Animal Farm by George Orwell: a Story About Animals' Rise Up for Rebellion

Animal Farm tells the story of Farmer Jones’s animals who rise up in rebellion and take over the farm. Tired of being exploited solely for human gain, the animals—who have human characteristics such as the power of speech—vow to create a new and more just society.
Though the novel reads like a fairy story, and
Orwell subtitles it as just that, it is also a satire containing a message about world politics and especially the former Soviet Union in particular.
Since the Bolshevik revolutions of the early
1900s, the former Soviet Union had captured the attention of the world with its socialist experiment. Stalin’s form of government had some supporters in Britain and the United States, but
Orwell was against this system.
In a satire, the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it. Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as the myth of Soviet socialism. Thus, the novel tells a story that people of all ages can understand, but it also tells us a second story— that of the real-life Revolution. Many critics have matched in great detail the story’s characters to historical persons––for example, linking the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball to the historical feuding between Joseph Stalin and Leon
Trostky for control of the Soviet Union. Critics also believe that Old Major represents Karl Marx, who dies before realizing his dream. Other comparisons include Moses as the Russian Orthodox church, Boxer and Clover as workers, the sheep as the general public, Squealer as Stalin’s government news agency, the dogs as Stalin’s military police, and Farmer Jones as Czar Nicholas II. The farm’s neighbors, Pilkington and Frederick, are said to represent Great Britain and Germany, while Mollie suggests the old Russian aristocracy, which resists change.
A tremendous success when published, Animal
Farm has since become part of school curriculums and popular literary culture. Readers and critics alike have enjoyed its imaginative premise and the engaging charm of its animal characters. Orwell’s straightforward language draws readers into the farm’s world, while the witty underlying satire invites serious analysis. In George Orwell: A
Personal Memoir, T. R. Fyvel writes:
[Orwell] turned the domestic animals on the farm into immediately recognizable and memorable and sometimes lovable characters.
Animal Farm is more than a fairy story. It is a commentary on the the relevance of independent thought, truth, and justice.