All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

In this review, I will discuss George Orwell’s short novel, Animal Farm, written in 1945. Although a work of fiction, this book serves as a poignant commentary on the political climate of the time, particularly targeting the former USSR government and Stalin. The plot is simply enough; it is about a group of farm animals living on Manor farm that come to the realization that humans produce nothing on the farm while reaping all the benefits by treating the animals like slaves. They take over the farm, and build out their own version of government, with the core fundamentals of “Animalism” and seven commandments. While at first owning the means of production is powerful, the animals find themselves falling into the same immoralities that led them there in the first place. Orwell uses this book to criticize the political maneuvers of totalitarian governments and the unavoidable truth of humanity.

The only good human being is a dead one.

It’s important to know where Orwell draws references to fully appreciate this book. The Animal Farm revolution references the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 where leftist revolutionaries led by Vladimir Lenin launched a bloodless coup d’état against the Duma’s provisional government. The Russian Civil War references the moment when humans attempt to take the farm back with force. The entire story itself where animals are given the trait of humans comes from Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscript of 1844 where he says “the worker in his human functions no longer feels himself to be anything but animal. What is animal becomes human and what is human becomes animal”. Orwell himself was a democratic socialist, and it is super clear in this book how he was a critic of Joseph Stalin and extremely hostile to his ideologies. Through this book I was amazed at how Orwell packs symbolism in every page without losing any elements of storytelling. I won’t go over every example because there are too many, but just know that there are many parallels that can be drawn from the different animals and the US today.

My only complaint is that the book becomes extremely redundant in the last couple chapters. While the story and interaction of the animals draws you in at first, the latter third of the book shows how the pigs (the ruling class of the animals) continue to move the goalposts of the commandments and mistreat the other animals over and over again. As terrifying as it was, the pessimistic truism begins to rub off in a very predictable way. I realized by the end that this was of course unavoidable as this book itself is an allegorical parody, but it really could have been a bit shorter while holding the same heavy message.

What’s interesting to note is that this book is banned in Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Kenya, and most Arab countries. Now why might these governing countries feel this way? Are they scared that the ordinary class might read this book and get ideas about their own ruling elites? I am never a fan of censorship from the government, and like 1984 this book feels eerily realistic and serves as a cautionary tale. The lack of education and critical thinking leads to second guessing, which leads to the altering of history, which inevitably leads to enslavement. This book is deceptively simple, written like a fable, yet serves as an incredible dystopian tale of what humanity can be.

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Overall Rating: 9/10