Animal Farm

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Average customer rating 4.9 (16 comments)

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It's a must read today. Current parallels in society and politics virtually jump off every page. I'm 65 and had never read it. Finished it last week and rereading it now. Russell Baker's TOO optimistic afterward and Obreht's Introduction are illuminating. Read it and share it

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When the animals revolt against Jones, they find themselves responsible for their own fate on the farm. The initially set up a government where everyone had an equal say. But slowly, things begin to change. What will happen? This is a powerful allegory about the dangers of socialism. It shows how things sound good in the beginning but slowly everything devolves. Written during Stalin's USSR, some references might be dated, but this is a warning well worth heeding today.

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm remains a prominent and powerful allegory about Soviet Communism. In Orwell’s Animal Farm the story opens on a farm run by the farmer Mr. Jones. One night an older pig(pigs are the wisest of the animals) tells the group about a dream he had about a utopia run by animals and centered upon equality. However, Old Major dies soon after he speaks about his dream and his vision is never realized in his lifetime. After his death, all the animals rejoice at the prospect of Old Major’s dream and eventually drive Mr. Jones from the Farm. Led by pigs such as Napolean, Snowball, and Squealer, the animals form a government based on equality and form the principles in the Seven Commandments of Animal Farm. As time goes on, Napolean grows more and more power hungry and eventually drives out Snowball from the farm. With the help of Squealer, Napolean is able to convince the rest of the farm of Snowball’s “evil” nature and maintain rigorous work hours for the rest of the animals. In the end, Napolean and the rest of the pigs begin walking on two feet like the humans they once loathed. In the final scene play cards with the humans they once fought so valiantly against. The true cleverness of the novel comes from the correlation with true historical events in Russia. In the late 1910s, Russia overthrew the final Tsar Nicholas II and became a communist nation. The revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin who truly believed in the original principles of Karl Marx communism. Soon after the revolution concluded however, Lenin died and Joseph Stalin and Trotsky fought for political control over the nation. Stalin’s brutal and ruthless principles eventually resulted in becoming the leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin betrayed communist doctrine ruled with an iron fist. Stalin’s totalitarian rule continued for decades as he drove millions of his own people to starvation because of the outrageous work requirements and low rations. After researching the historical background of the Soviet communism, the allegory of Animal Farm becomes much clearer. Animal Farm is known for it’s incredibly clever allegory of the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm ultimately explains the true dystopian nature of the nation. The first symbolic character is Old Major as Karl Marx. Old Major is described by Orwell (...so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say”(25). His principles were noble, his character was strong, and he was respected by all of the animals on the farm. Old Major had the benefit of not placing this policies into existence however. While his dream is grand and perfect, it’s a highly romanticized ideal. Creating equality is a difficult task since the animals cannot contribute to the farm equally. Even with difficult problems inevitably arising, life for the animals is at first happy, largely because of another pig named Snowball. Snowball is representative of the Russian politician Leon Trotsky. Like Trotsky, Snowball tried to stay true to the original views of the philosophy of his predecessor. Snowball is described by Orwell as “...vivacious pig...quicker in speech and more inventive”(35). He is the leader of the revolution and creates a moral and pleasant society, despite the pigs taking more than their share of their food. However, Trotsky’s rival, Joseph Stalin was eventually able to retain control of the Soviet Union, and is represented by Napolean. Napolean according to Orwell is “a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar”. He is a far more rugged and ruthless pig who eventually takes complete control over the farm. However, without knowing who the character symbolizes at the start, the reader does not experience the story with pre-conceived notions. The allegory point of view allows for the novel to be a reflection of an entire culture rather than a single individual. The perspective is from 3rd person subjective. From this point of view the trials and struggles are seen in the horses, donkeys and, goats. The pigs deceit is shown in a manner emphasizing the slow accumulation of power before turning on the original Seven Commandments all together. The pigs also constantly utilize fear to gain legitimacy from the rest of the animals. By allowing fear to influence their lives, the common animals gave up their equality to ensure their safety, instead of having faith in themselves. By keeping too much faith in the pigs to keep them safe, the pigs ultimately abuse this power for their benefit. Much like McCarthyism swept the nation during the 1950s, a deep fear of Mr Jones or Snowball returning kept the animals obliging to the will of the pigs. However when the responsibility of reporting the news becomes an opportunity for propaganda, the pigs quickly take advantage. In this regard the major theme could be considered the importance of empowerment and freedom of expression. Even Boxer who is rather gullible begins to deny facts spouted by Squealer. If some of the animals were confident rather than panic-stricken, the pigs would have to be more dignified in their principles. Instead the culture declines into starvation and misery while the pigs show no consideration for anyone else. The overall value of the story is rested upon strength of the allegory. The story on it’s own is a strong representation of the easy corruption of power. Without knowledge of Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky, the cautionary tale remains powerful and effective. The struggle between Snowball and Napolean is a legitimate dispute and can be applied to politics outside of Soviet Russia. While the story on it’s own is far more bizarre and abstract, it still captures the theme of the power corrupting a strong ethical society. The allegory allows the reader to truly grasp the perspective of the Russian people during this time as their society deteriorates.

