张雯平 2020202153

The Book Review of Animal Farm

Animal Farm, written by George Orwell in 1945, mainly reflected the fact that
people in Europe were inspired by Russian Revolution, and expressed his
disagreement to Stalin, in the way of describing the whole process from the successful
animals’ rebellion to the result of the arbitrary politic. As George Orwell said in the
introduction, this book is not only a political tale, but the reflection to the real society.
His smartness to the politic, the ironic metaphor, and the refined language all
overwhelm me.
Animal farm is aimed to change the thoughts of people in Europe, which they
thought Soviet and Communism was a better way to achieve better revolution than
their own way. Having experienced the war in Spain, George Orwell knew more truth
about Stalin and the consequences of the revolution. Despite being limited by society,
George Orwell persisted to publish Animal Farm to reveal the drawbacks of the
revolution.
His idea to the politic was different from most of the people at that period,
holding the calm and objective opinion that Russian Revolution was not as perfect as
people thought. During aftermath of World War Ⅱ, people having suffered from the
misery of the war failed to seek out a good way to refresh the whole country.
Therefore, people tried to make use of experience of Russian Revolution to set up a
same political power, ignoring Stalin’s autarchy. George Orwell described the
blueprint of the rebellion in the beginning, which meant animals may have good
consequence of their freedom.
In the book, after the rebellion of animals succeeded, they got the freedom and
dignity, and even made regulations and democratic policies to strengthen their power.
However, even though animals set up their political power successfully, the leader, a
pig called Napoleon, finally forced the democratic regime to become authoritarian
government, which was against the original aim of their rebellion. George Orwell
praised the rebellion for the freedom and democracy, and thought highly of the
bravery. But the reality was the freedom without limitation would become one kind of
autarchy. In the book, “All animals are equal” became “All animals are equal, but
some animals are more equal than others.”. It is the reflection of the cruel reality.
The ironic metaphor in Animal Farm also impressed me. Different kinds of
animals had intelligence, had the desire to revolt the cruel human master and rebelled
successfully, even some stupid animals in our minds. The pigs were the upper class to
make decisions, and pigs and dogs had privileges. They also had to learn the
knowledge, made regulations and even fought against for the power. As a “self-
governed” animal farm, they also held the ritual of rising the green flag, needed to
worry about the shortage of food, considered to trade with the horrible human race,
and struggled for the liberty. Because of the difference of intelligence, two pigs,
Snowball and Napoleon were chosen to be the decision-makers, and pigs were also
regarded as the upper class. Napoleon even fostered the little dogs to be his guardians,
and forced Snowball to escape the farm for the power. All these things happened in
the Russia were described by George Orwell in Animal Farm, in the characters of
different animals. This funny and ironic way to express the reality makes readers
more impressive and realize the drawbacks of the revolution.
Besides, the metaphor includes the meaning to disagree with Stalin. The final
leader in the book, Napoleon was not only a leader of dictatorship as Stalin, but also a
greedy and cruel pig on the farm. By the metaphor, the story is evidently based on the
irony style to the revolution and the dictatorship under democracy, showing the sharp
opposition to Stalin’s leadership and the idolum of Soviet Union. Additionally, the use
of the metaphor also increase people’s consonance of the pity to the lower class and
the objection to the fake democracy. In the book, the common animals had to sacrifice
and stand starvation, even required to devoted their innocent life for the dictator
government. All the sufferings they stood were the reflection of the lower class’s
miserable life in Soviet Union. George Orwell chose the animals’ characters to tell the
story and aroused more attention to the truth of the revolution.
Finally, the refined and funny language is also the point I noticed. The two
sentences in the book, “All animals are equal” and “All animals are equal, but some
animals are more equal than others” are refined and express the meaning that the
standard on the farm changed and the democracy ended, the dictatorship began. The
dream to build to a free and equal society is broken. Furthermore, the funny language
said by animals is the motivation for readers to continue. The horse called Boxer had
two typical sentences, “I will work harder” and “Leader Napoleon are always right”.
From his words, we can know that Boxer was an diligent and loyal character for the
enterprise of animal farm , which are also the foreshadowing of its miserable ending.
One of pigs called Squealer always called Napoleon “Leader Napoleon” and made
explanation for all action of the dictatorship, who was the suck-up for the leader.
Other characters have their charm of language as well, and become vivid and
touching.
The design of the plot makes the fiction meaningful and overwhelming. The plot
of the incidents are surrounding The Seven Commandments. When the content
changed over and over again, the dictatorship is gradually strengthened. When pigs
began to sleep on the bed, the content changed as “Animals can’t sleep on the bed
with sheets.”. When pigs began to drink the alcohol, the commandment was changed
to “Animals can’t drink alcohol with excess.” Even when some animals were killed
because of the mistaken connection with Snowball, the content was changed to
“Animals can’t kill other animals without reasons.” In the end, the cruel human race
even praised the action of the pigs to make use of the lower class to bring more
benefits for themselves. The pigs abused originally by human eventually became as
cruel as human race. Until then, the last commandment was changed from “All
animals are equal” to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others”, which was also the pronouncement of the beginning of the dictatorship. The
feelings are changing as the development of the plot and influenced by their miserable
experience.
George Orwell’s thought of Russian revolution and attack to current Soviet Union
are special at that age, and smart enough to keep calm under the influence of the
successful revolution. Animal Farm as his masterpiece successfully expresses the
serious political problem in a comedy and still keeps its irony and objective opinion to
the ideal Communism, even making effects on the history of the evolution to the
revolution against tyranny.
The fiction uses a few words to reflect on a rather serious problem, and aroused
people’s consideration to the wave of revolution. The people who are really smart
should have the ability to warn the nation of the danger behind the beauty plot. I think
these are Animal Farm want to tell us.