Rating: 
Summary: Standing Ovation
Review: You don't need a thirteen year old reader to tell you that this book is a masterpiece.Orwell's imaginative and creative mind is well displayed in this brilliant novel portraying modern government and human characteristics. The symbols in the book are so rich. Propaganda, intelligence, gullibility... all very carefully molded in the book. Again, Standing Ovation for author George Orwell for hitting a home run with literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Summer Reading-Not So Great
Review: I was assigned to read this book for my summer reading program at school. I heard from quite a few people that is was not a very interesting book. It is very small and so i decided to get it over with and see what all the fuss was about. I did not enjoy it just like everyone had told me. It was a good portrayal of how governments and communism is but using animals to portray this was a poor choice. I actually laughed alot at this book as I read it realizing that I was reading a book about animals personified as humans but yet totally against the human race. So in all it was a good reprensentation of governments power used in the wrong way, but the other side is the stupidity that runs throughout the book.
Rating:
Summary: Beware ham-fisted tyrants!
Review: "Animal Farm" is so short, so easy to read, and is so famous and influential, that the question is: Why would you NOT read it? If you are new to Orwell, then this is the perfect place to start. It displays, in miniature, his characteristic skepticism, good sense, and keen insight into the corrupting effects of power. It also hints at that underlying sense of guilt that pervades his longer works. The book was criticized at the time of publication for being a flawed fable, in that the pigs, being innately more intelligent than the other animals, were naturally fitted to be the masters. I think that misses the point. This is an allegory of human society, not a manual of animal husbandry. Every character and incident in the story has a clear parallel in modern history. Now that the Soviet empire is no longer with us, I suppose the allegory may not seem so relevant, but there still exist totalitarian regimes that came about as a result of a popular revolution being commandeered by extremists and, no doubt, there will be others in the future. Some lessons of history should never be forgotten and Animal Farm is a great place for each new generation to learn them.
Rating:
Summary: Terrifying cautionary parable of rebellion gone wrong
Review: On the surface, and in its purest form, Communism would seem like the perfect form of government. A society where everyone is equal and the government provides for all would appear to be utopian existence. However, advocates of Communism and those responsible for its application failed to take into account one important 'X-factor'... the human element. Human nature is competitive. It is instinctive to want to gain an edge and make one's self better, and to have control over one's own destiny. That's why, on paper, Communism works, but in practice, it failed miserably. The Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 (from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the USSR) was the glaring example of the worst application of this form of government. Everyone being equal and dependent on the government meant that a few unscrupulous individuals could corrupt the system for their own gains and at the expense of the people. Josef Stalin reign of terror over the Soviet Union is the most atrocious occurrence of this.
This little history lesson is necessary to provide to background to and understand the inspiration for George Orwell's masterpiece, "Animal Farm". Orwell, himself was an advocate of pure Socialism (which has many similarities to Communism). However, during his involvement during the Spanish Civil War (I believe that was the name of this conflict) in 1937, he learned how this system could be perverted when Stalin-supported Socialists took partial control of Spain's government and began suppressing opposition in terrifying ways. During the 1940's when the world was at war with Germany and enamored with the Soviet Union (because of they were exacting sufficient damage upon the German war machine), Orwell wrote "Animal Farm" as a parable of the best intentions of the rebellion gone awry.
"Animal Farm" focuses on the rebellion of a group of farm animals who grew tired of the perceived mistreatment at the hands of their master, Farmer Jones. Inspired by an idealistic colleague and prodded by a few unscrupulous pigs, the animals revolted and took control of farm. Once the farm was in animal control, the two lead pigs, Napoleon and Snowball took command of the farm and set about establishing a society where the animals were responsible for their own well being and beholden to no one else. Alas, petty jealousies, scandalous activities, and gross manipulation of the minds and emotions of the lesser animals lead to the new society being just as bad, or worse, than the previous one. The famed line in book becomes "All animals are created equal. But, some animals are more equal than others".
