Animal Farm

“ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL / BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.”

Initial Reflections

I will be completely honest here. I have not read a book for enjoyment in quite some time. I did not really grow up in an educated family. We did not have many books that I would enjoy and we did not really have the resources to find books I would like. I believe the last book I read for enjoyment was Around the World in Eighty Days. Recently, I have been getting more and more worried about this aspect of myself. Especially in this age of misinformation and generative AI. It feels like the internet is becoming less and less trustworthy and authentic. Therefore, I want to get better at reading. Not only because I want to broaden my horizons on the media I consume, but also because I believe that reading more will help me become a better writer. I have decided to start with Animal Farm for a couple reasons. When I read 1984 in high school. I found the book really interesting. I really like how George Orwell writes and the way he structures his work is really interesting. His dystopian and totalitarian themes and message often make for some very suspenseful work. The work he makes is also relatively easy to read and Animal Farm seemed short enough so that I would not get bored. The last thing I want to do when starting my reading hobby is get dismayed by the first book I read being too hard. Also animal communism is funny.

Overview

Animal Farm is about a group of farm animals rebelling against their human master. Once he is driven out of the farm, the animals start their own farm following the idealist values of equality and justice. However, over the course of the story, the pigs in the farm use their position of power and intelligence to deceive and corrupt the values that founded their revolution. The story acts as an allegory for the rise of the Soviet Union, from its idealistic communist foundations to the gradual corruption of those ideals, creating the totalitarian system that appears at the end of the story. Although much like George Orwell’s other work 1984, (I need to read it again the last time I read it was in High School) the book focuses a lot on the specific actions performed by the elite to amass more power and exploit the working class.

What I Liked

Animal Farm does a great job at conveying how corruption is implemented in society through a simplified lens. The usage of animals makes it easy to understand the symbolism used throughout the book even when removing the context of the Soviet Union from the story. The pigs represent the elites, the horses represent the working class, the sheep represent the indoctrinated citizens. All of this is wrapped up in a unique story about animals and their desire for freedom against humans. Which considering how animals are treated in our world, is not that unrealistic of a premise. Animal Farm does a great job at creating expressive and unique characters that represent different types of people found in the formation of a totalitarian state. My favorite character is Benjamin. Who is one of the smartest animals on the farm, however, due to his apathy he almost never takes any actions to stop the pigs from amassing power. Deciding instead to complain and remain pessimistic towards the system. Which reflects how many academics refuse to take action to enact change in their own communities.

What I Disliked

As much as I like the easy to follow narrative of Animal Farm, the story was very predictable. The only scene that surprised me was when Snowball the pig was driven out by Napoleon's dogs. After that, the rest of the plot was easy to predict. Which made it a lot less interesting to read. If the story had gone on any longer I probably would have stopped reading it. In the story, there is a scene where the hens rebel against the pigs when they are forced to have their eggs sold off to local farmers for money. This rebellion ends with the hens lying to the pigs saying that the whole rebellion was caused by Snowball’s interference. Which caused them to immediately be executed by the pigs. When I first read this I was really confused so I looked it up and this is apparently a reference to some trials in the Soviet Union. However, I feel like the set up for this scene was not built up enough and acts more like a direct reference to the event itself. I think it would have been better if it was either shown that these detained Hens were tortured into lying in their confession either through a scene before the confessions or some environmental details after the execution.

Favorite Scene

One of the best scenes in Animal Farm has to be Boxer’s death. As it drives home the message that appealing to the elite through hard work will never pan out. Boxer works nonstop on the creation of the farm’s windmill. Repeating his mantra that he just needs to “work harder”. This ultimately causes him to become ill and when the animals try to get the pigs to offer Boxer aid, they trick the animals into sending Boxer to the slaughterhouse for money. Showing that the pigs did not care in the slightest for Boxer, their most hard working animal, in the slightest. As soon as his value was gone, he was tossed aside.

Mary Media Rating: 7

Overall, I think Animal Farm is a nice work of fiction. It conveys all the lessons I believe the author was trying to portray in an easy to digest light with a really cool premise. However, its predictable story leaves me wanting more and will probably not leave a lasting impression on me. Which is why I am giving this book a 7 out of 10.

Do I Recommend Reading: Yes

This book is interesting, short, and easy to read. Any beginner can pick it up and read it in about a week or two. I should know, I have not sat down and read a book in a while and decided to make this the first book I would read to ease myself back into the hobby. Good to know I made the right decision. Go forth and read comrade!