Animal Farm is a 1945 George Orwell classic novella that tells the story of farm animals rebelling against their cruel human master in pursuit of freedom. It is a satirical allegory based on real life events, where totalitarianism caused great pain and damage to the common people.

George Orwell was an English novelist, poet and essayist born as Eric Arthur Blair in June 1903 in British-India Bihar. He adopted the pen name George Orwell because he wanted to avoid any embarrassment to his family. Known for 1984 and Animal Farm, he caused the adjective “Orwellian” to be used to describe totalitarian or authoritarian practices. In 1945, he wrote Animal Farm after observing a little 10 year-old boy driving a huge carthorse, whipping it from time to time, and remarking if animals became aware of their strength, they wouldn’t have been under human control and exploit. The manuscript was almost lost when a German V-1 flying bomb destroyed his residence in London, Orwell spent hours searching through the rubble to find the pages.

Plot Summary

“Manor Farm, owned by Mr. Jones, housed pigs, boars, cows, horses and various other animals generally found in a farm. One night, Old Major, a prize-winning boar addresses the animals about a dream he had. A vision of a free life for the animals, no human to control them or subject them to cruelty. He composed a song called Beasts of England that painted a beautiful vision of freedom and equality. This was met with great enthusiasm by the animals and they wished to live a life like this. Old Major adviced them to prepare for a Rebellion against the humans, for the sake of this dream. And when three days later he passed away, three young pigs— Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer took it upon themselves to start preparing the animals for the Rebellion.

The story from then on depicts the animals’ successful takeover of the farm by chasing out Mr. Jones and changing Manor Farm to Animal Farm. The animals work by themselves for themselves and all of the products are reserved for their consumption unlike in Mr. Jones’ time when they were subjected to harsh frugal meals.

The removal of Snowball from the leadership and the farm marks the key point in the story, and is a foreshadowing to the times ahead under Napoleon’s rule. He becomes power hungry, behaves more and more like a human and succeedes in brainwashing the animals that his word is the only right word.

The seven commandments that were established at first now had several technicalities added to them that gave the pigs more leisure and luxuries than the other animals. They took advantage of the illiteracy and naivete of the animals and used it against themselves for the pigs’ personal gain. Over time, the pigs were sleeping in beds, drinking alcohol, trading with humans, wearing human clothes and walking on two hinds— behaving like humans that went against the seven commandments.

In the end, the seven commandments were reduced to one single commandments that read “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the others”. The last scene of the book tells us of the pigs and humans dining together, enjoying a game of cards with alcohol and the animals watching through the window couldn’t tell the difference between the pigs and the humans— they looked the very same and behaved like one.

Analysis

The disappearence of the milk right after claiming Animal Farm their own, was a foreshadowing to life under the pigs. The milk was mixed into the mash for the pigs and they justified it with a twisted explanation that they needed the energy as they were cleverer than the rest.

Snowball had big ambitions for the farm, albeit he was part of exploiting the resources, he wanted an ease of life, endless luxuries and a quality freedom for everyone. The power dynamic between Snowball and Napoleon ended badly for the former, when Napoleon chased him out of the farm with a successful coup. Napolean deemed the sunday meetings unnecessary and established that from now on, the pigs would solely decide among themselves for the welfare of the animals. This was a drastic change from the spirit of Animalism that was first established.

Boxer, the horse who worked day and night for the sake of Animal Farm’s bright future was met with a very harsh betrayal. When he was injured beyond recovery, instead of healing him, the pigs had him killed and sold his hinds for their profit. Clover and Benjamin, a horse and a donkey weren’t fooled by the pigs’ actions but they remained voiceless against the harsh regime. It made them realise that the pigs never intended to carry forth Old Major’s visions, they used it as an excuse to treat themselves to human luxuries.

Over time, the brainwashing by Napoleon and Squealer caused the memories and logic to become a lost cause for the animals. They couldn’t remember if things were better in Mr. Jones’ time, right after the rebellion when Snowball was still in the picture or now under Napoleon’s rule. They were under the illusion that they were atleast working for themselves by themselves without human interference and therefore things were better then even though they were starving and were subjected to harsh weather conditions for most of the time.

Final Thoughts

This Orwell classic was a perfect allegory for the totalitarian politics that have taken place in real world over the years. It was deeply engrossing to read the satire at play, how wonderfully the symbolism captured the divide between the rich and the poor, the blatant exploitation and the silencing of the voices who tried to rebel against the corrupt system. A must-read for anyone interested in political allegory or social justice themes.

It’s a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me, I’m looking forward to reading 1984, another satirical allegorical novel on Totalitarianism.