Shannon 's Reviews > Animal Farm
Animal Farm
by
by
** spoiler alert **
This is a book I've been meaning to read for ages but never got around to - last week I not only read it but gave a lesson on the historical context for the grade 8 class, who will be reading this book and The Wave. As I found, out of the class of 24, about 20 of them had already read the book, and at least one kid knew it was an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Still, my lesson wasn't totally redundant :)
For anyone who isn't familiar with the story, Animal Farm is about the animals on a farm in England rising up against the incompetent, cruel farmer (Mr Jones, who represents the deposed Tsar, Nicholas II) and taking over the farm, renaming it Animal Farm (USSR) and - so the glorious vision intended - running it for themselves, so their lives would be better.
The vision is given to them by a pig, Old Major, who dies not long afterwards. Old Major probably represents Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, and it's not the socialist ideal put forward that is critiqued by this book but how that vision is corrupted by certain other characters, namely another pig called Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin. Napoleon chases a pig called Snowball (Leon Trotsky) off the farm with his personally trained dogs (while still just the General Secretary of the Party, Stalin recruited people who would follow him blindly, so that when Lenin died in 1924 he was able to defeat Trotsky for the leadership position and his "dogs" kept everyone else in line).
The pigs then take charge, and with their literacy skills keep changing the rules the animals established in order to suit themselves, using a pig called Squealer to convince the other animals that their memories are faulty. After all, as the drafthorse Boxer keeps saying, "Comrade Napoleon is always right".
Boxer is - for me - the most heartbreaking character in the novel. He represents the peasants, and is the most hardworking animal on the farm. He has utter faith in the leadership of Napoleon and works himself to the bone - literally. His reward is very telling, though I don't want to give it away. Most of the characters represent either a person, several people or groups of people, and for the complete list you can check it out on Wikipedia.
Orwell, while a socialist, was very cynical about Stalin's communist USSR - and for good reason! Animal Farm is a very well-written critique of how socialist ideals are corrupted by powerful people, how the uneducated masses are taken advantage of, and how the dictator or communist leaders turn into capitalists (just look at China). It's a wonderful example of how effective the allegorical style/format can be, and a well-deserved classic.
For anyone who isn't familiar with the story, Animal Farm is about the animals on a farm in England rising up against the incompetent, cruel farmer (Mr Jones, who represents the deposed Tsar, Nicholas II) and taking over the farm, renaming it Animal Farm (USSR) and - so the glorious vision intended - running it for themselves, so their lives would be better.
The vision is given to them by a pig, Old Major, who dies not long afterwards. Old Major probably represents Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, and it's not the socialist ideal put forward that is critiqued by this book but how that vision is corrupted by certain other characters, namely another pig called Napoleon, who represents Joseph Stalin. Napoleon chases a pig called Snowball (Leon Trotsky) off the farm with his personally trained dogs (while still just the General Secretary of the Party, Stalin recruited people who would follow him blindly, so that when Lenin died in 1924 he was able to defeat Trotsky for the leadership position and his "dogs" kept everyone else in line).
The pigs then take charge, and with their literacy skills keep changing the rules the animals established in order to suit themselves, using a pig called Squealer to convince the other animals that their memories are faulty. After all, as the drafthorse Boxer keeps saying, "Comrade Napoleon is always right".
Boxer is - for me - the most heartbreaking character in the novel. He represents the peasants, and is the most hardworking animal on the farm. He has utter faith in the leadership of Napoleon and works himself to the bone - literally. His reward is very telling, though I don't want to give it away. Most of the characters represent either a person, several people or groups of people, and for the complete list you can check it out on Wikipedia.
Orwell, while a socialist, was very cynical about Stalin's communist USSR - and for good reason! Animal Farm is a very well-written critique of how socialist ideals are corrupted by powerful people, how the uneducated masses are taken advantage of, and how the dictator or communist leaders turn into capitalists (just look at China). It's a wonderful example of how effective the allegorical style/format can be, and a well-deserved classic.
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Reading Progress
November 8, 2008
– Shelved
Started Reading
November 11, 2008
–
Finished Reading
November 16, 2008
– Shelved as:
2008
November 16, 2008
– Shelved as:
satire
November 16, 2008
– Shelved as:
classics
May 21, 2013
– Shelved as:
cover-love
Comments Showing 1-50 of 69 (69 new)
Oh ha ha. Very funny. You haven't read it at all have you? Talk about taking the piss...
(that was pretty funny though...)
No, I have. All of what I said was true, except for the stuff I made up about the book.
I could definitely have written a better book with animal characters!
And maybe my age bracket is screwed since I went to private school? We do things early sometimes there.
--Kyle
I could definitely have written a better book with animal characters!
And maybe my age bracket is screwed since I went to private school? We do things early sometimes there.
--Kyle
I had a real problem with a lot of the books on the required reading list, too. This was not one of them, but Ford's "The Good Soldier" or James' "A Ghost Story" bored me to tears. Being forced to read "The Red Pony" several times turned me off to Steinbeck for years. My son talked me into reading "Of Mice & Men" 10 years ago & I liked it so much I went on to read several of his other books & enjoyed them very much.
