Animal Farm

Rating:
Summary: Great, but a bit too short
Review: After reading animal farm, i fel a bit dissappointed. Throughout the beginning of the book, it was details, details, details, but as story wore on, less details were given. From the wonderful battle of cowshed, to the LAME battle for the windmill, the things that make the battle of cowshed grea were details, but with the battle of he windmill, it seemed that there were about 1/2 the details that were in the 1st battle. It seemed that George Orwell just got lazy, and just wanted to finish this book.

But on to the positive!

This book was HALARIOUS (in the fact that if you take the symbols for who/what they were). The book was like a season of SNL all rolled up into one small tiny book. It also compared russian history and the dealings of animal/manor farm VERY accurately.

It's just too bad the end could not be the same qulity as the beginning.

Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm is great
Review: Animal Farm can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It's story of animals overtaking a farm will draw in a middle school crowd while its deep social symbols will draw anyone from late high school and up. It's satire of communism is hilarious and half the fun of the book is seeing how Orwell shows people from all classes in life. From Boxer the worker to Napoleon the leader all can be seen as a real life social class. This is Orwell's best work, and one of the best novels the English language has ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece
Review: George Orwell has done an amazing job of this book. It is so simple to read that many schools require Animal Farm to be read by junior high schoolers. Yet, it is also required reading for college freshmen because of the complex nature of the story.

The story is an analogy for the 1917 Russian revolution and the rise of communism later. Orwell's masterstroke was making the protagonists animals. This way he could tell his story without acknowledging what he was really talking about. He uses animals to portray how inhuman the former masters were and to give sympathy for animals plight.

Animal Farm opens with the animals chasing away the owner of the farm and the beggining of it being run by animals. The story progresses from the optimism of the ideas of shared community to the cynicism of a power grab and the new leaders are as bad as the original ones. Orwell describes how the new leaders change the rules slowly and in incremental steps so as not to alarm the followers. Any opposition is either exiled or killed. By the time the rest of the animals realize that they were swindled of their ideas, it is too late to stop the process. The book ends where communism was in the 1970's, stagnated. The odd part of this is that Orwell wrote Animal Farm in 1946 and much of the book is actually prediction.

This book is both wonderfull to read and a dire prediction. Orwell shows how the best of intentions can be twisted into the worst of nightmares. It is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: Animal Farm on the outside might seem like a children's story, but it is far from it. George Orwell uses this tale to cleverly disguise his thoughts on politics and government, and if we are not careful, how we can be led in to situations as despicable as the ones we were originally freed from. The animals were lead blindly into this, never questioning the pigs' authority or their doings. What I found fascinating was how the seven commandments were changed somewhat (ex. no animal should drink alchohol to excess when it was orignally no animal should drink alchohol) so the pigs could do as they pleased as the humans once did, and how the other animals were fooled in this piece of hypocrisy. How Napolean bided his time until he had complete dictatorship, while looking at it with an unbiased view, was very smart if not cunning. The pigs used many clever persuasions to make the illusion of happiness, more food than ever, and little work on the farm when the animals literally starved and worked to death, like Boxer, who was sent to the glue factory by the pigs for his pains. All in all, this book really makes you think, which is the biggest reason I liked it, and the whole theme of Animal Farm is worded in my favorite line-
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: This novel was extremely interesting; the concept of animals overthrowing humans and later mocking them is extraordinary. Also, the relation between the test and historical events adds a lot. This was one of the best books I have ever read. I recommend this book to anyone! The characters are pefect aswell as the storyline.

Rating:
Summary: A lesson on equality and lies (and excess commentary)
Review: The story Animal Farm is something that every person in the entire world should read. This simple tale of a group of animals, neglected, abused, enslaved, and put down, rising up against their hateful masters with the hopes of creating an egalitarian society was meant as a commentary on the state of the Soviet Union. The depiction created of a Communist society from its conception to its death is one of tyranny, deceit, distrust, and rivalry that destroys the pure intentions of the original revolutionaries. Though the depth of the underlying political commentary may be lost on people with no interest in the operation of the economy or the government, Animal Farm is a very accessible story with easy to understand lessons in morality, fairness, and honesty.

One note on the additional "filler" information added to this edition, it is both poorly written and uninteresting. While the life of George Orwell is interesting and something worth learning about, especially if you have aspirations towards being a socialist, the author of this section does such a poor job that reading tax codes in IRS publications is more interesting.

In summary, buy this book, read it, lend it to someone else, read it again, lend it to more people, read it again, and dream of a world of egalitarian communism. Or you can just read the story, enjoy the struggles and triumphs of the heroic animals, despise the greedy pigs, and share the experience with someone else.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Satire of the Soviet Union
Review: A good warm-up to George Orwell's greater work, Animal Farm is a satire of the Soviet Union told through the episodes of a farm that has been taken over by it's animals.

The heavy symbolism in Animal Farm is apparent everywhere. The competing Snowball & Napoleon being obvious metaphors for Leon Trotsky & Joseph Stalin. The windmill being another metaphor for the Soviet economy.

