Animal Farm

I had heard about this book a lot of times from a lot of people but I never read it. I got this book in my hand once and just could not get the time to read it. Thinking about socialism and all the politics I thought it will be not be a fun read. Proved wrong from page 1.

The book is about a farm called Manor Farm where the animals were fed up of having a 'human' control them. The human, Mr Manor, made them do all the work, treated them like dirt and reaped all the benefit. They believed that if they could run the farm and keep the benefit they would be much better off. There would be no one trying to tell them what to do and no one whipping them for doing more work. Soon Manor farm becomes the Animal Farm and Mr Manor is driven out by his own farm animals.

The book then explores how the farm now free from the dictator begins to grow. Initially, there is a division of labor and all animals work hard because they believe that they are the direct benefactors from all the work. The farm starts to flourish and other neighboring farms are surprised. However, the pigs decide they do the 'brain work' of planning and hence the rest of the animals need to work hard in the farm while they plan in the barn. Soon further favoritism starts playing in where the leader of the pigs rightly named 'Napolean' becomes the dictator. He has a supporting layer of pigs and surrounded by a protecting layer of growling dogs. This is followed by layers of preferred animals. The official song is now in praise of the leader, the flag is also changed and so is the whole ideal of the animal farm where all animals were equal.The story further goes to shows how the 7 founding principles of the farm are all broken and the resulting farm is where the citizen animals are now working harder but are worse off from where they began.

The book is a bold attempt by George Orwell, to show the caveats of Stalin's Socialism when it was at its peak in 1946. The author was against Totalitarianism and this book is a cautionary note towards Western Socialism about what could happen if the power went unchecked. Though the author George Orwell, was devoted to British socialism he did not believe in Stalin's socialism. During the time the book was written Russia had just beaten Hitler's army during WWII and its popularity was at the peak. Due to this the book was published after the war in 1946.

The book is a very simple way to present the concept and no one can miss the allegory. It is definitely one of the best books I've read... couldn't have gotten any better. I'm yet to read 1984 by the same author but I hope to do that soon.

My Rating: 10/10