Celine Yau

Thurs. May, 23, 2013 English

Animal Farm. George Orwell. England: Penguin Books Limited, 1945

Animal Farm has many different titles including: A Fairy Story, Union des rpubliques socialistes animals which means Animal Soviet Union in French and A Contemporary Satire. All these titles are great representations of this novel. This book is a brilliant satire of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution between 1917 and 1945. This book allegorizes Joseph Stalin the leader of Soviet Union during the Russian Revolution through a pig named Napoleon. The same technique is used for the character Snowball who symbolizes Leon Trotsky a political figure who opposed Stalinism. In this retelling, Mr. Jones owns Manor Farm, an animal farm that exploits the animals labour. Soon the animals grow tired of working for the humans and getting very little in return. Old Major starts the revolution but passes away three days after his inspiring speech. Thus, Snowball and Napoleon take over. The animals run Mr. Jones and his wife off the farm and re-name the farm to Animal Farm. Napoleon and Snowball manage to create seven commandments together, but cannot agree on anything else. Through the animal farm, George Orwell illustrates how the pigs revolt against man and yet somehow windup becoming one. Similar to Orwells other novel, 1984, Animal Farm is short and to-the-point. Political history can become very dull and boring to read, however, Orwells writing style can get his point across without boring the reader. One of Orwells rules for effective writing is never use a long word where a short one will do. Most authors have paragraphs and paragraphs just describing the scenery; this can waste a lot of time for the reader. Orwell can communicate his interpretation of the scenery in a few short words, for example, In the ecstasy of that thought they gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of excitement. They rolled in dew, they cropped mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of the black earth and snuffed its rich scent (Orwell, 13). In two sentences, the reader can feel the waves of excitement rolling off the animals because they are finally free from men. Prior to reading this book, I had very little knowledge of the Russian Revolution. It must be noted that I understood all of Orwells connections to the Russian revolution. Most readers can make the connection that the windmill represents the Russian industry. Just like the Russian industry, the windmill fails several times before it finally becomes helpful to the animals. Orwells allegories are easily identifiable. Another example of Orwells great allegories is the seven commandments. To show that the commandments are changed, Orwell lists all the original commandments in chapter two. At first, the

Celine Yau
Thurs. May, 23, 2013 English sixth commandment was No animal shall kill any other animal. When the pigs start mistreating the other animals extensively, the commandment gets altered to No animal shall kill any other animal without cause (Orwell, 61). There are no unnecessary symbols to make the novel hard to follow. Next, this book is beneficial for almost any age group to read. By reading this book, you become more cultured and understand more of the Russian historical affairs. Also, because Orwell tries to use short and simple words, the vocabulary is not brutally difficult; however the topic at hand is slightly more mature than most young adult books. This shows that this book can be enjoyable for both teens and adults. However, the ending is very disappointing and awkward. The reader is so caught up in the book and how the animals will rise above Napoleons corrupted ways that, when the book suddenly ends with, The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig *+: but already it was impossible to say which was which, there is no closure in the book. The animals do not resolve the problem of corruption and leaves the reader who is uninformed about the Revolution pondering about what happens to the animals. To fix this, I believe adding a short epilogue would have greatly improved the ending of Animal Farm. Ninety-four pages seemed a little short to be called our great*est+ satire of the darker face of modern history (Malcolm Bradbury). Yet, once I finished Animal Farm, I had no doubts about Bradburys claim. The allegory in this book is used perfectly. In fact, the highlight of the novel is an allegory stating All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.