I hope you are reading great books this summer and the short novel you must read is George Orwell’s Animal Farm. It is an easy read, but an intriguing piece that can be read within a week. This satirical novella is compelling; it is based on Stalinist Russia during the 1940s, but the message is still fresh today.
The significance of this book is that it brought controversy during the 1940s when socialist ideals were coming into play in some parts of the world. Orwell, through his writing opposed the corruption of it all. The American occupation after World War II at the time confiscated the books from citizens of the Ukraine and called it propaganda—they handed 1500 copies of the book over to the Soviet Union authorities. In recent times this book has been allegorically compared to what has happened in Africa and how the African born rulers were worse than their European counterparts.
The animals take over Manor Farm in order to build a Utopian society that would have no more “evil” human rulers running their lives. The pigs were cunning out of all the animals in the farm and decided to be the rulers and even posted seven commandments in the back of the barn for the rest to abide by. Napoleon, who was the most conniving out of all the pigs managed to become the dictator.
Certain characteristics of this novel reminded me of the United States and how the elites who really run this country are the “pigs.” Squealer the pig who is Napoleon’s right hand man and the minister of propaganda reminds me of our situation within our own mainstream media. It is rather similar how Squealer will twist the truth and/or will not be forthright, and so is our mainstream media. The “sheep” reminds me of the general population and how they are oblivious to what is really going on behind closed doors.
When reading through this novel, one may almost feel angry for the way the other animals were taken advantage of by the pigs. One may also feel sadness for the rest of the animals’ ignorance and how they had become slaves to the system the pigs set up--they were supposed to be living in a free society. Great novels, in my opinion, are the ones that invoke emotion and have deep messages within the metaphors and allegories. Animal Farm is one of those novels and I highly recommend it.
