I first read this book more or less half a century ago while in my teens, and I remember hating it. When I read it again during this August, I liked it much better because I could appreciate it much better. The book didn’t change; I did.

In the story, when the animals in Jones’ farm feel they were being mistreated, an old influential pig, Old Major, urges the animal to rebel and leads them to sing “Beasts of England” as their anthem. Soon Old Major dies. Then, when farmer Jones forgets to feed the animals, the rebellion happens and all people are chased out of the farm by the animals. The animals agree on some rules and seven commandments as their constitution.

During the first few years, the rebellion proves to be a success, as the animals work together, complete the harvest, and even build a windmill. In the meantime, pigs find a way to take on the role of the supervisors. Leading them is the selfish, power-hungry Napoleon and his sidekick Squealer who convince the animal that the pigs are the more intelligent and correct decision makers.

Slowly the pigs as a group become the leading caste and have in their grasp most of the food and the goods in the farm. While all this is happening, a few battles with humans take place. The first of them is The Battle of the Cowshed where Farmer Jones is defeated after he attempts to take back his farm. The pigs change the rules and the anthem to their liking, and even though the constitution has said not to deal with humans, Napoleon begins dealing with the neighboring farms.

Several years later, the seven commandments are reduced to only one that says, ‘all animals are equal; some are more equal than others. ’ Napoleon changes the Animal Farm’s name back to Manor Farm, and all the upper-echelon pigs now walk on two feet and wear clothes. One day, Napoleon asks the other farmers over for a party and as the pigs play a card game with the humans, the other animals watch them from a window. When Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon argue about a card, the animals watching them from outside cannot separate the pigs from the men.

This book is a satire that highlights manipulators, tyrants, the clueless public, false allegiances and the role of religion-like attachments. Many see the resemblance of the contents of this book to the rise and spread of Russia since this book was written during 1943-44. For example, the Windmill is the Russian Industry and farm buildings stand for Kremlin.

appreciating satire.

the variety of animals and how masterfully each animal's characterization was handled.

annoyed when the rulers (pigs) could manipulate the animals' thinking and punished by killing those who suspected the pigs, thus getting rid of the ones opposing them. Too close to real life!

is George Orwell, (1903-1950) born Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic whose work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, and satire.

As a satire, it reflects the human experience in its totality, and particularly, politics and the gullibility of the masses.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Animal Farm   from Amazon.Com!

Created Aug 19, 2018 at 8:10pm • Submit your own review...