I was recently encouraged by a close friend to read Animal Farm
by George Orwell. I heard of the book a long time ago but never got around to reading it and I am glad that I finally have (thank-you …..). At the time of publication in 1945 it was an allegory of the Russian revolution but in recent times it has been compared to governments that have taken over from colonial powers only to become worse off than the so-called colonial oppressors. The characters in the book can be associated with real life characters. For this reason the book has stirred a lot of controversy and has even been banned in some countries. The book outlines a shift to totalitarianism and the effect it has on a population. It leads to a state where people start thinking as a group which affects individual judgement. That is the problem with the world we live in today. The world is ruled by a very small percentage of people who make decisions for the rest of us. No-one is standing up for what they believe in and are taking whatever comes their way. As a result they are suffering and will continue to do so until they speak up. The little that is said will count in making the world a better place.In the book it all started off with a dream of rebellion and freedom that a white boar Old Major shared with the animals on the farm just before his death. The cleverer animals on the farm, the pigs held secret meetings where they planned a rebellion against the enemy, man. At the forefront were two main pigs, Snowball and Napoleon who during the planning of the rebellion taught themselves to read and write and came up with seven commandments that the animals were to live by. Their plans came to fruition and animals drove Mr. Jones of his farm.
After the rebellion the pigs took up a leadership role. Napoleon and Snowball did not see eye to eye on a number of issues and Snowball was eventually driven out of the farm leaving Napoleon as the sole ruler. With the passage of time, life for the animals did not improve as they worked more and received less rations which was the opposite of what they were promised. A number of events took place that the animals thought were against the seven commandments they were living by. For example, the fifth commandment stated “no animal shall drink alcohol,” but the pigs took to the drink. One night the animals found Squealer, Napoleon’s obedient follower and propagandist on the floor after a fall from a ladder on the wall with the commandments. He was holding a paint brush and next to him was an overturned pot of paint. One of the animals knew exactly what was going on but did not say anything. Later on the animals noticed that there was yet another commandment they had remember wrong for the fifth commandment no read “no animal shall drink alcohol in excess.”
The animals were living in a society where they would take it as it is and not speak up for what they believed in. Fear had been instilled in the hearts of the animals with the help of Napoleon’s feared bodyguards the dogs. The pigs gradually embarrassed the ‘human’ way of life and one day they paraded around walking on their hind legs. On that very same day the seven commandments had been replaced with a single statement that read “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” In the end the animals could no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.
The story that George Orwell tells is reminiscent of events that have taken or are taking place in Zimbabwe and other countries around the world. It starts of with a liberation struggle after which there are promises of a better life to follow but with the passage of time that is not the case. Laws are changed or altered to suit the needs of the people in power and fear is instilled within the population who become afraid to speak up for what they believe in and against an oppressive regime.
If you haven’t read Animal Farm (Signet Classics)