Animal Farm is a mid-century classical commentary on socialism and those who orchestrated it. Set in an English farm it starts with a riveting speech that outlines the basis of the communist ideology. Old Major, a wise but ancient pig speaks of his dream, an animal utopia free of the confines humans place on them, acting as Karl Marx in this story. This speech inspires the animals who act as the working class taking down the bourgeois or humans. The majority of this book will follow the society the animals create for themselves following the rules Old Major laid out. At first, the animals accomplish much more than before and eat and live much better than when the humans dictated their lives. However, the two pigs who act as leaders have opposite ideals in this society which hurts their progress. While Snowball acts to keep equality and further technologically, Napoleon isolates himself and forms an elite guard. Eventually, their conflict culminates in Snowball's expulsion and Napolean seizes power. Resulting in a new bourgeois class forming with pigs gaining more novelties and breaking more rules that set them higher than the rest of the animals. Napoleon's greed ultimately leads to the crumbling of their society and instead capitalization.
From the start of Old Majors' speech, this book had me entranced. I was excited to see where it was going and the path the animals would take to realize Majors' dream. Having some pre-knowledge on this topic I wanted to see how it would be executed with animals. It most definitely returned in terms of my expectations.
Ultimately this is one of the most outstanding books I have ever read. It conveys ideas and the history of communism up to the end of WW2 with so many real-life characters and events being subtly mirrored in such a simple but meaningful medium. It explains socialism and its errors through a full simulation of what a society that adopts it would go through. This is a relatively quick read yet will leave a lasting imprint on the reader's mind forever. Engraining the basis of communism and its aspects and teaching the readers how it should not be adopted. Teaching lessons on what to do and not do for a functioning socialist society.
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