Animal Farm - George Orwell - So You Haven't Read

Literature gives us the opportunity to experience lives, perspectives, and worlds different from our own. Though remember, friend, a good story has many readings, and this is but one. The animals at Manor Farm are rejoicing in the success of their revolution. Though you have some serious doubts that anything will get any better. Because if there's one thing you've learned, it's that life will go on as it always has. That is badly. So you stay out of politics, even as the pigs take control of the farm until they sell your horse friend to a glue factory. But now is it too late? Benjamin the donkey may be cynical, but he's also one of the only animals that clearly sees what's happening in George Orwell's allegorical political novel, Animal Farm. Now, Zoe and I can see that you're clearly not familiar with the book, which is perfectly fine because we love to share this story with folks. Isn't that right, bud? Up top. Let's show this guy what our six legs can do. Thanks so much to Factor for keeping us well fed fast. So you haven't read Animal Farm by George Orwell. Luckily or unluckily for you, really, it seems to always be the perfect time to check it out. While the original target of this satirical allegory was the Soviet Union, the central theme of how political propaganda can manipulate the opinion of the people is sadly, evergreen. Oh boy. And Orwell's clear, concise storytelling has helped generations of readers look more closely at the words of their own governments. Animal Farm structure eschews the concept of main character, focusing instead on how the story's events impact the whole population of farm animals. Furthermore, each character in Animal Farm serves as a symbol. For example, Napoleon, the brutal leader of the farm, represents Joseph Stalin, while Boxer, the self sacrificing horse, stands for the Russian laborers. And while each species of animals illustrates a different group of humans, Orwell's sympathy is clearly with the oppressed animals, the only a few of whom survive till the end. But you know what? I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning. You are Benjamin, an old, cynical donkey. And if life at Manor Farm has taught you anything, it's that life is pretty awful. Oh, sure, I mean, you have some friends, including your bff, Boxer, the workhorse, but everyone knows you're always just on the cusp of going full Eeyore. So when a pig named Old Major summons all of the farm animals to the big barn to share a vision of a better future, it they're pretty doubtful. Old Major explains how the humans have been exploiting the animals and that if they could only just stand united, they could overthrow their farmer. Now, old Major dies shortly thereafter, but his words inspire a trio of his fellow pigs, Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer, to take up his mantle and devise a new philosophy called animalism. There are seven major tenets of this new ideology, mostly aimed at uniting the animals and avoiding the failings of humans. Nice words, but when have words ever changed the. Oh, the revolution happened. Geez, that was fast. The pigs then try to teach the rest of the animals how to read, but only a few are able, including yourself. In fact, many of the animals are actually having a hard time grasping the several central tenets of animalism. So to make things easier, Squealer reduces the whole philosophy too. Four legs good, two legs bad. The sheep in particular like to go around shouting this all day. In fact, also the pigs themselves are having a bit of a power struggle. Snowball, a well respected hero for his work defending the farm, has committed himself to truly involving all of the animals in governing this place. On the other hand, you have Napoleon, who is focused on consolidating power for himself. This comes to a head at a meeting to discuss Snowball's plan to construct a windmill. Napoleon opposes this plan for some reason, though he doesn't really have much of an argument against it. And just as the animals start to seem overwhelmingly in favor of Snowball, Napoleon summons nine huge dogs who chase his rival off the farm for good. Napoleon then proclaims that the pigs will be making all of the decisions from now on, and his first decision is to build a windmill. Squealer explains that Napoleon only pretended to be against this idea to trick Snowball into revealing criminal intent. And while that sounds unlikely, why would Squealer lie about something like that? Must be true I guess. Though eventually Squealer just blatantly rewrites the history of the revolution, recasting Snowball as a traitorous villain. Now you of course remember the truth, but decide not to get involved. You don't believe it would make any difference. Everything's just going to keep being awful no matter what. Hoo boy, you are just as cynical as, well, I mean, author George Orwell. In fact, his friends sometimes called him Donkey. George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair, an Englishman in British India in 1903. And as a young adult he received a post as a police officer in British controlled Burma, where he witnessed abuse of the indigenous population firsthand. His initial forays into writing were based on these first hand accounts of imperial English racism and corruption, and his future work continued to explore themes of oppression and inequity. A socialist influenced by Trotsky, on whom he based Snowball, Orwell watched with dismay as the ideals of the Russian Revolution were perverted in such a way that Czarists, one corrupt group of oligarchs, was simply replaced by the Politburo, another equally corrupt group of oligarchs. Since Orwell believed that political language was used deliberately to deceive and mislead the people, he worked hard to make his own language choices as straightforward as possible. Furthermore, he chose to write Animal Farm as a fable, both to make it more accessible but also to suggest that his allegory wasn't just about Soviet Russia. For he'd seen plenty of evidence of political propaganda leading people to act against their own self interests around the world, which is, sadly, exactly what's occurring on your farm. You watch as your rations dwindle over time, but then hear Squealer report that the rations are increasing. You then note that the pigs have started to break some of the rules of animalism. But Squealer convinces everyone that the pigs deserve special treatment, and whenever things go especially bad, Squealer reports that it's not because of Napoleon's gross mismanagement. Oh, heavens no. It's actually because Snowball is sabotaging the farm, and when some of the animals protest the hypocrisy, Napoleon simply releases the dogs on them, killing a chunk of the population. You then note that some of the rules painted on the barn of animalism have now been altered in the pig's favor, though the other animals again assume that it's just their own faulty memory, even when they catch Squealer in the act of adding some new words to the tenants. Then one day, Boxer, the horse who has worked harder than anyone else in support of animalism collapses. The pigs report he's been sent to a doctor, but you watch in horror as the truck that is clearly labeled glue factory takes him away. You cry out to warn him, but it's too late. Your friend is gone. Later, Squealer insists that Boxer died peacefully in the hospital, but you know the truth. You become, if anything, even more cynical, which turns out to be completely justified, as one day all of the animals look on in horror as Squealer and Napoleon come walking in on two legs and wearing clothes. The sheep start bleeding a new phrase, four legs good, two legs better, and the seven rules have been replaced with the phrase all animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others, and the pigs now look exactly like the humans. You were right all along. Things have continued to go on as they always had. Badly by using anthropomorphized animals as the main characters, Orwell created a universal look at the power of propaganda. The animals lose everything they'd gained in the revolution because they trusted the pig's sweet words over their malicious actions. But the good news for us is that reading books on how the powerful manipulate us is an excellent way of starting to think critically about the propaganda that would be autocrats present. So since I think it's safe to say that none of us want to be sheep mindlessly bleeding out talking points, now's a great time to dig around for a copy of Animal Farm, give it a read for yourself and draw your own conclusions. And if you want to, let's say, spend more time reading, less time cooking, and get a head start on your New Year's resolution to eat healthier, well, then I'd like to introduce you to the helpful hat trick that is Factor. Now, if you've heard me talk about hellofresh, you all do know how much I truly love to cook, right? But the truth is that sometimes there are days that I just can't find the time. You know, like if I'm in the middle of something like a, well, I don't know, YouTube channel split, let's say. Been a lot of work, so what's a busy bean like myself to do, right? 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