Animal Farm

Hey, it's Heather. This review is about Orwell's Animal Farm!

Author: George Orwell

Published: August 1945

Publisher: Harcourt Brace and Company

My rating: 4/5

When I first took sociology it seemed logical to read Animal Farm, considering that it mingles my two favourite subjects together in less than 200 pages. Somehow this year has flown by and it was just a week ago that I opened the book. My expectations for the novella were raised pretty high; I was even convinced it was fate for me to read this book when I noted that Lydia’s copy of the book had an introduction by Malcolm Bradbury as coincidentally this is the same name as my grandpa. The book is set on a farm featuring several pompous pigs, a herd of sheep that parrot the pigs’ thoughts, a few dogs and horses as well as some other farmyard friends. The animals are assembled at the barn where they listen to Old Major the boar plead that the animals start a revolution against humans once he is deceased. He describes a place where animals control themselves and are no longer forced to commit to tiresome labour until they die. This suggestion of equality appeals to the others and so they go ahead and take over the farmers, starting a farm run entirely by animals. However, the communist ideas thought of by Old Major are soon abandoned as the farm eventually develops into a capitalist establishment where the pigs take the role of humans. I feel the key quote here is that "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Orwell’s writing style is fast-paced, making it a riveting read with very little waffle. Each character is flawed in some way, some are too gullible, others greedy, cynical or deceitful. Furthermore, there is no obvious protagonist as the story focuses on several animals which makes the story all the more interesting as several perspectives are shown. Having read Emma by Jane Austen a few months ago, I am in the habit of writing down the name of every character mentioned but found this unnecessary since Orwell’s characters are each so memorable. These are all definitely advantages of the book, which meant I was able to read it all really quickly without backtracking. The sociology featured is very basic, mostly themed around Karl Marx’s idea through Old Major that the ruling class have instated a ruling class ideology on the others, so they are passive conformists that have been put under false consciousness. This means that the animals on the farm are not aware that they have been mistreated and it takes Old Major to provoke class consciousness (when they realise the exploitations they are subject to) and hence a revolution resulting in communism. The boar also represents Lenin, who contributed to the communist takeover in Russia, notably his successor was Stalin, who is reflected through Napoleon the pig in the book. There is no doubting the intelligence of that pig throughout the story but I severely disliked him. His rival in the novella is another pig, Snowball, who can also be viewed as Lenin in some ways but is more like Trotsky, who worked with Stalin for a while until they disagreed about some of his policies and was consequently exiled from the Soviet Union. There are more famous leaders among sociology scattered around the book, but if you are not particularly passionate in this area I would like to put emphasis on the point that you can read the novella without any of this sociology in mind. I would actually recommend initially reading the book without focusing too much on the background, just as a curious story and then rereading it with more explanation (it’s only 112 pages!).

Generally, I cannot complain about the book, it was like a burst of sherbet – a sharp burst of flavours. Yet the ending was where the sugar rush finished rather abruptly; I’ll be honest, I was disappointed. The ending echoes the words of Benjamin the pessimistic donkey; “Life will go on as it has always gone on – that is badly.” I love a good happy ending with frogs, princesses, emotional hugs and wet handkerchiefs so perhaps this is why I felt slightly saddened at the continuity of misery. Many would insist that this realistic element makes the novella remarkable, and they are probably right yet I just wanted to give Clover the horse a hug (this is odd as I got knocked over by a horse when I was younger and have stayed away from them ever since) and give the animals the future they deserved. Regardless of the ending, it was definitely worth a read and I found several of the ideas expressed very thought provoking. Even though I felt like I was being kicked in the stomach from the lack of cheeriness, the last line of the book was one of my favourites; "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." For those that do have an interest in politics, history or sociology I would especially urge you to read this, though I think most people will find the subjects covered intriguing. I also need to warn anyone I know that even briefly bringing up Boxer will make me cry.

Once again, I hope you liked the review and will read the book if you haven't already! Any suggestions for books to read are always appreciated.