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"...some are more equal than others..."...that is a line from George Orwell's brilliant social commentary, "Animal Farm"... The basic story involves the animals on a farm who want to run the farmer out of town, so that they can run the farm, equally, and fairly... but, as time moves on, all is not right in the animal kingdom, and, like humans, they begin to show their true colors... with an exceptional thread to our own behvior, such as his equally brilliant "1984", once again Mr. Orwell proves to be a keen storyteller with one eye on his pages, and one eye on the world...

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This book is a classic, so insightful into our world politics. Everyone should read it!

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This is Why I Read Animal farm is Georges Orwell’s interpretation of the Soviet Union pre and during Stalin. Instead of wring a history book with his thoughts of communism he tells the same story with animals and ties it all up with a message. The best part is he is simplifying the whole story not to dumb it down but to make it more understandable. The premise is that animals rebel against their farmer and make the first farm run and operated by animals. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is pure genius. I have never experienced a better way of communicating a complex idea and translating it better than George Orwell did in Animal Farm. This book is a joy to read I can honestly say that I have never been so hooked on a book more than Animal Farm. The only problems I had with the book came from me. The biggest problem I had with this book was that there are so many loose ends. Through many situations I didn’t know if someone was actually a bad guy or as an example if Napoleon was just lying. I still feel like I got the gist of it but I’m still unsure. Most of that comes from me not knowing the history. I don’t know the context of the book, but that was minimal compared to how much I loved the book. Plus through all that I still got the message. As much as the book confused me (which was minimal) I still understood more than 90% of it. The way he described it I feel pretty informed about what happened. I can’t get over the way George decided to write the book. It’s just so smart the way he used animals to represent certain characteristics. It just blows me away how smart the whole thing is. I really want to give him credit for the story but it’s not really his. The way he interpreted it and made it relevant to a farm is just great. The best part to me is I can see all this playing out in the real world. This is the first book I feel I’m going to re-read.

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I read this book last year in my english 2 class. This is a great book if you guys like to watch any movie that goes with the book because this is one of them. In this book the animals are a little bit crazy. This book is not too long for those of you like to read short books. The way that he wrote the book was very easy to read. I would suggest people to read this book and watch the movie. The animals in this book each of them has a different personality and they act like humans

