Animal Farm by George Orwell

“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to
pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

First thing first, it is a brilliant, brilliant narrative. Powerful. And its power lies not only in a story that is simple and tragic yet captivating but also in its relevance, at all times and all places of the world throughout the history of mankind. Although it is a strong political allegory reflecting the events that lead to Russian Revolution and Stalin era in Soviet Union, it is as relevant to any era, any country where people are corrupted by power, social principles are manipulated to suit the needs of a few and the truth is twisted and represented to the common man.

At first, I didn’t read it as a satire (though I liked the used of dark humor), or as a blatant bashing of communism. I read it as a simple fable of animals, having my own interpretation. The book made me sad. The animal analogy, though made it easier to identify which animal represents which social class and spin out the key themes like power, social classes, misuse of information media, manipulation, and savagery, the matter-of-fact language made the message all the more poignant than it would have been if said directly. We have seen these in our lives. Haven’t we? In schools, in colleges, in offices, everywhere. Can’t we identify at least one Boxer, one Napoleon, one Muriel , one Squealer, one Snowflakes and so on, from our everyday lives?

Then I went back and read about the Russian Revolution again, and it was then I was able to fully appreciate the brilliancy of this allegory. The characters, the incidents, the situations are quick, sharp and accurate. I could understand easily how Communism is represented by Animalism, how Jones is Tsar Nicholas II, Old Major as Karl Marx or Lenin, the Snowball as Trotsky, a young smart leader, and fervent ideologist, who wanted life better for everyone but was chased away by Stalin, represented by Napoleon, a cruel, selfish and power ambitious pig. Boxer the horse, the accurate representation of poor, honest labor class and so on. The seven commandments represent the social dogmas that are changeable as per the needs of the elite class. It is obvious that when the revolution based on certain ideologies are led by power hungry people all the principles are changed into maxims like “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".

I’m giving the book 4 stars for its simplicity, 4 stars for the satire. I don’t know why I'm keeping one star, may be because of the imagery of violence or may be because at times it felt to be trapped in too many stereotypes, which was perhaps due to the extreme views of the author against the subject or his lack of first-hand experience thereof.

- Shruti Srivastava