All Animals are Equal, but Some Animals are More Equal than Others…
George Orwell
⛰ What It’s About
Following years of intense political turmoil — with the rise of fascism and communism — George Orwell wrote Animal Farm. Based on the Russian Revolution. A critique on Stalinism, Totalitarianism, and Communism. A Classic piece of Anthropomorphic literature.
Old Major = Lenin. Napoleon = Stalin. Young pups = Russian secret service. Boxer = the exploited and overworked working class. Benjamin = George Orwell himself.
Synopsis
Old Major, a boar, gathers the animals of Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He tells them of a dream he has had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. When he dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger pigs — Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer — formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. Late one night, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and dedicate themselves to achieving Major’s dream.
At first, Animal Farm prospers. Snowball works at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. When Mr. Jones reappears to take back his farm, the animals defeat him again, in what comes to be known as the Battle of the Cowshed. As time passes, however, Napoleon and Snowball increasingly quibble over the future of the farm, and they begin to struggle with each other for power and influence. Napoleon eventually gets nine attack dogs — the puppies that Napoleon had confiscated — to chase Snowball from the farm. Napoleon assumes leadership of Animal Farm and declares that there will be no more meetings. From that point on, he asserts, the pigs alone will make all of the decisions — for the good of every animal.
One day, after a storm, the animals find a windmill they worked hard to build toppled. The human farmers in the area declare smugly that the animals made the walls too thin, but Napoleon claims that Snowball returned to the farm to sabotage the windmill. He stages a great purge, during which various animals who have allegedly participated in Snowball’s great conspiracy meet instant death at the teeth of the attack dogs. With his leadership unquestioned, Napoleon begins expanding his powers, rewriting history to make Snowball a villain. Napoleon also begins to act more and more like a human being — sleeping in a bed, drinking whisky, and engaging in trade with neighbouring farmers. The original Animalist principles strictly forbade such activities, but Squealer, Napoleon’s propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals, convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is making things better for everyone — despite the fact that the common animals are cold, hungry, and overworked.
Mr. Frederick, a neighbouring farmer, cheats Napoleon in the purchase of some timber and then attacks the farm and dynamites the windmill, which had been rebuilt at great expense. One day, Boxer is nowhere to be found. According to Squealer, Boxer has died in peace after having been taken to the hospital, praising the Rebellion with his last breath. In actuality, Napoleon has sold his most loyal and long-suffering worker to a glue maker in order to get money for whisky.
Years pass on Animal Farm, and the pigs become more and more like human beings — walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothes. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, known as the Seven Commandments, become reduced to a single principle reading “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Napoleon entertains a human farmer named Mr. Pilkington at a dinner and declares his intent to ally himself with the human farmers against the labouring classes of both the human and animal communities. He also changes the name of Animal Farm back to the Manor Farm, claiming that this title is the “correct” one. Looking in at the party of elites through the farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell which are the pigs and which are the human beings.
No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
🔍 How I Discovered It
It’s a classic, but I guess from my school years?
🧠 Thoughts
George Orwell said in his ‘Why I write’ 1946 essay — “What I have most wanted to do is to make political writing into an art’. I feel this perfectly summarises this book.
Orwell notorious for his commentary on politics — in this case communism — has a fantastic way of making his books accessible, witty, and humorous. Its incredible how he manages this in less than 100 pages, when you consider just how dense a topic such as politics is.
Regarding the writing style — Orwell’s prose is extremely straightforward. Don’t expect waffle, or the ‘grandiose’ prose of your Shakespeare’s and Tolstoy’s. This is easily my favourite writing style personally, as someone who works in finance and preferred maths/science in school (as to literature and its over-analysis of text). But it can come across as a bit dry at times.
Chapter 6 provides a fantastic insight into the importance of how totalitarian regimes need to create a common enemy for the people to group together and hate. And how this propaganda of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ creates a ‘group mentality’ (rather than individualism) and reduces critical thought. This is how totalitarian regimes gain control of the populace, by creating obedience. Information control (i.e. stopping information from leaking into and/or out the society) allows these regimes to control the ‘narrative’ to their own agenda. At times I felt like I was reading a parody of the North Korean regime at just how accurate it was even today.
Talking of parodies, the book is quite comical/humorous at times. Especially the part when Napoleon drinks alcohol for the first time (breaking one of the animals commandments), gets a hangover the next day and so tells everyone that if they drink alcohol it will be punishable by death. But to then get over his hangover the next day, and not only unban alcohol but create his own distillery 🤣
The symbolism of ‘Sugarcandy Mountain’ was great too. At the beginning of the book the raven would constantly go on about this sugarcandy mountain that exists beyond the sky above (symbolising death/heaven). However, once the revolution happens and better times ensue, the raven disappears. And then once things take a turn for the worst under Napoleon, and life gets as bad for the animals as it did during Jones’ time, the raven reappears. Once again touting the wonders of this ‘Sugarcandy Mountain’ and how once the animals die they will transport to this magical place — further symbolising the way humans cope during dire times and fantasising of greener pastures.
And then there’s the story of ‘Boxer’, the horse. Representing the plight/life of most working class people. Working extremely hard, for long hours with nothing to show for it at the end of their lives. Essentially worked to death, Boxer had a great hard working mentality. It is these types of individuals unfortunately who get exploited in both communist and capitalist systems — the backbone of our economies and societies.
“The truest happiness, lay in working hard and living frugally” — communist life summarised perfectly.
Communism — A system in which a majority of the people are ‘equal’… ‘equally poor’. And while wealth and output did increase on the firm, it was only done so through lies and trickery. As the working animals were tricked into thinking the work they were doing was contributing towards their own prosperity and no longer for Mr. Jones (capital owner).
But only the pigs and dogs enjoyed this wealth/luxury — i.e. the political class in communist systems. This is no different to what many who talk down upon capitalism say about ‘crony capitalists’. Global capitalism exploits cheap labour from third world countries to fund a comfortable life for us in first world western nations. But as this book showcases, the alternative of communism is no better. In the end a group of peoples (the working class) get exploited by people who know how to exploit them. So that they can then live in luxury — political class in communism, capital owners in capitalism. The only difference being in capitalism you have the freedom and ability to ‘move’ between classes, through innovation, luck, etc. — not ‘hard work/labour’. Whereas in communism your job/class stays as it is for your entire life.
The only downside I would give the book is the prose can be a bit dry at times, and some sentences had an unusual amount of commas, making them a bit awkward to read. But, this rarely happened and is just a minor gripe.
🥰 Who Would Like It?
Should be mandatory reading.
A stark warning against the dangers of totalitarianism & communism — something which a lot of Millennial socialists/communists should read…
