Animal Farm Book Review

Title: Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

Rating: 4.8/5

Description: Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This 1945 satire addresses the socialist/communist philosophy of Stalin in the Soviet Union. (From Goodreads)

Review: Animal Farm by George Orwell is a clever, unique idea that satires that whole Russian Revolution issue. I’m not extremely educated on the topic but I read this book for my English class so I was given the basic idea of what happened. Although this is an extremely serious topic, Orwell finds a way to parody the whole situation while still making a statement, without sounding like a ridiculous buffoon. Orwell’s idea to use animals was very genius, if you ask me. Pigs are used to represent the bad guys. When have you ever heard someone call someone else a pig, meaning it as a compliment? Also, he saw Stalin’s secret police as dogs. Vicious and, once again, often used as an insult. Then he creates the most lovable animals as the side he is one. The working class are horses, hard-working animals that are adored commonly. The same goes to the animals like the donkey Benjamin and Muriel the goat. Even if someone who read the book didn’t realize these animals actually represented real people, they could still take away from the story. Humans are greedy and cruel and neglectful. Humans can really act like pigs. The only reason I docked off .2 points is because I wasn’t too appreciative of how many time jumps there were. Many chapters started off with “a year later” or “several months after.” Also, the end came quite abruptly. I wish there had maybe been a chapter or two to tie things better together between chapter 9 and 10. Other than that, I was impressed with the idea, plot, symbolism, and just the writing overall.

Audience: I think Animal Farm was originally directed toward people who shared Orwell’s belief or even targeted towards people he could persuade to join his side in this whole debate. Now, I think people read this book to understand history and to study forms of good literature. So, in conclusion, I believe Animal Farm is currently targeted towards schools, teachers, and students.