A biting commentary on communism in Orwell’s Animal Farm

Somehow I got to my age without ever having read George Orwell’s short novella Animal Farm. Written during World War II when Britain was ostensibly an ally of Stalin’s Russia, Orwell wrote it as a satire against Stalin in particular and communism as a whole. It follows a farm full of talking animals as it rebels against its human master to set up a utopian society, but inevitably it falls into dictatorship with a despot at its head.

All of the animals at the Manor Farm find life rough under their drunk owner Mr Jones. They dream of freedom from tyrannical oppression and want to run the farm properly. A song is written titled “The Beasts of England” that talks about this freedom, the geese take up the chant, “four legs good, two legs bad,” and all the animals decide enough is enough. Led by the smartest animals on the farm, two pigs named Snowball and Napolean, they launch a coup and drive Mr Jones from the farm. So as to avoid a rule like that again, they set up the “Seven Commandments of Animalism” and paint them on the wall. Though most of the animals can’t read, they are jubilant at their new-found freedom. For once, they have plenty of food and life is comfortable. They even fight off a human attempt to take back the farm, in which Snowball heroically is shot (but survives). Snowball sets up a team to build a windmill to help the farm, and things are looking good.

Things turn when Napolean and Snowball start butting heads about how the farm should be run. Napolean has some strong dogs (dogs he has secretly raised since pups) chase Snowball off the farm, and begins to exert his control over the other animals. When a storm blows down the construction of the windmill, Napolean has his minions spread lies that the windmill was sabotaged, and that Snowball was behind it. He goes so far as to say that Snowball was in league with Mr Jones all the time. Napolean replaces “The Beasts of England” with a new song glorifying himself, and moves himself and the other pigs into the old farmhouse. After a year of hard work, the windmill is just about done when a human neighbor sneaks onto the farm and blows it up. Back to square one, Napolean has Squealer routinely go out into the crowds to extol how great Napolean is, how much better life is now than under Mr Jones, how terrible their enemies are, etc. Despite reduced rations and harder daily work required, the animals believe the lies, because Squealer seems to have an answer for every argument. Any animal that does clearly speak up a dissent is killed.

Over all this time, the “Seven Commandments” have slowly been amended over the years. Original rules like “No animal shall sleep in a bed” has been changed to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,” and “No animal shall drink alcohol” changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.” These rules have been amended of course for the sake of the pigs, now living in luxury in the farmhouse. The final commandment used to be “All animals are equal.” At the end of the book, all the commandments have been painted over on the wall, and only one remains: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” The pigs, now in clothes and having parties with humans in the house, emerge from the farmhouse walking on two legs, to the chants of the geese now saying, “Four legs good, two legs better.”

Lots to digest from such a short book (just over 100 pages). I even left out the whole plot of Boxer the horse, strongest of the animals, who basically worked himself to death because he believed so much in what they were trying to do. Obviously Orwell was not a fan of Stalin and his rule. He praises the ideals the free farm was based on (the Bolshevik revolution) but scorns the corruption that followed. Orwell had a really hard time getting it published when complete, his own country was afraid of pissing off the Russians, their wartime allies. But it is a great little book, and easy to read.