Animal Farm by George Orwell

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

– George Orwell, Animal Farm

            Beauty comes in many forms. Never will its definition coincide from a mortal to another. It jumps at you when you least expect it. It steals your soul and leaves your wandering. How is it possible? What do I do? Who am I? Beauty penetrates the very core of your beliefs and wakes the deepest of sensations that Man can feel. When it does, you know what happened. You know it’s real. Animal Farm has perhaps stimulated the very hidden fibers of my own body. Upon its completion, I’ve come to realize that some authors have a great mind and an inexplicable talent for writing. A talent that helps them express their ideas and beliefs effortlessly. Animal Farm is without question one of the best masterpieces that has been written. This novel by George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, is an allegoric science fiction with a perfect pinch of dystopia to top it all. This tale is bound to get you jittering at the edge of your seat once you reach the mind-blowing ending. SPOILER HERE: Hover over text to read. Definitely seals the deal with finesse.

            Animal Farm serves as a satire to Russian revolution and the very communism we’ve all heard and hated. Sick and tired of serving humans, a nifty number of farm animals decide it was time to take things into their own.. you know what I mean. As this might have seemed like a brilliant idea, the society they form and build was only condemned to demise. The story unfolds to show a much bigger critique to Stalinism. A brilliant critique of totalitarianism as we know it. It isn’t easy to sum up this absolute exquisite masterpiece that it is, since it manages to cover so much ground. It’s crazy. It manages to capture the very essence of real life events and filter it perfectly into a universe unlike others. A universe filled with talking animals with their own characteristics and attitudes. In short, the symbolism in this story helps readers appreciate the complexity of history portrayed in an animal farm. George Orwell couldn’t have picked a better universe to unveil despicable events and personas.

“MAN IS THE ONLY CREATURE THAT CONSUMES WITHOUT PRODUCING. HE DOES NOT GIVE MILK, HE DOES NOT LAY EGGS, HE IS TOO WEAK TO PULL THE PLOUGH, HE CANNOT RUN FAST ENOUGH TO CATCH RABBITS. YET HE IS LORD OF ALL THE ANIMALS. HE SETS THEM TO WORK, HE GIVES BACK TO THEM THE BARE MINIMUM THAT WILL PREVENT THEM FROM STARVING, AND THE REST HE KEEPS FOR HIMSELF.”

– GEORGE ORWELL, ANIMAL FARM

            When your story manages to represent a regime of propaganda, control and power through a society of animals, you know it’s good. George Orwell captures everything you need to know about Stalin’s period and the Russian revolution. Every animal could basically be identified to a figure in history that had a major role in the events. Fascinating how beautifully the characters were portrayed. From Squealer taking care of propaganda to Napoleon embodying infamous Stalin, reading this book couldn’t get you to do these associations any easier. I read this book having sudden moments of epiphany as I wasn’t marinating in my history lessons when indulging Animal Farm. What’s truly compelling about Animal Farm is that you don’t even need to know every single detail of Russia’s history to understand the story. You can still get the gist of the story. Although knowing the details of your past history classes wouldn’t hurt. They’d actually make this novel a lot more groundbreaking. You won’t be able to say that Animal Farm wasn’t able to deliver. I mean, come on. It managed to put politics and fiction together without ever being dreadful to your spirit and body.

“SEVERAL OF THEM WOULD HAVE PROTESTED IF THEY COULD HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT ARGUMENTS.”

– GEORGE ORWELL, ANIMAL FARM

          The story builds up at a perfect pace. As you start the story, you can see the animals cooperate to seize what once belonged to them. That is their lives. As they instate commandments to keep peace and promote progress in the farm, readers see an animal society built on equality and equity. But like most things that go smoothly, things only take a turn down the wrong street. Greed and “animal nature” took over certain animals. SPOILER HERE: Hover over text to read. What’s even more intriguing is how the very doctrine of totalitarianism can be seen throughout the book. One particular element that was really captivating and ingenious is how George Orwell incorporated the concept of enemy. In fact, a totalitarian regime tends to always identify a common enemy for the People in order to reunite everyone. This helps in augmenting the rulers power and in getting the people to trust their government. It also manages to divert blame and focus from the very government and stream it to one common enemy. SPOILER HERE: Hover over text to read. How Napoleon does this is really remarkable. How the other animals believe it and succumb to the spell is even more amazing. The way words are used as a source of power in the political field is definitely well represented in this novel. How else do you make your population believe that it’s even remotely possible to be “more equal” than others? This was brilliantly done. Ignorance and illiteracy are definitely key elements that help boost ones power.

“Four legs good, two legs bad.”

– George Orwell, Animal Farm

            Animal Farm is a classic masterpiece. It’ll definitely hook you to its storyline and never let go. Bothering someone in the middle of their reading session of Animal Farm would only get that person’s head bit off. Careful now. Animal Farm brings the animal out of everyone. George Orwell has done numerous classics throughout his lifetime. Nineteen Eighty-Four being an absolute must-read, Animal Farm is unequivocally one too. Carefully depicting a revolution that has marked history for the tragedy it was and the lessons it has given mankind, this novel is one that every mortal should dwell in. It is easy to read, filled with wisdom and delivers a compelling analogy between animals and humans. It’s insane how the story showed a population that believed, that had hope in a bright future. A population that, even after misery and demise, continued to believe their leaders that it was still possible. It’s only when a population become conscious that they can rebel. Ain’t that something to reflect upon.

            Don’t forget to share your thoughts on this novel, as well as like this review and follow us as we continue to write reviews for you guys to read. So what are you waiting for? If you’re interested in this novel, you can purchase a copy of Animal Farmby clicking on this hyperlink !

My overall rating: ★★★★★/