Animal Farm

About a year and a few months ago, I gave up my habit of compulsively reading. I loved to read, especially epic adventure series or popular novels. Due to a demanding schedule of music practice and my coursework, I had to stop. In addition, I also began to have difficulty finding additional books to read to interest me, which also contributed to this stop.

However, over the summer, my dear friend from elsewhere met me, and she recommend a short read to me called "Animal Farm". On my trip back, I did get to stop by a store and pick up Animal Farm, along with a few other classics that hopefully will receive their own blog posts. Now that my auditions are over, I finally had the time to sit down with this book and thoroughly enjoy it. I read the entire book, from Chapter I to the final line about Napoleon's face, in about two or three hours. I can easily say, without a doubt, Animal Farm is one of the best books I have had the deepest pleasure of reading.







Despite its plain and almost childishly simple guise, Animal Farm has one of the most complicated back-stories of any book I've ever digested. For a brief history lesson, the Soviet Union and pre-formed members fought back against the reigning and disliked Germany in the 1940s, the latter being an enemy of many states at the time. The Soviet Union was hailed as a savior and wonderful nation (state as a nation-state is debatable), from France to England to all of Europe. However, George Orwell, having been deployed to Spain on a mission, was able to witness firsthand that the Soviet Union was just as totalitarian and harsh as their enemies they were praised for defeating. Stunned by this, the socialist began creating an allegory of the story, taking place on a farm and transcribing political leaders and bodies into pigs and horses. This mission to Spain was the birth of Animal Farm.

In Animal Farm, the farm's mistreated, underfed, and overworked animals powerfully overthrow their farm's owner, Mr. Jones, claiming the farm as their own. This is a direct allegory to when the Soviets defeated Germany. The animals then rename the farm "Animal Farm", and begin to create systems and tasks to run the farm themselves, in a much better manner than Jones ever could have. At first, everything is perfect; the animals deface human culture, produce more than Jones did, are more efficient than Jones's work, and were feeding themselves twice as much as Jones did with a lesser workload.

However, when meetings are held over the caring and enhancement of Animal Farm, the two pigs who had assumed leadership always argue: Napoleon and Snowball. The former is representative of Joesph Stalin, ruler of the Soviet Union for thirty years. Snowball acts opposite him, being an allegory of Leon Trotsky, a politician in the Soviet Union's government who attempted to rebel against the increasing bureaucracy in the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule. Ultimately, after his failure, Trotsky was subsequently removed from office. This is reflected in Animal Farm when, one night, as Napoleon continues to raise the pigs on the farm to higher powers, eventually making the council to make all decisions the pigs, Snowball stands up to him and argues against him, and the need of a windmill on Animal Farm. Napoleon then summons nine dogs, which chase Snowball away forever, symbolic of Trosky's removal from office and deportation.

While they were both on the farm, Snowball and Napoleon always argued, just as the values of Stalinism and Trotskyism do and did in Europe. It's absolutely breathtaking how Orwell, a pen-name of the author, is able to make every detail in this book an allegory of Soviet Union History. Even when Snowball leads the two battles against Jones to victory is an allusion to Trotsky's leadership in Soviet wars, leading to victory. Kudos to you, Orwell, kudos to you.

Just as Stalin caused across the Soviet Union, Napoleon then takes over Animal Farm, and slowly becomes more like a human, by such actions as drinking beer, sleeping in a bed, wearing clothes, leading harshly, focusing on work and not well-being of the animals, making trade with other farms, and eventually even standing on two feet! This shows Stalin's transformation of the Soviet Union into a totalitarian communist government, in which Stalin was ultimately the absolute figure of power (However, in a movie adaption, Animal Farm eventually falls due to poor leadership, just as the Soviets did).

The animals have their rations reduced and workload increased so that Napoleon can continue to manage the farm, and enjoy his own human pleasures. In the end, the animals meet the fate that they have less food as Jones had been giving them and a long workday, but they thought it was okay. Napoleon's position of power and "wiseness" made the animals think that any hardship was okay, as long as they were doing it for themselves and not for a human leader. Little did they know that they had a human leader--"human" is more than just a species in this book, it is a character trait that poisons, consumes, and ultimately destroys.

Mid-story, after Snowball is driven away, Napoleon blames any hardship of failure on the farm on Snowball. Some are absolutely ridiculous--for example, after a mighty tempest destroys the windmill, it is said that Snowball snuck in and did it. The plans for a windmill that we are told Snowball wrote are claimed to be written by Napoleon is another example. Napoleon that purged the farm with violent slaughter of any animals who were found to be or confessed to being in cahoots with Snowball. At least fifteen animals on the farm die from this idiocy, which is a reflection of Stalin purging the Soviet Union of any perpetrating or cohorting back-stabbers.

My penultimate note on the plot involves the Seven Commandments. However, despite what you might think, that has no biblical significance. When the animals overthrew the Manor Farm, Snowball and Napoleon created seven laws to be followed by all the animals to prevent the farm to become "human-run" again. These included and were limited to:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

However, as Napoleon became more human, he delighted in changing the rules slightly so that he could indulge in aforementioned human pleasures. By having his lackey pig Squeaker secretly change the rules overnight, the book ends with the commandments in this state:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without reason.
7. All animals are equal.

I think there were more changes. However, the rules are replaced at the end of the book with a single phrase that defines Stalin and Napoleon's communist dictatorship and rise to something greater than just power:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL. BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

The book then ends on a bad note--the animals end as badly as they start, with the pegs having learned to walk on two legs to symbolize their humanity like Mr. Jones. And when Napoleon even allows other farmers that are human to visit the farm, the best line of the book is stated to describe the farm at the end of the fairy story: "The creatures outside looked form pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

On a final note, the characters in this book were beautifully created, simply astounding work. A few of my favorites were the two cart-horses Boxer and Clover, the former of which is the strongest member on the farm by many miles. However, due to his dedication, Boxer overworks himself, and Napoleon evilly sends him to be turned into hide and glue through slaughter. Of course, Napoleon finds a way to trick the animals, being so powerful that point that he was able to deceive them even when the animals saw the truck saying "Slaughter." The other animals were great as well, but Boxer stands out as a show-stealer of the story, and it was absolutely gut-wrenching, heart-ripping when he was killed for Napoleon's totalitarianism.

Beautiful, astounding, defining, momentous, miraculous. Too many words describe Animal Farm for me to list them all. I recommend this book to anyone at all, even if you don't have a history with the Soviet Union or have no desire to learn of it. This is a masterpiece of literature, and I'm dying to read 1984 now--hooray for getting books for Christmas!



Merry Christmas, y'all; remember that no matter what's under the tree, Jesus is the reason for the season, and that this day is about happiness. Let nothing get you down; not gifts, not siblings, not sins, not things. Thanks....