This book is awesome. It was first published in 1946, but it is still (or even more) actual nowadays.
The book is about the story of a farm where the animals, tired of being exploited by the owner (Mr. Jones), organize a rebellion, and kick him out of his property. The animals start then to manage themselves, with laws (the seven commandaments), with the organization of the work to be done, and planning the future. Even though everything is working perfectly at the beginning, when each animal is performing the task which best fits to his/her species, things start to become more complicated when the pigs, who are supposedly the smarter animals, and therefore are the ones leading the farm, start to take advantage of their position, and an oligarchic/dictatorial regime is established.
The power of this book, at least in my opinion, lies in the great representation (in between a tale and a sci-fi story) given by Orwell of the different attitudes of the animals, which reflect and represent the ones that human being have in a society. This representation also gives an excellent description of the steps that usually lead to any tyranny--and those steps have been and are always the same ones...
I report here few of the passages that I liked the most.
And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. [...] And above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal. (pg. 11)
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr.Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know the existence of a misterious coutry called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. [...where] it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did no work, but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain [...]. (pg. 17)
But doubtless it ahd been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they had been slaves, and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer dod not fail to point out. (pg.113)
A thing that was difficult to determine was the attitude of the pigs towards Moses. They all declared contemptuously that his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain were lies, and yet they allowed him to remain on the farm, not working, with an allowance of a gill of beer a day. (pg. 118)
I enjoyed it at the same level as "1984", and it's richness is somewhat different: while 1984 is very powerful, but has to be read by somebody who is into this kind of topics, "Animal Farm" is powerful and easy to read at the same time. It would be a perfect book even for somebody in middle school.
The book is about the story of a farm where the animals, tired of being exploited by the owner (Mr. Jones), organize a rebellion, and kick him out of his property. The animals start then to manage themselves, with laws (the seven commandaments), with the organization of the work to be done, and planning the future. Even though everything is working perfectly at the beginning, when each animal is performing the task which best fits to his/her species, things start to become more complicated when the pigs, who are supposedly the smarter animals, and therefore are the ones leading the farm, start to take advantage of their position, and an oligarchic/dictatorial regime is established.
The power of this book, at least in my opinion, lies in the great representation (in between a tale and a sci-fi story) given by Orwell of the different attitudes of the animals, which reflect and represent the ones that human being have in a society. This representation also gives an excellent description of the steps that usually lead to any tyranny--and those steps have been and are always the same ones...
I report here few of the passages that I liked the most.
And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. [...] And above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. No animal must ever kill any other animal. All animals are equal. (pg. 11)
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven. Moses, who was Mr.Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know the existence of a misterious coutry called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. [...where] it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals hated Moses because he told tales and did no work, but some of them believed in Sugarcandy Mountain [...]. (pg. 17)
But doubtless it ahd been worse in the old days. They were glad to believe so. Besides, in those days they had been slaves, and now they were free, and that made all the difference, as Squealer dod not fail to point out. (pg.113)
A thing that was difficult to determine was the attitude of the pigs towards Moses. They all declared contemptuously that his stories about Sugarcandy Mountain were lies, and yet they allowed him to remain on the farm, not working, with an allowance of a gill of beer a day. (pg. 118)
I enjoyed it at the same level as "1984", and it's richness is somewhat different: while 1984 is very powerful, but has to be read by somebody who is into this kind of topics, "Animal Farm" is powerful and easy to read at the same time. It would be a perfect book even for somebody in middle school.
