Ms. Hen Reviews Animal Farm

Animal Farm

George Orwell

1946

Signet Classics

Ms. Hen happened upon this book because her hen sister owns a copy. Ms. Hen had not read this since she was in high school, which was a long time ago. She thinks it is an appropriate book to read right now, during this political climate.

The forward in this book was written by Tea Obreht in 2020. She talks sarcastically about how we have no fear for dictators now, which everyone knows is not true. The afterward was by Russell Baker in 1996, and he talks about the dismantling of the Soviet Union, and how the world is different now. That was a long time ago, and the world has changed yet again.

This novel was written by Orwell in response to Stalin’s atrocities. People in Western Europe and the United States did not want to admit what a dangerous leader he was, because they thought if they did, they were against Hitler. One devil was enough for the world at the time, but devils can live anywhere, as we know now.

This novel is about animals on a farm named Manor Farm, who take over from the owner. The pigs are in charge, because they are the smartest. They try to teach the other animals how to read, and the dogs and horses have some ability, but the pigs tell everyone what to do. They start by teaching them they should be equal because they are all animals, and they should live and work according to their ability. The farm is renamed Animal Farm.

The pigs supervise the horses, chickens, geese and sheep while the work is done. The farm prospers, but they have some setbacks. A fight between two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon occurs, and Snowball leaves the farm. Snowballs wants to build a windmill to ease the animal’s work, but Napoleon squashes the idea, but when Snowball is gone, he has the animals build the windmill.

The pigs teach the animals that four legs are good, and two legs are bad, and the sheep repeat that over and over again to drill it into everyone’s minds, but they change, and at the end, the pigs teach the sheep to change their bleating to four legs good, two legs better. The pigs start to walk on two legs. The pigs communicate with humans, but are only out for themselves.

This is an allegory, or a fairy tale about how power is corrupt, and no matter what happens, there are people who will always want to be on top, who will want to have more than other people, who think they are smarter and better, and want everything for themselves. People will never change, but the reason for books like these will change, and the countries and leaders that this book brings to mind are different now.

Ms. Hen was excited because there were so many chickens in this book – chickens appeared on the first page! “Mr. Jones of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to lock the popholes,” is the first sentence of the book. Ms. Hen also liked this, “‘ And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many were hatched into chickens? ’” The pig Major explains to the animals how they were not in charge of their own lives, and why they should take over the farm.

Ms. Hen think that books like this one can change people’s minds about the world, and it can help us to open our eyes. She doesn’t believe that books have as much power as in the past, but she wishes they do, because she would like to write one about how the world is messed up right at this moment, that would help people deal with our current misfortune, and how we can get out of it, if we can. We should hope that is possible. The power of art can soothe, but inspire at the same time.