Animal Power (Animal Farm - George Orwell)

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Product:	Animal Farm - George Orwell
Date:	25/09/00 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: enjoyable for all

Disadvantages: none

'Animal Farm' is primarily a satire of the Russian Communist Revolution of 1918, Orwell chose to depict the Revolution using animals so that the novel can appeal to all sorts of people and be viewed on many different levels. He uses simplistic language with complexities where necessary in order to make the novel more effective.

The Communists are the pigs, with Napoleon representing Stalin and Snowball Trotsky. As the two boars struggle for power Napoleon forces Snowball out of the farm violently using the dogs, his own secret police. Once this is over Napoleon becomes supreme dictator of animal farm, using the purges to put fear into the hearts of the other animals. As the novel progresses the pigs become more and more like man and conform to the ways of man that they promised never to adopt, the novel has gone full circle.

Although Orwell was himself a Communist he believed that revolutions didn't work, and the novel exemplifies two famous quotations; 'All power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely' and 'First the Nazis came for the Jews but i did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists but I did not speak up because I was not a Communist. Then they cam for me, but there was none left to speak up for anyone.' The novel doesn't lay the blame on one party, the failure of the revolution is blamed on the greed of the pigs and the failure of the more intelligent other animals to speak up.

Whatever level you want to read the book on i suggest you do, it is fun and easy to read and a book to be read more than once!

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