‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell is a very interesting allegory about the Russian revolution which took place in 1917. In the beginning of the novel, the animals are ruled by their farmer Mr. Jones, a tyrant who neglected and overworked them. After the animal’s successful rebellion, their thoughts become so clouded with fantasies and dreams, and they are manipulated by the pigs to such an extent that they forget about the days when they were ruled by Mr. Jones, and they don’t see the reality of what is happening to their “equal society”. The reality was that the pigs “with their superior knowledge” took advantage of the other animals, and instead of establishing an egalitarian society, they replaced the tyranny of man with an even worse form of oppression and exploitation. Orwell clearly shows that: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
On Manor Farm, “the life of an animal is misery and slavery” because of the poor conditions which Mr. Jones provides the animals to live in. Every animal is born to a life of labour, little food, and when they are no longer of use to their farmer, they will eventually be slaughtered with the utmost cruelty: “No animal escapes the cruel knife in the end”. They are forced to work long hours every day, only to have their produce taken from them by Mr. Jones, and to be given “the bare minimum” in return for their labour. Most of the animals just saw it as their way of life, but Old Major, the oldest and wisest animal on the farm, was able to see the need for change in their lifestyle. He realized that “man is the only real enemy” that the animals had and that “all the habits of man are evil”, so he knew that for the animals to live well and free, they would have to “toil for freedom’s sake” and overthrow “Jones’s hated reign”.
When the animals heard of the proposed revolution when “tyrant man shall be o’erthrown”, they started telling stories about the rebellion and “the