By George Orwell
I finally reread one of my childhood classics. I read this book in middle school and was never a very big fan of this political satire. As a young reader I had difficulty getting into this story and found it boring and hard to follow. As an adult it was much easier to read and to see the satire in the situation.
The what if of this short story is that the animals get sick of sustaining their life, while their human farmer lives like royalty off of their labor. So the animals rise in rebellion and evict their human from the farm. In celebration they set up their own government and rules or commandments. The most important rule is that are animals are equal. As time progresses a power struggle emerges between two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. Snowball ends up being chased from the farm, by Napoleon's puppies that he trained as his enforcers. As soon as Snowball is gone, his name is smeared by the ever present Squealer.
Over time, the original commandments are altered, but in such a way that most of the animals think that they are not remembering correctly. The commandments that have been written on the wall of the barn since their revolt has been added to by Squealer, in order to keep Napoleon and the pigs in power.
What began as good for all of the animals on the farm, started to revert to conditions that were not any better than when the human, Jones, was in charge. Everything that goes wrong on the farm, is blamed on the absent Snowball. Eventually, all of the commandments have been altered and the pigs go through a remarkable transformation, The begin to wear clothes, they can walk on two feet, they even have a dinner party with other neighboring farmers. The end of Animal Farm is the return of the original name.... Manor Farm.
What began as good for all of the animals on the farm, started to revert to conditions that were not any better than when the human, Jones, was in charge. Everything that goes wrong on the farm, is blamed on the absent Snowball. Eventually, all of the commandments have been altered and the pigs go through a remarkable transformation, The begin to wear clothes, they can walk on two feet, they even have a dinner party with other neighboring farmers. The end of Animal Farm is the return of the original name.... Manor Farm.
This is an interesting story that really explains some of the pitfalls of the communist party. It definitely was relevant when I read it in middle school. With the fall of most communist regimes around the world, the fear and concern of that form of government, has relinquished. I do think that this is interesting, especially if you can step away and actually believe that animals could take over a farm. I am giving this book a 3 out of 5. It accessible by both genders for students in middle school and up. I struggle with how relatable and believability of the book, nor how relevant the story is in today's world.
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