For the first quarter of my sophomore year, I occupied portions of my leisure time by engaging my thought and imagination into reading the amazing political satirical allegory, Animal Farm by the stunning author, George Orwell. This text was published by New American Library and was copyrighted in 1946. It was classified as a fictional allegory, however I consider it a fictional satirical allegory mainly because of the brilliant ending. This book was 128 pages long; 114 if you don’t count the 14 page introduction by C.M. Woodhouse.
The setting of this story remains constant despite the constantly fluctuating plot and storyline. And that setting is the former Manor Farm, deemed by the revolutionary inhabitants as Animal Farm. Though there are in fact several settings inside Animal Farm such as, The Farmhouse, The Windmill, The Quarry, The Manger, etc. Animal Farm is where all of the events take place. The conflicts in this story are many and I could list them all for your benefit. However, I have a huge knot in my back and it’s 3:00 am so I’ll cut it down to the one main conflict. Power and Politics. This conflict is external, but is in a category of it’s own. Animal Vs. Society Vs. Man. The animals are constantly going against society with their ambitions of Animalism and constantly going against man who try constantly to overthrow their efforts. But now that I have written that I wonder to myself if man could be considered society so it could be changed to Animal Vs. Society. Or even Man vs.
Society because in this story animals are mad out to be metaphors for people. And in the end, there is no difference between the Pigs and the Humans because of their thoughts and ways so I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Two major characters in this story would be Napoleon and Animal Farm. Napoleon is without a trace of a doubt the Antagonist by your definition. He creates all conflict in the majority in the story. And the way the author brings that out in order to impassionate the reader is simply incredible. Out of all of the characters in this story, I would have to say that the actual Animal Farm is in fact the protagonist. Because what makes a character?
The farm itself changes and learns as if it was a real character so I say, why not? All of the conflicts affect the Farm directly and immediately and all conflicts brought on by the antagonist seem to hinder the farm and that makes it seem as though the farm is being kept from it’s goal of being prosperous and great. With that in mind, you could say the same about all of the animals on the farm except for the pigs and dogs combined. Because every one of the animals is his own protagonist working for the better of the farm, so in my mind, the farm is the embodiment of protagonism in this story.* Oh, and this story is told from the omniscient point of view.
Oh man, don’t even get me started on the plot. Because I’ll find it necessary to excessively convey every detail I find important to the plot which means I’ll probably end up re-writing the story. It begins with a farm ruled by one man (Jones) who rules with an iron fist and recently lost a large sum of money in a lawsuit and is slowly drinking himself to death, oblivious to the fact that his animals are miserable. This mistreatment sparks a spirit of revolution in the animals and they are greatly inspired by Old Major, an old, wise pig, to overthrow the human’s heartless rule and it takes place short after that. In no time at all, Animalism (communism) is established and it starts out great. They assign roles and duties to all animals and make sure that everyone lives by certain ethics listed in Seven Commandments. And everything goes swimmingly for a short time.
However, slowly and subtlety things begin to break down. Different groups begin to establish themselves as leaders and others as workers. Things escalate and groups are totally separated into different levels of equality and arguments and debates break out. Many events foreshadow what will happen on a large scale later on in the story and by the time the animals catch on, it is much, much too late. The bastards- I mean pigs, sorry, begin to blatantly disregard all rules and ethics of Animal Farm for their own greedy intentions and when the animals question or become doubtful of the pigs and dogs they are either silenced or are told crafty lies to keep them from knowing the truth.
But if the animals learned even half of what the pigs did, the pigs would be boiled alive and disemboweled on the spot. All of this evil begins to occur, however, after Snowball is removed from power by means of a Coup d’Etat (dogs being the military) and installing Napoleon the pig as the new dicktator. I mean dictator. Sorry. The climax would probably be when the pigs begin to walk upright on their hind legs, the milestone of breaking all seven of the original commandments set down by the founding animals of Animal Farm. Because that marks the event that should have been the final straw. But being the great author that George Orwell is, he did not go the easy route and deliver a cliché’ ending of killing the pigs like the reader desires. He ends the story with the sense that this is how the animals will remain if they continue to follow blindly. Great ending. I loved it.
The critical decision in this story was the revolution. The event that started it all, at the beginning of the story. The animals, sick and tired of mistreatment and malice, revolt against their tyrannical leader in hopes of achieving a more prosperous and desirable life. This is the event that changes everything because once they have won the revolution, it introduces so many potential conflicts and most of them are fulfilled. Honestly though, it is to be expected. The revolutionaries were inspired by dreams of bliss, and happiness in order to make them pro-revolution, but they were not told of the hardships that would come. But anyways, that’s the main event that triggered events essential to the rest of the plot.
Read this book. It is worth much more than you are required to pay for it. It will expand your mind and open you to experience new thoughts that will change your way of looking at books. I knew I would enjoy this book, but I had no idea what was in store for me. The brilliant writing, the unique style and the clever allegory made me want to read it time and time again and I think you’ll feel the same way when you read it for the first time. And trust me- you don’t need to know anything about Russia or Communism or Nuclear Fission to enjoy this story. Because even if oblivious to the metaphors, it’s still an enjoyable read.
*Side note just for fun. The farm is an allegory for Russia, and the Russians refer to their homeland as “Mother Russia.” So technically, if it is a mother, then it is more practical to think that it could be a character. So that just strengthens my argument. The end.
