Book review: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Hello, all! 

In the past 7 years, I have read quite a few books, but I just never really had the intention to discuss them here. But now, I want to make a habit of writing more book reviews so that I can be productive and keep my mind active. 

 

Book review

Title: Animal Farm

Author: George Orwell

Publication year: 1945

 

I recently finished reading Animal Farm by George Orwell. It’s a popular book; hence, I’m sure people are already quite familiar with it. But please allow me to convey my take on this book with my rather limited political and historical understanding. The book itself is a fable about farm animals in England, undertaking a rebellion against the owner of the farm, a man called Mr Jones. There were some prominent animal figures in the book; some of them are:

 

The Old Major: A wild boar, highly regarded on the farm and can be seen as the guiding light for the rebellion.

 

Snowball: Another boar, which was among the most intelligent animals on the farm together.

 

Napoleon: Another boar with high intelligence. He and Snowball are enemies, but Napoleon was a cunning boar who managed to exile Snowball from the farm after the rebellion was carried out. He then took sole leadership of the animal farm.

 

Boxer: A selfless, tenacious male horse who possessed great stamina and would never say no to work for the farm (my favourite character). Sadly, he tragically died in a slaughter house, which was orchestrated by Napoleon. 😢

 

Clover: A female horse, the companion of Boxer who lived until the end andtruly witnessed how corrupted Napoleon's government had become.

 

Benjamin: A donkey, the oldest animal in the farm, not much of a talker and had a somewhat hopeless outlook on life.

The summary of this book goes like this: 

The Old Major was the catalyst for the rebellion. He was the one who instilled the dream in the other animals’ heads about a farm where animals can live freely and independently without the need to serve humankind. Shortly after his death, the rebellion did take place, and the animals succeeded in taking over the farm from Mr Jones and his family. However, the rivalry between Snowball and Napoleon led to Snowball’s exile, due to Napoleon’s supposedly made-up stories that Snowball was actually a traitor to the farm (in my opinion, they’re all false accusations, but I cannot guarantee the truth of it; it’s just my gut feeling). In the subsequent years, the euphoria of the revolution, which was achieved through the rebellion, gradually deteriorated to the point that life for the farm animals was far worse than it had been under Mr Jones. Napoleon exercised totalitarian control. His regime was sustained through the betrayal of the Animal Farm commandments. The pigs, Napoleon’s own species, and the dogs, who functioned as his military enforcers, were granted special privileges and held in high esteem. The practice of nepotism was normalised, and inequity prevailed. However, the animals were always made to doubt and were unaware of this bleak truth, as Napoleon’s government invariably instilled the illusion that life was much better now.

 

The theme of this book is highly political. Upon reading it, I can’t help but think that the message it’s trying to convey is that the lives of the farm animals were ‘colonised’ by their own kind. At first, they were colonised by humans (Mr Jones), labouring until the end of their lives and being sacrificed for human consumption. But once ruled by their own kind, the situation was only improving for the first few years. However, it progressively regressed due to corrupt governance. In the end, the quality of life did not improve much; instead, it was worse. Napoleon is, in particular, very sly. He is also very smart to plan ahead and make use of the available resources for his own purposes. He, for example, took care of the puppies on the farm when they were still very young and raised them to become somewhat military guards for himself. The existence of the guard dogs inevitably instilled fears to the other animals, which led them to comply instinctively with Napoleon. He is also quick to eliminate any doubts or potential revolt among other animals by giving out false hopes or stories. He instilled in the other animals the belief that this was how things were meant to be, that nothing was wrong, and that questioning him meant preferring the brutality of life during Mr. Jones’ era.

Now, reflecting on it in relation to my country, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the situation for Indonesian people was much better when we were colonised by the Dutch and the Japanese, but the book surely got me thinking deeply that, to some extent, we have so much resemblance to the Animal Farm. It made me question the propaganda we’ve been exposed to. The unfair treatment and nepotism that are abundant in our everyday lives are not right. That’s not how it should be. That should lead us to question whether our constitution has truly been embodied in everyday life. Do we see that we have the same opportunity as the others? Do we see inequality in our society? Do we still witness discrimination? Or do we even unconsciously enact that?

 

Now, let me end this here with a piece of writing from the book:

 

…“If you have lower animals to contend with, we have our lower classes!”…

…Mr Pilkington once again congratulated the pigs on the low rations, the long working-hours and the general absence of pampering which he had observed on Animal Farm.