Animal Farm- a Fairy Story

by George Orwell

Animal Farm is an intriguing but yet disturbing story. It tells of a group of animals who live on a farm called Manor Farm. One night, an old and revered pig who was known as old Major calls a meeting of all the farm animals to tell them of a dream he had. Before he tells the dream, he gives a speech: someday there will be a rebellion, the animals will revolt against the humans who enslave them, and they will be free beasts. The animals leave the meeting enlightened, though old Major did warn them that it may not come as soon as they wished.

The opportunity arose some time later, as their farmkeeper, Mr. Jones, had fallen on hard luck as of late and was more than a little lax in his farm duties. Finally, the hungry animals took it upon themselves to get their own food and ended up chasing Mr. Jones and his farmhands off the farm. Now the animals ruled the farm, and they laid down the Seven Commandments:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

These seven summed up quite nicely into a simple motto: "Four legs good, two legs bad." It demonstrated the power of animals and that they were their own masters. Gradually, the pigs began to develop as the clear leaders, since they were clearly the cleverest. And steadily, a couple of pigs slowly took over the farm, ruling it as they saw fit and not according to the Seven Commandments.

I found this story somewhat disturbing in that those who worked for the pigs brainwashed everyone else, even when they remembered and positively KNEW that this was not the way things were supposed to be. The eventual stupidity of the entire society was extremely frustrating, and a lot of it didn't make sense to me as Orwell had implied that more than one species of animal had intelligence close to that of a human.

Overall, I didn't really like it, though its insights were invaluable to anyone interested in the workings of different governments. I'd recommend this book, again, to fourteen and older, as there are some things that are rather deep and younger children have a better chance of missing.