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The novel Animal Farm is a political satire written by George Orwell in 1945, exposing the political corruption of the USSR, and other communistic nations of that time. The purpose of the book is to warn the general population about the dangers of utopias, communism, and totalitarian governments. Personally, I enjoyed reading this book, as it helped open my eyes to extreme levels of government control and poor living conditions that I, as a white male in America, have never experienced firsthand. This book was written right at the end of World War II, at the beginning of the Cold War. During that time, the USSR was experiencing political debates and rebellions (primarily between Stalin and Trotsky), and radical government control over the citizens. Orwell chooses to represent all of the ruling class as literal pigs in his book. There are a number of main points throughout the book which all tie together in the end. The first is a speech that the animal’s current leader, Old Major, gives to the animals. Old Major talks about a dream he had, stimulating the animals imaginations of a farm ruled by animals, and not people. It was at this point that the song “Beasts of England” is originally sung. After the Old Major dies, the next big plot development is the rebellion. After forgetting to feed the animals for an extended period of time (due to a long night of drinking and a brutal hangover the next morning), Mr. Jones is finally driven out of his farm by the animals. Not too long after however, Mr. Jones and the neighboring farmers come back, fighting to regain control of the farm. Later calling the skirmish the Battle of the Cowshed, the animals are able to thwart the human’s efforts. As time goes by, the two main leaders of the animal utopia, Snowball and Napoleon, continue to butt heads on major decisions. Snowball, being a much more liberal leader in his politics, wants to construct a windmill for power. Napoleon however, being a stubborn conservative-ideological leader, gets sick of Snowball’s suggestions and finally banishes Snowball from Animal Farm. It is not long after Snowball’s expulsion that Napoleon holds the first interactions with humans since the rebellion, contracting with a guy by the name of Mr. Whymper for supplies. This connection with humans breaks one of the original commandments, yet Napoleon is never tried nor found guilty. Under Napoleon’s leadership, the animals proceeded to build the windmill after all. Partially through completion, a storm comes and tears down what is already constructed. This pushes the animals to make the windmill even thicker and stronger, ever giving into the political rulings of Napoleon. Soon after the windmill is completed, Mr. Jones and his men decide to attack the farm once again. This action can be compared to a military move, taking an enemy out just after they invent a new major weapon or technological advancement. After a large explosion, there is nothing left of the windmill. Working harder than ever to accomplish what Napoleon ordered, the animals continue to gather stone to rebuild. Boxer, the workhorse of the farm, finally wears himself out, blowing a lung. As he is taken away to the hospital, some of the animals realized that he is really being taken to be killed. This exposes the corrupt government of totalitarianisms, addressing the issue of Euthanasia. Under the same leadership, Napoleon and the other leaders (pigs) learn to talk on two legs, carrying whips and ordering the animals around. Within days the pigs are meeting with the local farmers to address treaties, revealing that rulers of any sort, pigs or humans, can all be corrupt. I believe the main purpose of this book is to warn the readers, preferably all readers and not just the elite and well-educated, about the dangers of utopias, communism, and totalitarians. After comparing the book’s fairy tale characters to historical figures of the time, I feel that the book does a really good job of revealing these political issues, without making it too overly confusing for the average reader. It is able to take a serious topic, push deep opinions into the discussion, and come out understandable. Some of the ideas that are suggested by the book are to be wary of over controlling governments, and governments promising equality, yet providing an elitist ruling. There are a number of points in the book that stand out as very convincing to me. One of the biggest is the commandments. The pigs, the ones who instituted the commandments, break them and cover it up by painting a small little amendment to each one. The commandments were even ditched all together at the end of the novel, being replaced by one: “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” (133). I noticed that Orwell uses an interesting word choice for his dialogue. Old Major starts the trend of calling the fellow animals Comrade (which at the time often referenced the soviets). Orwell also depicts all the different elements of a national struggle within the plot, including war, poverty, rebellion, famine, foreign affairs, economics, and more. All the characters represent direct metaphors of the time period. For example, Napoleon represents Stalin; Snowball represents Trotsky; and Boxer represents any underpaid, maltreated, working-class Soviet. This is all portrayed through a fairly objective and informative tone. The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is a great political satire exposing the tyrannical and corrupt government of the USSR and other Communist countries during the Cold War. It is a quick read, and well worth digging into if you have a fascination of politics and human corruption.

