Book Review - Animal Farm

The book Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, by George Orwell, is an allegory about the dangers of the rise of communism in Russia during the Twentieth Century. The story is seen through the eyes of the animals, yet it is written in the third person. The story takes place in Manor Farm. Mr. Jones, a farmer, is perceived to be a cruel task master by some of the animals. Encouraged by Old Major’s vision of a utopia of animals where they work for themselves and not for humans, Snowball and Napoleon develop the idea of animalism and stage a coup. The animals rename Manor Farm to Animal Farm, and things are going well for a time.

However, the good times do not last. Snowball and Napoleon have a power struggle, which eventually results in Snowball being run off by attack dogs. Napoleon becomes an even crueler task master than Mr. Jones ever was. Napoleon, for instance, would kill off anyone who opposed his plans through the use of his attack dogs. He overworks the animals who are not pigs to build a windmill and then lies about sending Boxer the horse off to the glue factory when he can no longer work. At the end of the book, the pigs are acting like humans. They are walking upright and are wearing clothes. The animals can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. Overall, the story is satirical in nature. It attacks the Stalinist regime and does not cast it in good light.

Animal Farm is full of symbolism that references communism in Russia. For example, Mr. Jones is a symbol for Czar Nicholas II, who was seen by the Russian people as an overbearing leader and was increasingly disliked due to his poor decisions during World War I. Old Major represents Karl Marx, who had the vision for communism, and Lenin, who led the revolution in the beginning. Napoleon and Snowball represent Stalin and Trotsky, Animalism is a symbol for communism, and the attack dogs represent the KGB (the secret police in the USSR). The list goes on. Even the setting is symbolic. The story takes place on a farm and Russia was an agricultural country before Stalin began industrialization with his five year plans.

Orwell’s story is similar to other fairy tales. It uses simple language to convey its message, which helps in lending to the idea that the animals represent ordinary people in Russia who are not highly educated, but still help in bring about the communist revolution. Orwell also does not set his story in a specific time frame and this gives the story a timeless quality that is not dated.

I find that this work is still relevant today because there are communist countries where atrocities against human beings are being committed on a daily basis. In countries like North Korea and Cuba, people are still being oppressed and being controlled by a party system. This work is also important because it serves as a warning to countries who are thinking about becoming communistic. To date, there is no country where communism has worked perfectly, nor do I think that there will be one. All communist countries have party officials that strive to be in power and when that happens, everyone else suffers as a result.