This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“”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.
Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilizes it, and yet there is not
one of us that owns more than his bare skin.”” – George Orwell, Chapter 1,
Page 8
“However, these stories were never fully believed. Rumours of a wonderful farm, where the human
beings had been turned out and the animals managed their own affairs, continued
to circulate in vague and distorted forms, and throughout that year a wave of
rebelliousness ran through the countryside.
Bulls which had always been tractable suddenly turned savage, sheep
broke down hedges and devoured the clover, cows kicked the pail over, hunters
refused their fences and shot their riders on to the other side.” – George
Orwell, Chapter 4, Page 34
“All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they
grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was
for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after
them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings.” – George Orwell,
Chapter 6, Page 51
Is This An Overview?
The animals of Manor Farm are the proletariat, the exploited
workers. What keeps them in oppression
are humans, who do nothing but take, while ruling over the other animals. Inspired by a speech of a future without
exploitation, a future where animals are free and are equal, the animals
prepare themselves for a revolution. At
an opportune moment, without planning, the animals take control of the farm,
and turn the farm into Animal Farm. Laws
are distilled into Seven Commandments, that separate humans and other animals,
meant to prevent animals from becoming like humans.
Although equals, the pigs are recognized as the thinkers,
who can manage Animal Farm. But the
other animals notice that the pigs get extra favors. All is explained to be to the benefit of the
animals, and that the pigs are the ones suffering. One pig even manages to monopolies power,
with other pigs submitting to the pig.
Gradually, the pigs distort the Commandments. Little by little, the animals lose their
rights, lose their freedoms. Even as
they think it’s for their benefit, even as their conditions become worse than
under the reign of humans. What happens
to the animals of Animal Farm?
Caveats?
Although the setting is in England, the book is about Soviet
Russia. To understand the references,
would require background information. As
a theme of the book is about manipulating information, the reader has to trust
and mistrust the information provided.
