Introduction
It’s an ordinary evening on a farm somewhere in the English countryside. Mr. Jones, the farmer, has forgotten to shut the door to the henhouse, while his wife snores in bed. The animals of the farm—pigs and dogs and hens and horses and ducks, one donkey, a goat, and even a lazy cat—have assembled in the barn. They have come together to listen to Old Major, the oldest and wisest pig on the farm, as he tells them about a peculiar dream that he has had the night before. As they gather snugly on the straw, like a comforting [1] picture out of a children’s fairytale, Old Major begins his speech, addressing the other farmyard animals not as his “friends” or “family” but rather as his “Comrades [2].”
Thus begins Animal Farm, the fifth of six novels written by the famed English novelist George Orwell. For many readers, the word “Comrades” comes as a bit of a shock, disrupting the otherwise simple and fairytale-like tone of the story. While “comrade” was once a common way of referring to a “friend” or “mate,” ever since the Russian Revolution in 1917, it has been exclusively associated with the Soviet Union, where it was used as a common form of address between members of the Socialist party. With just one single word, Orwell signals to the reader that this story is not going to be the simple fable they are expecting, but rather, a scathing political critique that explores several important issues that still hold relevance to us in the present day.
Major Themes:
Political Tyranny
Animal Farm is an allegory, or in other words, a story that works symbolically as an extended metaphor. Its principal topic is the decline of socialism in Russia, from its early idealism to the political violence that defined the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Though the Soviet Union was the primary target of Orwell’s critique, the novel also considers the nature of power and tyranny more broadly, training the reader to identify the early stages of a state’s transition to totalitarianism. Animal Farm can be read as a warning: the power that is used to defeat a nation’s enemies can also be turned back against its own population.
Corruption
The revolt of the farm animals against the farmer and his family is, at first, motivated by positive ideals. Old Major, whose philosophy directs the beginnings of this “animal revolution,” makes a compelling point: why should the farmer benefit from the labor of the animals? Who gives the farmer the right to dictate how they live, and when they die? Their revolution is at first successful, and in the beginning it brings about real benefits for the animals. And yet, in this book Orwell shows that even good ideas can become corrupted over time, and that “revolutionaries” can become just as tyrannical as those whom they overthrow [3].
Truth and Manipulation
As with 1984, George Orwell’s other famous novel, Animal Farm asks us to think deeply about the relationship of knowledge to power, and of the many ways in which truth can be distorted, and facts manipulated [4]. Generally, we assume that the point of communication is to exchange ideas and information with each other, but Orwell reminds us that language can also be used to deceive and control others. The pigs, more eloquent than the other animals of the farm, are the most effective at putting together plans and policies, but their eloquence also becomes a weapon which they wield [5] against the other animals. From devising patriotic slogans and songs, to controlling all information coming into and out of the farm, the pigs are shown to be master propagandists.