Review of Animal Farm
George Orwell was the pen name of English novelist, journalist, poet, and social critic Eric Arthur Blair. He published Animal Farm in 1945, no doubt in reaction to the rise of the Soviet Union through their victory in World War Two. Animal Farm tells the story that few were willing to admit: the socialist or communist model of government could and would only lead to the oppression of the people.
The themes in this book are equality, power, and freedom. The animals dislike the imbalance in equality between themselves and the humans, so they oust the humans and make each other all equal. Of course, some animals need more than others, which leads to food shortages and improper distribution of work. And as seen in communist countries, pretty soon some animals become “more equal” than all the other animals.
The problem of power has to do with equality, as equality can never truly exist as long as some have power. However, you need someone with power or in charge to run a successful group. The animals mismanage power and give it all to one group, which will always lead to the first group losing the basic items they need to live well.
The idea of freedom compels the animals to throw off the humans, but they quickly lose sight of it and are talked into and eventually forced to give up their freedoms by another group. To run a successful society, you need equality of living and value (not equality of what you need), power in the hands of a limited group (not easily given but easily taken), and the freedom to live well and keep your rulers in check.
One of the best things about this book, in my opinion, is its length and simplicity. For an individual new to this genre of reading, it’s a very daunting challenge to start with something like Atlas Shrugged, even though it is a very famous book. Animal Farm is too short for any excuses; I read it in less than an hour, and I was even going slowly.
Secondly, it’s a very simple book, using a parable to help the reader understand the deeper message. A fable is an incredible way to both keep your reader engaged and convey what you want them to know at the same time. Compare this with a book like Darkness at Noon, which contains a lot of philosophy and complex arguments, requiring a higher level of experience to understand it well.
One of the only reasons a person can truly believe in the merits of communism and socialism is because they’ve never seen it outside of a philosophy book. Animal Farm prophesies the exact steps that will inevitably play out wherever these ideas are tried. It can liberate the minds of deceived individuals by revealing the inherent flaws of their utopian castle in the sky.
This book perfectly tells the problems with socialism and communism and outlines what happens in every country that tries it. Today we hear a lot of young, liberal students calling for socialism and praising its virtues when they have no idea what it does or the record it holds worldwide. While the idea of everyone sharing everything, jobs for everyone, and free services sounds great, they don’t realize what the result will be. Before they know it, Animal Farm will have played out, and some people will be more equal than others.