September 20, 2020
George Orwell
Animal Farm
Pages: 1 – 141
Dear Ms. Gibson,
Summary: Animal Farm takes place on a farm led where the animals lead and no humans are to be found. The farm is peaceful and all the animals are equal, but a pig named Napoleon begins to become power-hungry and attempts to take control of the farm himself. Another pig, named Snowball, tries to stop him, but Snowball’s efforts are in vain and Napoleon trains a pack of puppies to chase him away from the farm. Now, Napoleon has full control, rewriting history to make Snowball out to be a villain, and becoming more human-like himself, drinking whiskey and sleeping in a bed, despite the fact that his original philosophy prohibited these things. The other animals on the farm are suffering, but Napoleon ignores them while his associates assure the commonwealth that he’s a good leader and that everything he does is excusable. Napoleon invites a human farmer to dinner, and the other animals on the farm are unable to tell the pigs from the humans.
Response: Animal Farm is an allegory for Joseph Stalin’s rise to power over the Soviet Union, and how he used that power incredibly poorly. Napoleon is obviously an allegory for Stalin, and Snowball is inspired by Leon Trotsky, a politician who opposed Stalin and who was eventually exiled from the Soviet Union and assassinated. George Orwell provides another politically charged commentary in the wake of World War II, similar to the novel he would publish after Animal Farm, a book entitled 1984. Orwell once again delivers a tail that is interesting and well-written, with themes that applied to the real world back when the book was first written, and themes that still apply today. The book warns of the danger of a dictatorship that hides behind a mask of a healthy and sufficient government, leading a happy country full of satisfied people, when in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Orwell was a genius writer and this book is often regarded as his magnum opus, a statement that I cannot disagree with.
Sincerely, Nate
Hey Nate,
Some regard 1984 as the more accomplished book. Animal Farm, I think gets reduced in importance because of its simplicity of form. Personally, I like it and found it a more intriguing take on the Soviet Union story.
MsG