Animal Farm by George Orwell

This classic book is a satire and a comedy with a deep message for those who want to create a world of equality and 'justice'.

In the book Animal Farm, the farm animals revolt against the human farmers in hope of better life. The farm animals believe they can run the farm themselves better than the farmer.

The revolt was easy and quick. In the end, their animal 'leaders' become just as bad or worse than the human farmers. The principles that drove the revolt are all corrupted. The farm animals end up just as bad or worse than life under human farmers.

The classic book is a cautionary tale.

The book is an allegory. Farm animals revolting and taking over the farm is meant to give the message that quick fixes, revolution, and talk of equality is easy. Hard part is building something better.

Animal grievances

Farm animals have grievances as they see their human farm owners not doing work while they produce everything on the farm.

"No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth."

"This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep — and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining.

Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word - Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever."

"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. "

Preparing for rebellion

"That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!

I do not know when that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done. Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious."

The old must be discarded and the new adopted.

"“Comrade,” said Snowball, “those ribbons that you are so devoted to are the badge of slavery. Can you not understand that liberty is worth more than ribbons?”"

Sacrifices will have to be made. E.g. the horses may not be able to get the sugar from their human masters.

"“Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion?” “No,” said Snowball firmly. “We have no means of making sugar on this farm. Besides, you do not need sugar. You will have all the oats and hay you want.”"

The pigs are considered the wisest among the animals and become their leaders.

Its seven commandments are simple and easy to remember for the simple minded farm animals.

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy: humans are evil. Easy and simple way to identify the foe.

Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend

No animal shall sleep in a bed: because their human masters did so.

No animal shall drink alcohol because their human masters did so and forgot to feed them when they were drunk.

No animal shall kill any other animal

All animals are equal

The farm animals revolt against their human farm owners

Then one day the animals rebel.

The human master of the farm forgot to feed the animals. This triggered the revolt.

"the animals were still unfed" for a whole day.

"This was more than the hungry animals could bear. With one accord, though nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung themselves upon their tormentors. Jones and his men suddenly found themselves being butted and kicked from all sides. The situation was quite out of their control. They had never seen animals behave like this before, and this sudden uprising of creatures whom they were used to thrashing and maltreating just as they chose, frightened them almost out of their wits.

After only a moment or two they gave up trying to defend themselves and took to their heels. A minute later all five of them were in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road, with the animals pursuing them in triumph."

The day after the revolution

Out with the old, in with the new.

The hated objects of control that kept the animals in check were destroyed.

"they raced back to the farm buildings to wipe out the last traces of Jones’s hated reign. The harness-room at the end of the stables was broken open; the bits, the nose-rings, the dog-pigs and lambs, were all flung down the well. The reins, the halters, the blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were thrown on to the rubbish fire whichchains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones had been used to castrate the was burning in the yard. So were the whips. All the animals capered with joy when they saw the whips going up in flames."

"In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded them of Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store-shed and served out a double ration of corn to everybody, with two biscuits for each dog. Then they sang ‘Beasts of England’ from end to end seven times running, and after that they settled down for the night and slept as they had never slept before."

Inequality and corruption of values begins almost immediately

The pigs lead the animals. The milk from cows is mixed with feed of the pigs. Other animals start questioning this. This is explained as necessary for pig leader's health.

"You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples."

Then the commandment 'No animal shall sleep in a bed' is ignored for the 'Greater Good'.

"It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution against this had been passed in the early days, and again Squealer was able to convince them that this was not the case. It was absolutely necessary, he said, that the pigs, who were the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in. It was also more suited to the dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to speaking of Napoleon under the title of “Leader”) to live in a house than in a mere sty."

"Napoleon [leader of animal rebels] rarely appeared in public, but spent all his time in the farmhouse, which was guarded at each door by fierce-looking dogs. When he did emerge, it was in a ceremonial manner, with an escort of six dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near. "

Order were issued by the animal leader "through one of the other pigs, usually Squealer."

Secret agreements

"Napoleon [animal leader] had really been in secret agreement with Frederick [human]."

Then the money paid to the farm turned out to be forgeries.

"The banknotes were forgeries! Frederick had got the timber for nothing!"

The more things change, the more they stayed the same

"Their lives now, they reasoned, were hungry and laborious; was it not right and just that a better world should exist somewhere else?"

"Indeed, all the animals worked like slaves that year."

"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs."

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

The pigs animal leaders had replaced the human farm owners. Nothing else changed much.

Revolution a distant memory

"Many animals had been born to whom the Rebellion was only a dim tradition, passed on by word of mouth, and others had been bought who had never heard mention of such a thing before their arrival."

The noble thought (Animalism) that had been developed by the original revolutionaries was not understood or even read even though it was prominently displayed in the farm house.

"None of them proved able to learn the alphabet beyond the letter B. They accepted everything that they were told about the Rebellion and the principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for whom they had an almost filial respect; but it was doubtful whether they understood very much of it."

"And yet the animals never gave up hope."







Tweet

Related articles

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard

External Links