SO.
FIRST OF ALL.
I started reading the foreword and it straight up spoiled that one of the characters dies, what the heck? Why would you put that as a foreword and not an afterword? If anyone reads the edition with a foreword by Ann Patchett, don't read it if you don't want spoilers! So stupid.
The story essentially details a farm where the animals, inspired by a wise old boar, conspire to take over and rule the farm human-free. They successfully do so, running drunkard Farmer Jones and his wife out of their house. The pigs, being the smartest of all the animals, take the role as leader. They come up with a constitution, as follows:
- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
- Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
- No animal shall wear clothes.
- No animal shall sleep in a bed.
- No animal shall drink alcohol.
- No animal shall kill any other animal.
- All animals are equal.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
"Oh," the animals think. "We must have remembered incorrectly." A few days later they see the pigs drinking whiskey, found in the farmhouse. The animals go back again to the rules, and they see:
5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
"Silly us," the animals think, "I forgot to excess." Not long after that, the animals witness the pigs murder an animal who disagrees with an idea they came up with. The animals think "That's not right, the rules definitely said no animal shall kill another!" They go to the rules once more, and read:
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
Slowly, the pigs start to become more human, more nefarious and the animals end up worse off than when Mr Jones was in power. It's a perfect example of an attempt at communism, but just like many similar events throughout history, it's just an illusion. The plot is based on the Russian Revolution in 1917, and all of the characters are based on real people/social groups (you can find a list of who is representative of who here).
I really enjoyed reading Animal Farm. It was short but sweet and much easier to read than 1984 was, which I was surprised by as it was written by Orwell two years previous (although it is a satirical children's book so I don't know what that says about my reading abilities!). I always like to take a little while to digest what I've read before writing a review of a book such as this one, where it's definitely written as a political statement and it's glaringly obvious that it's not just a tale of some talking animals. Often I get epiphanies days after finishing books like these on how it's relevant to today's society. This time it came to me while at a dinner party at my Aunty and Uncle's house and after some gins got the best of me, I started bleating* on about how communism is a lie and everything is corrupt.
I also realised that Animal Farm is essentially Trump's America. Trump is literally another Napoleon and I don't know what to do with that information considering Trump's ties with Russia. If Orwell had written 'fake news' coming out of the pig's mouth, I wouldn't even blink twice. Plus, he does lives up to the description of a corrupt pig! :) :)
5/5 - I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who studied Sociology or Philosophy at GSCE or A-Level - the Marxism is heavy with this one. It made me really quite existential when I was reading it, I just kept going on about how communism is the dream but nobody on this earth will ever be able to fully achieve true communism and that is so sad. I got thinking about this and lost all hope for humanity, all I wanted was to go home, get under my duvet and sleep until the world ended :) :) :) Why must we be controlled by corruption and greed? If there's anything to scare young people into voting in elections, it's Animal Farm - nothing like a bit of totalitarianism to show how important being able to think for yourself is!
*Pun intended. Bleating.. get it? Sheep? Animal Farm???? No?
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