The time I spent reading Animal Farm, although brief, was enjoyable. The plot moved along at a nice pace and the events were well timed. I would recommend this book to those even not interested in reading 1984 or learning much about communism. Even without the political and philosophical messages, Animal Farm would still make an interesting story about animals taking over a farm.

Rating:
Summary: The horrors of totalitarianism
Review: George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' was among the first writing to appear criticizing Stalin's communist Russia. The novel is a poignant allegory about what can go wrong when the masses allow themselves to be unquestioningly led by a select few 'leaders' who are supposedly acting in their best interests. The animals launch a revolution and expulse their drunken human master, and then set up their own form of socialist government. Things soon go wrong, however, when the pigs (who are the intellectual leaders) begin to brainwash and manipulate the other animals. In time, all of the ideals which the revolution stood for are abandoned, class distinctions arise, and the pigs begin subjugating everyone under their rule just as the farmer did.

This book is not an attack against socialism itself, but rather against totalitarianism, whatever form it may take. Readers (and reviewers) who believe Orwell is attacking not only Stalinist Communism but also capitalism itself are missing the point. The pigs are portrayed as evil not because they become capitalists (though this is a step in their corruption), but because they assert absolute authority over the rest of the animals. Their crime lies in allowing special privileges for themselves, creating a system of classes, and abolishing the democratic voting power of the other farm animals. They are evil not because they open trade with other farmers and take on a capitalist attitude, but because they oppress the other animals in doing so.

One of the things which makes this book a classic is that it applies to all systems of government, not just to Soviet Communism. The propaganda, the dog 'police' (equal to the Gestapo or the KGB), the changing of rules to exempt the upper-classes from their crimes--all of these things are dangers in any system of government, and apply to not only 1940's Communist Russia but also Nazi Germany (and many other governments throughout history as well).

It is true that the animals' socialist government works for a time, and I suppose this could be an argument that Orwell is actually promoting socialism here. Well, the reason "Animalism" works at first is because each member of the farm does his duty, each contributes to the overall benefit of the community. In this case, it is a very Utopian socialism which Orwell promotes. And, if anything, this book shows that human (or animal) nature will not allow such a utopian existence to exist for long. The animals' government works at first because they govern themselves, and I think this is what Orwell is trying to tell us: any government whose rule is taken out of the hands of the people and placed in the role of a select few is certain to become corrupt and oppressive.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent satire of the Soviet Union
Review: Aside from providing an interesting and entertaining plot, Animal Farm is also an excellent satire of the Soviet Union. Similarities between the two are fairly obvious in places: the animals' hostile takeover of the farm; the displaying of Old Major's skull; the building of the windmill (the failed industrial revolution); the exile of Snowball the pig (Trotsky); and the ending of the book (which I won't ruin for all you potential readers!)

A little research on Soviet history will make the book extremely enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Capitalist pigs.
Review: George Orwell's little warm-up to the much-superior *1984*. Indeed, if you've read the latter, there's no urgent need to read *Animal Farm*, as this book contains much of the same ideas, only here they're presented in a condescending "fairy tale" format involving farm animals. I say "condescending" because while the prose is superficially geared toward kids, the book is obviously for adult readers, and it becomes a trial to be lectured at as if you're eight years old. The book has more value for eight-year-olds anyway: at least they might get hooked by the plot without having to worry about the author's bitter politics.

Conservatives who champion Orwell in general and this book in particular are either misreading the author, or don't know Orwell's political background, or -- much worse -- PURPOSEFULLY misreading him. The key to understanding this book is that Trotsky, who is represented here by the pig Snowball, is the HERO. Orwell really believed in that enlightened socialist stuff. The character of Josef Stalin, played by the pig Napoleon, is supposed to be a BETRAYAL of the socialist ideal. Of course, what actually comes through is the author's reductivist view of humankind (or in this case, animalkind). This bitterness toward the infinite stupidity of Man has been transferred by Orwell's readers onto socialism in general, understandably enough . . . but that's really missing the point. The author's INTENTION -- as opposed to what he actually wrote -- was to tell us what went wrong with Stalinist Russia, NOT what went wrong with socialism itself. Reading the work this way permits a clearer understanding of the ending, with its "capitalist pigs" regnant and communing with their fellow capitalist farmers. Orwell saw little difference between a communist oligarchy like Stalin's and your average capitalist country. In either system, his idealized "Boxers" and "Clovers" (the workhorses of the book) get the shaft. But even he knew these mythical "workers" were an idealization . I believe that deep down, Orwell suspected we are, all of us, like the sheep in this story. (The sheep will turn up again in *1984* as the "proles".) As such, it strikes me that Orwell wasn't just fooling his readers . . . he was fooling himself.

Frankly, I find such misanthropy to be a pretty cowardly reaction to the problems of humanity, and am inclined to give *Animal Farm* an even lower rating than the Three Stars I have given it. But credit must be extended to the book's longevity, so Three Stars it is. (Perhaps the credit should be extended to the several generations of 9th Grade English teachers who have forced millions of puberty-stricken kids to read the book.)