Animal Farm by George Orwell

Whew! It has been a HOT MINUTE since I’ve been on here. And I’ll admit it, I’ve missed it. Without further ramble, here is a book review!

Animal Farm

George Orwell

5/5

PG (there is some gruesome talk about butchering animals)

 

I know this is a classic that most people read in Jr. High and High School, but for whatever reason, I never had to read this (nor 1984 nor Brave New World, both on my TBR list). I finally read it over the weekend.

Animal Farm is a book about a farm in England that overthrows their owner, Mr. Jones because they feel they are being mistreated and could do a better job on their own. Once the revolt takes place and they are in charge, the animals, led by the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, do a wonderful job. All working together. All getting equal treatment and benefits. All happy. They put rules in place that will keep their utopia pristine and perfect. Everyone works hard for the first year or so of the farm, they have increased crop production and life is GOOD.

Until the pigs get greedy.

Orwell was so talented in the way he slipped in the little events and thoughts and reasoning that the pigs had to change the rules ever so slightly so that things tipped in their favor and the rest of the animals saw the reason and goodness in these new changes. But, one by one, the changes ended up making Animal Farm look drastically different from the beginning and from what they wanted to accomplish in the revolt.

By the end of the book, the pigs were no better (in fact, they were far worse) than Mr. Jones and the rest of the animals on the farm had worse living conditions than even their worst time with the former human owner.

Now, I’m no big political junkie. I don’t talk beautifully about connections, there are between books and real life, how they may be a parody or satire or reflecting on current issues. BUT, with everything that’s going on around us right now, I can definitely draw parallels between how sacrificing or tolerating one small freedom or liberty or law or idea for “something greater” can quickly turn into a snowball event if the world isn’t careful.

All in all, I’m glad I read this classic. It wasn’t a long read, maybe a couple of hours from start to finish and I can now proudly say, “Yes, I have read that book” when asked.

Happy reading!

--Me