Orwell's Animal Farm

On the face of it, George Orwell's Animal Farm is a story about a bunch of animals who rebel against their human owners and decide to run the farm themselves. But it is best described as a story that appeals to readers of all ages.

Imagine a sharply divided world teetering on the brink of a nuclear war. A world where two giant nations slumber, but it is a light sleep, one that can be easily broken by the slightest stirring of either. This is not a fictional world. The cold war was real. The people most affected by it were the Europeans. Their home would have been the first battleground if war had broken out between the US and the USSR.

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The cold war wasn’t about two blocs who hated each other, it was about two jostling for space. Orwell, as a human being, lived in those times and wrote about these ideas.

On the face of it, Animal Farm is a story about a bunch of animals who rebel against their human owners and decide to run the farm themselves. They dream of a world where no animal is killed without reason, where no calf goes without milk because his mother has been sucked dry, where no boots tramp down on individual happiness.

For some time, their utopian existence continues undisturbed. But as the pigs take over, the best aspects of nature are replaced by the basest motives. The original seven sins come tumbling out of the closet, and through metaphor we see man’s seemingly inevitable fall from grace begin again.

The book is not religious and it is. It is not political and it is. It is best described as a story that appeals to readers of all ages. It is also a book that opens up the mind to a new possibility every time you read it. To me it is great art, because I haven’t found a book that comments on the human condition as well as this one.