Jose.Maltaca 18/12/2019
Excellent and hurtful
Animal farm, a tale written by George Orwell, is the story of a society in formation, of a changing world, of leaders and the beliefs they inspire, of how tyranny and oppression are way beyond political opinion and viewing. It is a compelling, thrilling, horrifying, brutal and revolting story, that keeps punching the reader in the stomach page after page after page. Written in 1945, it was clearly meant to comment on the soviet “socialism”, specially the phase known as stalinism. However, one must not be fooled: Orwell was a socialist to his core, but truly rejected all forms of domination and tyranny, of dictatorships and exploitation of the weak minded, all traits present on the U.S.S.R. at the time. This is the story of a farm controlled by a man, who exploits the animals and barely gives them enough food. Then, led by the pigs, the animals expel him from the farm, adopting the ideology that all animals are equal and baptizing their home as Animal Farm. From that moment onward, there would be no more pain and suffering, or so they thought. Notwithstanding, the pigs start controlling the farm and its routine, leading to more tragic outcomes.
In terms of an allegory, or better, of an analogy, all elements of the society fabricated in the U.S.S.R., as well as its history, are there: the czar, Socialism, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Hitler, the British, the invasion of the country after the revolution, World War II, and many others – here symbolized, respectively, by Jones, Animalism, Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Frederick and Mr. Pilkington. I could say that a part of the fun of the book is to identify the analogies, though for every element of recognition comes another of pain, because it echoes in our reality. We know that this horror story is true, and probably even worse than the story told by Orwell. This is revolting and gut-wrenching, but all the more hurtful to know that it is very, very close to a history book, though told through the usage of allegories of animals. Many animals try to do what they think is right, only to be completely stripped of their hope afterwards. Others just keep bawling stupid sentences which drown any chance of subversion, and the most reasonable simply go on living and understanding that there is no escape from the inevitable doom.
It is a sad tale, filled with heartbreaking moments, extremely shocking and revolting actions and causing an increasing perplexity in the reader. Animal Farm is thought provoking, and, even though many view it as an anti-socialist fable, it goes way beyond that. Orwell makes it crystal clear when he tells, in the end of the book, that there is exploitation of other animals in neighboring farms – obviously an analogy for capitalist countries. The last sentence itself is revealing of this trait, as well as one of the best finishing sentences I have ever read: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”. Simply masterful. I cannot stress out more the recommendation on this book: a painful, yet necessary approach on dictatorship and tyranny.