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      George Orwell writes Animal Farm to convey the Russian Revolution in simpler terms. The story takes place on a farm taken over by animals that ran off their owner, Mr. Jones. The leaders of this revolution were two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon and the other pigs start to crave more power and causes them to manipulate the other animals. This leads to corruption and soon enough Napoleon slowly becomes what they drove out, a human!       Orwell did not decide to write this book on a whim; his political views helped develop Animal Farm. In his essay, “Why I Write”, Orwell states “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. It seems to me nonsense, in a period like our own, to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects”. Orwell did not avoid the subject and wrote his views of totalitarianism during the Russian Revolution and incorporated it into Animal Farm. He believed Stalin was leaning towards totalitarianism rather than socialism in the U.S.S.R.       One main idea Animal Farm conveys is the effects of exploitation. On the farm, the pigs manipulate the other animals into working harder and getting smaller rations. A pig named Squealer becomes the speaker for Napoleon and convinces the others that Napoleon is helping the common good and blames Snowball (the other pig who led the rebellion) for any misfortunes the farm experiences. For example, Squealer says, “No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal…but sometimes you might make the wrong decisions…Suppose you had decided to follow Snowball…who, as we now know, was no better than a criminal” (59-60). The reader can notice how Squealer makes Snowball a pariah and anyone associated to him. It also sounds ridiculous when Squealer says “you might make the wrong decisions”. There will always be the chance of an unfortunate event but this is Squealers reasoning for Napoleon to make decisions for the other animals. The misuse of power leads to an aristocracy where the very few (the pigs) rule the rest of the farm.       Overall, Animal Farm is very effective with conveying Orwell’s political thoughts of the Russian Revolution. By the author simplifying the Revolution and having animals as characters, the ideas become universal. The ideas of the Revolution are no longer moot because the outcome of the story is now possible anywhere and just Russia in the 1900s. This idea is similar to fairytales. Morals are brought to simple terms and stay relevant no matter the time period. Orwell does an excellent job in making his story a living document and still has relevancy in the 21st century.       The greatest lesson learned from this story is the possible outcome of sitting back and doing nothing not only in politics, but in all aspects of life. The animals in the story let pigs take control even though they disagree and they do not try to fix the problems. For example, in the beginning the animals created seven commandments to abide by. The last commandment said, “All animals are created equal” (33). Slowly, the pigs started to manipulate the commandments. By the end of the story there was only one commandment left that read “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (123). The animals let time pass and were no longer equal to the pigs. By letting the pigs get away with their actions, the pigs gained total control over the farm. The importance of standing up for your beliefs is a lesson anyone can understand. If one takes no action, they will not experience any success.       Animal Farm is meant for anyone to read. The word choice is simplistic enough for middle school students to read and enjoy the story for its plot. If one looks deeper into the story, high school students to senior citizens can experience the thrill of seeking out the historical background and the parallels between the characters and real people during the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a favorite and highly recommend for anyone to read.

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This was an amazing and well-thought book. I read this book in the 9th grade (currently in 11th) and first i thought it was silly because of the animal's ability to talk to humans, But as you continue reading, you completely forget that point and become intrigued and delightful of what will happen next. How the life of the animals changed and the many struggles they encountered can be greatly seen in the communist stuggles in history. I will be getting this book for my own, and I'm proud!

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i love this book. i just recently read it in my 8th grade language arts class. AWESOME!!!! it portrayed the natzes well!! read... reread... read... read again... again and again.

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Some of us like to believe that we would make a diffence and take a stand but most people just want to fit in and belong. basic human nature is to control and manipulate others to better ourselves. And i believe this book represents this instinct and the one to fight it.

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Animal Farm is a cautionary tale both to those in power and to the society as a whole. Orwell more than proves his point that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

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It's a classic that applies all too well to our times today. Reread it and cringe.

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Terrfic and intelligently made! A terrific allegory towards the USSR with a lot of facts kept within. (Also, as towards the poster below me. It isn't an example of a democratic society at also, did you forget how Napolean asserts his self to power? This is an example of an authoritarian society.)

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I read this for the first time in school -- maybe grade six or so. Along with The Hobbit and the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe, this novel fostered my lifelong passion for books. I re-read Animal Farm over the past few days. I forgot how short and "easy to read" the novel was. But behind this seemingly simple tale is a master storyteller at work, conveying the all-too-real dangers of power and greed in a democratic society. Should be required reading for every young American.