Animal Farm Book Review Essay

The novella that I read for summer reading was Animal Farm. I chose to read this book because of great reviews from both adults and peers. It was written by George Orwell and was first published in 1975. Because Orwell was an adherent of socialism, Animal Farm is a satire showing the rise and fall of Soviet Communism through animals on a farm. The animals overthrow the unkind farmer, Mr. Jones and establish their own community and government that mirrors a communist society.

When reading animal farm you can either view it as no more than animals eradicating their farmer and attempting to live a life without the humans or you can see it from a more intellectual point of view and realize that those animals represent people and that the

story shows the undulate of Soviet Communism. It is important to realize that it is metaphorical and who the characters actually represent because then there is more thought and discussion that can go on compared to just a Childrens’ book about animals. With the pigs assuming leadership after the farmer is overthrown, it is a way of Orwell essentially saying that humans are pigs. When you realize small things like that it opens up a whole new way of thinking.

When you pay attention to the characters and who they represent from the communism time period in Russia it is a lot easier to understand and puts more meaning to why Orwell chose to write it and why he would use animals rather than retelling the time period in some other way.

When you see that Mr. Jones is Tsar Nicholas II and how he eventually gets caught up in alcohol and ends up abandoning his duties on the farm. A quote from page 15 shows how he let his responsibilities go, eventually making it even easier for the animals to overthrow him, “Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard, kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where Mrs. Jones was already snoring.” This sentence really shows that he certainly is not up to his job anymore. This helps you realize that Mr. Jones actually just represents Tsar Nicholas II. They both ended up unable to rule over others. When the realization sinks in whom all of the animals represent, it helps you understand and even learn how a communist government, more specifically the one of the Soviet Union really worked and the importance of all of the people in the time

period.

While I did not end up enjoying this book as much as I had expected that I would, I did like how much more I ended up learning about Soviet Communism which was a topic that I did not know too much about before. One of the other things that Orwell did was turn some pretty boring historical figures into animals which are well liked and relatable to all people, no matter what your age, gender or background is. By doing this the story became more intriguing to everyone. It also became more understanding and for me it was also easier to remember being able to put the name of the animals with the name of the person in history. And while I did not enjoy the novella as much as most of the other book I would have much rather read that than a dull textbook entry. Knowing this information will make it easier for me in my classes at school because after reading the book it encouraged me to look into some forms of government a little bit more. Although not my favorite book that I have ever read, I believe that it is important for everyone to read it sometime in their life because it is such a quick read with so much easy to grasp information.