Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating:Save It

After a speech by wise Old Major , the great pig (read Marx/Lenin), in which it is noted that the life of an animal is misery and slavery and than man is the only creature that consumes without producing, the animals rise up and throw off the yolk of their oppressive master Jones (read Romanov family). Two pigs Napoleon (Stalin) and Snowball (Trotsky) lead the Revolution.

Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This 1945 satire addresses the socialist/ communist philosophy of Stalin in the Soviet Union.


Strengths:

• A deep book of a short read. I thought that animals rebellion against the farmer might be a good thing. In the end, I am not so sure.
• I found myself so wrapped up in this book that when the pigs that ruled and had all the privileges would change rules at random to suit their needs I was groaning and pitying these other animals who suffered because of it.
• Orwell shows how socialist ideals are corrupted by powerful people, how the uneducated masses are taken advantage of.  

Weaknesses: 
 For me it was my utter lack of Russian history that sometimes I had to sit back and think...what was George saying there.

Summary:
I am not sure what I was really expecting from Animal Farm. I will tell you this I was not envisioning in learning about Russian history. The symbolism that Orwell brought with the story what the story really meant. Orwell also shows corrupted by powerful people, how the uneducated masses are taken advantage of throughout this book. It just ticked me off. I was wondering if the working class animals were going to overtake the pig...no such luck. I am in the mood for some bacon now.