My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus, the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned — a fairy tale for grown-ups that records an insidious progression from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
George Orwell’s classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture, quoted so often that we tend to forget who wrote the original words. It is an account of the bold struggle that transforms Mr. Jones’ Manor Farm into Animal Farm, a wholly democratic society built on the credo: All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that bears an insidious familiarity. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is re-established with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.
I gave this allegory 3 Star because – I Liked It.
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
The descriptions of violence in this novella left me a bit cold. I was expecting a fairy tale when a bloody revolution snuck up to surprise me.
As ferociously fresh as it was more than half a century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors.
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