Animal Farm by George Orwell – Thoughts

After reading two of his books, I think George Orwell had psychic powers or some sort of vision to be able to see and write things in 1940s that seem true or relevant even now. I’m truly spooked!

I had read 1984 earlier and was shaken by the fact that what he had written as a dystopian fiction years earlier is more or less true in today’s world. Big Brother is always watching. War seems to be the only answer for leaders to bring about peace. The less you know, the happier you are. And so on.

So I had been meaning to read Animal Farm since a while too, and finally got my hands on an old edition copy from the library. A friend aptly summarised this book as THE book, if you want to understand the nature of power and politics, and I completely agree with him.

This book is a satire on the corruption of power and in the preface of the book, there was a mention that some allegories were made to Communism and Stalin’s rise to power in USSR. However, George also commented that he wrote this book with a wider applicability in mind.

This edition of the book just had 95 pages, so it’s one of those brilliant books that you can read in a day and have the satisfaction of having read a profound book. Catching two birds with a stone😉

There were moments in the story when my heart starting beating and I was appalled with what was happening to the well thought ideologies of the Animal Farm and of animalism. But then I started to compare this story with every other political agenda and how a revolution starts with the promise of something more, of freedom, of something better, but eventually, everyone loses sight of the initial vision and succumbs to either the shine of power or the drudgery of life.

While reading, I wondered about the different animals and tried to guess which animal did I identify with most? I think I could be a cross between the cat and clover, the horse. Part disinterested and lazy as long as I’m getting fed an part hard working because I care about my family and providing for them.

Personally, I liked 1984 more, because I lean towards science fiction and dystopian futures more than politics or satires, but this is a brilliant book nevertheless. One that everyone should read at least once in a lifetime😊📚

Questions to you guys:

Which animal did you relate to the most?

What do you think happened to Snowball, the visionary pig leader?

I thought the squealer was the newspapers who twist the truth to suit the political party or leader they are supporting at the moment and have a lot of power- did you think the same too?