Animal Farm
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Animal Farm
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In Oct 1917, a major power-shift took place in the political arena of Russia due to Soviet movement esp. the October revolution (also known as Bolshevik revolution). Animal farm, reflects those events that occurred in then Russian politics, during Stalin era. Following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, Stalin, the Soviet Leader, prevailed in a power struggle over Leon Trotsky, who was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union.
This book was first rejected for publication because of the camaraderie between Russian and British at that time. It was later chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels.
The story starts with a revolution driven by animals to dethrone the humans (The owner of the farm, Mr Jones in the book) in hope of building a new future. They have a belief that this will bring prosperity to animals, they will be treated equally , able to work according to their capacity and will enjoy equal luxury. But this doesn’t last too long when one section of animal turns dictators from simple comrades.
Then the series of events takes place which shows how the ideologies of a society can be changed/twisted by those, who are in power. These are more or less similar to Russian revolution principles that were twisted and abandoned by Stalin. The 2 central characters (Pigs) resemble Stalin and Trotsky where Snowball (a pig), which is of a less political will , is overthrown by cunning malicious Napoleon (another pig).
Orwell has succeeded up to a large extent in depicting one of the most complex subject in the simplest way. The book has been written in such a way that even a novice reader wont find difficult, giving it a go. The sequence and the events of the book are those which we see/experience in our day to day life, as how a big population is governed by a bunch of people (can say politicians) and how they misuse the power by bending/denting the laws of society/country .
Quoting an example from the book, one of the major principles of the animal revolution was :- "All animals are equal" which with time was changed by the dictators as :-
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUALS. SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
Give it a try just as another story of Aesop's Fables.