Kids should get interested & well practiced at reading first. Quality can come later.
Jim, I totally agree. There are so many books I'm only getting around to now that I'm glad I didn't read when younger - and there are books I read when I was little that still retain the magic they held for me then. There are certainly a lot of books that kids are made to read that they just aren't ready for. And Shakespeare. I think the main problem there is that the teachers don't like or get Shakespeare, so can't really teach it in a way the kids will get it. There are so many excellent YA books out there that aren't established classics that would be great to study.
Roxane, I think you'd love Orwell's books (well I've only read two), but it is hard to get around to these old classics when there's so much fun stuff to read!
However, I love 1984 by Orwell. I was 16 or 17 the first time I read it and thought it was “meh” but had a chance to reread it at age 26 or 27 and thought it was one of the most amazing books I’d ever read. There’s a lesson there, hm...
Shannon, you are SO RIGHT about Shakespeare. I got lucky & had an excellent teacher. We read those editions that had one page of explanations, definitions & such for each page of his text. After reading a couple of his plays that way, I understood a lot more - so many expressions were different. Then I took off & read another dozen of his plays on my own. They were interesting & fun - great stories. If I'd read them earlier or without the added help built in, I would have hated him.
I had a friend with a different teacher who was hating Shakespeare until I gave him my copy with the explanations. He said it made all the difference, too.
One thing that people often don't realize is that drama is a literary form very different from prose fiction --obviously, you can just sit down and read it (and more people did in the 18th and 19th centuries, when they often didn't have as much access to fiction), but that's not the way it's meant to be experienced. It's intended to be performed; it's a very visual and oral kind of medium, in which seeing and hearing the actors is very much a part of the story, and often essential to interpreting it. Since then, I've had the chance to watch several Shakespeare plays, live or taped, and I got more out of that than from reading the texts. And when we home-schooled our own girls, I didn't assign the text of Macbeth as reading --but I did assign a quality production of it on VHS as something to watch.
Jim, Werner, I agree, although even watching a movie version you can need help. We did Macbeth in grade 10 and didn't get it, and we watched a movie version and our teacher had to constantly stop it to explain what was happening. We didn't have good resources - but there are some great editions out, not to mention the "Hamlet for Kids" series put together by a Stratford elementary school teacher - she wrote the plays into lovely prose with fairly minimal Shakespearian language, and her kids did the illustrations and letters between the characters - they're so wonderful! And really, these are 8 and 9 year olds: if they get it why couldn't I? It really does come down to how you're taught, your resources, that kind of thing.
Watching A Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Night's Dream performed live makes all the difference!
Shannon, I've never seen A Comedy of Errors performed; but I went to a live college production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in my senior year, and that play's a scream when it's performed!
Werner, I always really like Baz's version of Romeo and Juliet - he kept the language, which made it really interesting. I know there are some that have been modernised for teens, like 10 Things I Hate About You, and they're not bad. I find the language of the plays often too obtuse for me, that it detracts from the enjoyment of the story. The comedies are easier I think.
Every year they do "Shakespear in the Gardens" at the Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens, which is where I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream - it was wonderful, sitting on the lawn with a picnic and watching this really funny play being performed amongst the trees. Perfect setting for it!
"Shakespeare in the Gardens" sounds wonderful! Who knows --our oldest daughter and her husband live in Australia, so maybe sometime when we're visiting Down Under, I'll get to attend it.
Werner, you definitly should if you can! I think some other cities have similar events but the one in Hobart is great.
That's the great thing about books and documentaries - they can really help fill in the gaps in our education can't they! Though I've often found that many books benefit from having guided discussion and some enlightenment :)
I think that while the literal interpretation you offer is sound, I also think that the wider context (the unfortunate true story of how most people desire power so they can oppress others) is also important.
This is only a suggestion, but you could read the book that the movie is apparently based on and find out for yourself.
I actually have to reaf it for my assignment in grade 12.
So you helps me a lot to undrestand the book much more. Anyway I like Boxer!!! Hard working :)
I hope I get A for my political speach at school!!!
Animal farm is a great book that describes each character in rich detail, and is a book that keeps you thinking after you have read it.
I highly recommend this book if you want a humorous that keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat.
thx 4 sharing ur thoughts here
Also, Iman Gentleman, that's no way to comment on a book. Please keep your potty mouth out of book reviews in the future. Thank you.
How can you not have read it by now!?!?
My favorite part is when Jarvis, the farm's cold-blooded alligator, eats Marco, the farm's trout leader, as an allegory for Russia swallowing many of its neighbors...
I also liked when Carpathia, the dragon, breathed flames on the humans as they attacked the animal-run farm, as symbolism for the vicious damage China has inflicted on the people it deems as aggressors... who are actually just trying to help.
Even though I liked those two parts, I hated the book. I even wrote an anti-book report for it when I had to read it in middle school...
My teacher didn't appreciate that. At all.
--Kyle