rise of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, and the rise of Napoleon as the supreme head of the farm reflects the rise of Stalin. The pigs' appropriation of milk and apples for their own consumption is analogous to the suppression of the left-wing Kronstadt uprising against the Bolsheviks in 1921, and the complicated actions of the animals to create the windmill suggest the numerous Five-Year Plans.

Another subject of George Orwell's Animal Farm, which often strikes a satirical tone, is the notion that religion is the "opium of the people" (as Karl Marx famously wrote). Moses the Raven's talk of the Sugarcandy Mountain originally annoyed many of the creatures, since Moses, who is regarded as the "teller of stories," appears to be an inaccurate source. At this point, the animals are still optimistic for a better future, and thus discard Moses' paradise stories. But, as their lives worsen, the animals begin to believe him. Here, Orwell mocks the vain idea of a better place that simply does not exist. The pigs want Moses to remain on the farm—and even welcome his participation by rewarding him with beer—because they realize that his Sugarcandy Mountain tales can hold the animals docile. As long as they believe there is a better life after death, the animals can trudge through their current ones. Thus, Orwell suggests that religious devotion—considered by many as a noble character trait—can genuinely distort the manner in which one thinks about one's existence on Earth.

In the end, Animal Farm is a book that absolutely rocked me. It will torment and accompany me for the remainder of my life, and I will continue to fear and look forward to picking it up again and again.