Animal Farm
Animal Farm is one of the best writings of George Orwell. The book is about a group of animals living on Mr Jones’ Manor Farm. In the book, the animals feel enslaved and suppressed by him, so they plan to kick him out of the farm, making it their own where every animal will be equal and liberated.
The story starts at ‘Manor Farm’, where a senior pig, Old Major, is giving his speech. He is old and sick and knows he’s living his last few days, so he wants to everything he has learned in his life and prepare them for a rebellion, he even made an anthem for it. Pigs were the smartest animals, so after taking over the Manor Farm and throwing Mr Jones out, they become the rulers and every species is assigned a certain job according to their abilities. Everyone thinks the long awaited rebellion is here where everyone is equal to each other and enjoys the same rights, the days of slavery are over and the utopian world that they had imagined. Over time the pigs start misusing their power, and lying to everyone they start giving them less food, while there and the portion of other dogs’ never changed. Other animals were easy to fool as many of them were stupid and never questioned the pigs. The pigs had Squealer who would always compliment the pigs and improve their image in the farm. And no one would question them, except another pig that world with him, Snowball was called a traitor for questioning the authorities and dogs were sent after him, with the fear of getting killed he ran away and never came back. The story is about corrupt rulers and totalitarianism. A real world story that sounds relevant even today. Towards the end, the animals realise that the pigs are richer and were using them and even changed history to fool them and are having dinner with humans who were supposed to be the enemies. They realised the rebellion never really happened but the ruler changed.
The book was thought to be a satire about the communist regimes in the 20th century, but it seems to be relevant in every country where you see the rise in authoritarianism and totalitarianism. It’s a must read book which reminds us of the extremities that people in power can reach and the role of the people and the need to educate everyone, so that they learn to think for themselves.