The animals on Mr. Jones’s far, stage a successful revolution, and take the place over. Their hopes, their plans, and their achievements form the subject of Animals. In the first flush of enthusiasm there is set up a great commandment, All animals are equal, but unfortunately leadership devolves almost automatically on the pigs, who are on a higher intellectual level than the rest. The revolution begins to go wrong- yet at every step excellent excuses are always forthcoming for each perversion of the original doctrine.
In Animal Farm, Orwell tells a story of revolution, equality and the separation of the classes, a story about the rise of animal civilization. Animal Farm is a parody about the state of the English classes during the 1930’s.
Like the Ten Commandments but for Animals.
In Animal Farm, Orwell tried to convey the plight of the working and lower classes during the threadbare thirties. For his non-fiction novel, The Road to Wigan Pier, Orwell travelled, lived and experienced the life of the working classes, in particular the coal miners. Animal Farm fictionalizes this experience and places an outside perspective on the order of the classes from Royalty down to the Poor/ Homeless in England. Animal Farm shows how being united in a common goal can still lead to divide in the population.
The notion that all animals (people) are equal is novel in concept. It is something that the other animals want to believe, but not every animal is of the same mind frame. Those in power define equality.
Animal Farm is a novel that defines life after WWI. The dynamics within the pig community and the overall animal community, reminds me about the rise of civilizations through revolution. Orwell draws from the French, Russian, and Roman revolution progressions throughout history. When it is stated that Napoleon was reading a books about Roman military tactics, I thought that was brilliant, learning from the civilization that all civilizations try to emulate shows that Napoleon was thinking of the overall picture to establish the pigs as the natural leaders of the farm.
Animal Farm is one those rare books, whose message can resound throughout generations to come. People can see the parallels between the history of the world and the message that Orwell is trying to covey.
Animal Farm is fantastic, especially when you get to know more about the Russian Revolution and the forces behind that. Truth be told, I didn’t like it as much until I got to that point in history some years later, and learned more about the figures behind the allegorical counterparts. But once I did the book made so much more sense- though it held up pretty well as a story on its own, I should say.
I know very little about the politics behind the Russian Revolution, but using the Revolution made sense because it was the most recent major revolution in History and impacted the outcome of the first world war.
Great post. I love Animal Farm, it was definitely one of my favorite books in school and I had no idea about the allegory. I think your point about it being timeless is spot on.