It's All About Boiling a Frog
Orwell shows the incrimental rise of tyrrany among barnyard animals. That's really what is at the heart of this book: the slow methodical creep of ever more constrictive, exploitive, and oppressive laws which transform a free society to a totalitarian dictatorship. Each step is slowly introduced, and introduced to the public in a calm and well-reasoned manner. If done skillfully, no individual step will incite the public to stand up and oppose the overarching plan to enslave them. Joesph Stalin came to power around 1922-26, depending on the criterion applied, but it took him another 10 years to really cement together his ironclad dictatorship. So it is with Napolean the Pig, who becomes the barnyard leader with the slogan "All animals are created equal", and only later quietly adds "...but some animals are more equal than others." The book unfolds in baby steps, slowly constructing a regime no better (indeed far worse) than the one it replaced. Once he removes the Farmer, Napolean purges potential rivals (e.g. the popular and beloved horse), trains a private army of attack dogs answerable only to him, and starts to set himself apart in a seperate and superior class from the other animals by walking upright like the Farmer did
Average. This book was OK, but I wouldn't read it twice.
This book was quite different from George Orwell's 1984 (Max Notes), the only other of Orwell's works that I have read. The allusions to communism are obvious and character development was sacrificed in favour of narrative. As a study of historical narrative, this book is important. As an enjoyable book to read, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story falls short of the mark.
A blazing fast and memorable read
Take something like Charlottes Web and blend it with the Russian Revolution, shake it up a bit and you have Animal Farm.
Animal Farm is a satirical look at totalitarianism, complete government control. The animals are sick of the humans controlling them. They are underfed and caged up and just generally mistreated. The animals decide to start a revolution and they successfully drive the humans away. The pigs are known as the intellectuals so they quickly become the leaders of the animals, Napoleon the bore being the one in charge. With the pigs in charge how much will life really improve?
Orwell's prose in this book is absolutely flawless. The scenes really jump out of the pages. Right in the beginning Orwell drops quite a large cast of characters for such a quick read but he fleshes them out so perfectly (and succinctly) that you won't become lost.
This is a blazing fast read! Orwell doesn't waste a single word. This is a very memorable book. I can't imagine giving it anything less then 5 stars.
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