Animal Farm by George Orwell
How do we celebrate, George Orwell, the man of strong opinions and persuading words without talking about ‘Animal Farm’- his 1945 classical satire which finds itself in many lists like ‘Must-reads’, ‘Top Timeless Literature’, ‘100 Best English Language Novels’ and, is also widely brought upon through word-of-mouth recommendation?!
This allegorical novella is beyond a story; it is an insight into George Orwell’s journalistic and critical instincts. He has painted a sinister yet a very real world in a quaint farmyard which takes us on a journey from dystopia to utopia and dystopia again.
While it is well-known that the novella was inspired from the events during and post-Russian Revolution, many other events resonate with it even today. And it is so because we are taken deeper into the nature of perpetual subjects like revolution, power and corruption. With each page flip, the layers of morals and values come off slowly and naturally. This is one of the many reasons as to why this book speaks so much of human nature.
Orwell lends each of his farm animals a unique personality which resonates with the types of people we must have known or seen. Say, for example, Clover and Boxer – the trustworthy, brave and honest horses who are wise enough to realise what’s going on but not powerful or clever enough to stop it. Then there’s a horse by the name Mollie who is driven by greed and deviates from the revolutionary paths.
The power of communication is another theme that is impactfully underlined in this story. When the humans on Manor farm ruled the animals, there was no substantial exchange of communication. When Napoleon and other pigs took over the farm, they taught themselves how to ‘read and write’ but offered only cursory education to the rest of the animals. This is how they disempowered them by keeping them unlearned. This angle makes a true statement for the system that strategically and deliberately broadens inequality either in terms of access to knowledge, career-building, money-making opportunities and so on.
Yet another example is how the story begins with ‘All animals are equal; but, as it progresses we see that the motto changes to ‘some animals are more equal than others’. When Napoleon and Squealer defeat the original revolutionaries and take leading positions in the farm, they modify the original slogan to suit their ways. With this, they also establish their superiority and rule the rest of the animals on the farm.
This honest and simplest description of hypocrisy marks the void between the promises and deeds of the authority. Another example lies in a quote, “no animal shall kill another animal” which eventually becomes “no animal shall kill another animal without cause”. The Commandments keep getting modified over the course of time and the line of demarcation between superiors and underlings is thickened.
The writing is lucid, precise and brilliant. With each situation, character and plot progression, the story keeps nudging us with the ugly side of power and position. It keeps reminding us how our insatiable greed can wake up the fickle and spiteful shades within the best of us. It also highlights how the weaker, unprivileged class of the society ends us paying for the sake of the ones who are at an advantage.
It is a quick read but its gist will stay with you forever. And so, it will be unfair to not mention at least some of the many intriguing quotes that the book is crafted with:
⤿“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself.”
⤿“Several of them would have protested if they could have found the right arguments.”
⤿”If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
⤿”Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer – except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs.”
⤿“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.”