Animal Farm

After an inspiring and revolutionary speech from an old pig, the animals seize Animal Farm.

The animals learn to read, and the animals as a whole decide on the rules of Animal Farm.

Napoleon, one of the pigs, ousts his fellow, Snowball, who bravely fought for the freedoms of the animals as a traitor, and employs attack dogs to banish him. Sound familiar?

Napoleon employs such propaganda as to make the animals believe Snowball was never an ally, always a traitor. And Snowball's ideas were actually all his, and he changes the rules of Animal Farm to suit his own whims. Revolution songs are banned. Sound familiar?

He provides for himself, the attack dogs and other pigs, such privilege and luxuries as they have on the farm, denying them to other animals. Any animal found to be in communication with Snowball in any way is viciously put down. SOUND FAMILIAR?

While Animal Farm is often read in schools (or banned from them) I'm happy to have read it in this time of my life, when I have a lot more context for the incredibly thin yet elegant allegory for the Russian Revolution and into the rise of Stalinism. I found the book really compelling. It's a great parable about history, and illustrates how easily revolution and socialism can be corrupted by one ill-intentioned pig.

I think it would be easy to surmise from the book that Orwell thinks Revolution is useless. In the end, the pigs walk upright, drink whiskey and deal with humans, becoming as bad as the farmers they ousted. I think however it's more of a warning, and a reminder of the power of the proletariat. At some points I even found myself frustrated with the animals for doing nothing. They have the numbers and the power, why are they putting up with this? But we see this in almost every country today. Even here in England there's a death by a thousand cuts. Why do we put up with the things we put up with? As Orwell shows us, the slide into fascism is slow, bit-by-bit, but it's also very fast, if you're not looking closely.