It's impossible to read this book and not see the very graphic parallels between the Animal Farm and Stalinist Russia. In each case, the peasants (or lesser animals) were goaded into rebellion to throw off leaders that were perceived to be oppressive. The respective rebellions were bathed in romanticism and idealism. Yet, in each case, the new society that grew out of the rebellions proved to be worse than the one that preceded it. The pig Napoleon is seen as the representation of Josef Stalin. Most of the other animals are representations of the terrified populace of the Soviet Union which suffered under Stalin, but was either too scared or too ignorant to stand up for themselves.
"Animal Farm" finds itself as a regular institution on many high school reading lists. That should not dissuade adults from picking up this novel. It is as relevant a cautionary tale today as it was more than half a century earlier.
Rating: 
Summary: Words for the Wise
Review: George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is often praised for its biting criticism of the Soviet Union, and I add to this praise; if ever there was a finer critique of Soviet policy, I have yet to see it. But one particular aspect of Orwell's work scares me more than the fading scepter of totalitarianism: namely, the ability of Napoleon to manipulate language to increase his power and authority. Orwell recognized the importance of language in an informed, intelligent society; he also recognized that when language was tampered with by those with ulterior motives (see advertising today), the meaning and relevance of words were injured. Note in particular the Seven Commandments; they begin as idealistic mantras, indicative of high ideals and toting meaning in every word. But soon they are "dumbed down" to one simplistic phrase: "Four legs good, two legs bad." After the exile of Snowball and the end of all meaningful discussion on the farm, Napoleon takes liberties to slightly alter the commandments, and with just a few words he essentially negates them. Only a handful of animals can even detect the alterations to their core ideology, and this small group is not about to speak out against Napoleon, whose power is virtually abolute.
This warping of language is a primary tool for the pigs of Animal Farm, and is a predecessor of the extreme sterilization of language evident in "1984." This terrifies me. My work with words is some of my best work, and I mean what I say; thus, seeing how language is able to be distorted and devalued makes me wary of advertisers and politicians, both of whom are notorious for spinning the truth. In the end, "Animal Farm" is not only a testimony against Soviet communism, but against the distortion of language. Words were invented to convey reality; when they are tampered with, so is reality, so is the truth.
Rating:
Summary: What can be said that hasn't already?
Review: Animal Farm is a short, witty, clever satire of the rise of Communism. The book is fun to read and influential; plus Orwell's writing is topnotch, packing meaning into every word. Few people dislike Animal Farm.
Rating:
Summary: Trotsky vs. Stalin
Review: Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Joseph Stalin. In the novella, the overthrow of the human oppressor Mr. Jones by a democratic coalition of animals quickly gives way to the consolidation of power among the pigs. Much like the Soviet intelligentsia, the pigs establish themselves as the ruling class in the new society.
The struggle for preeminence between Trotsky and Stalin emerges in the rivalry between the pigs Snowball and Napoleon; the idealistic but politically less powerful figure (Trotsky and Snowball) is expelled from the revolutionary state by the malicious and violent usurper of power (Stalin and Napoleon). The purges and show trials with which Stalin eliminated his enemies and solidified his political base find expression in Animal Farm as the false confessions and executions of animals whom Napoleon distrusts following the collapse of the windmill. Stalin's tyrannical rule and eventual abandonment of the founding principles of the Russian Revolution are represented by the pigs' turn to violent government and the adoption of human traits and behaviors, the trappings of their original oppressors. The novella critiques the violence of the Stalinist regime against the human beings it ruled, and also points to Soviet communism's violence against human logic, language, and ideals. Animal Farm illustrates how classes that are initially unified in the face of a common enemy, as the animals are against the humans, may become internally divided when that enemy is eliminated. The expulsion of Mr. Jones creates a power vacuum, and it is only so long before the next oppressor assumes totalitarian control. The natural division between intellectual and physical labor quickly comes to express itself as a new set of class divisions, with the "brainworkers" (as the pigs claim to be) using their superior intelligence to manipulate society to their own benefit. One of the novel's most impressive accomplishments is its portrayal not just of the figures in power but also of the oppressed people themselves. Animal Farm is not told from the perspective of any particular character, though occasionally it does slip into Clover's consciousness. Rather, the story is told from the perspective of the common animals as a whole. Gullible, loyal, and hardworking, these animals give Orwell a chance to sketch how situations of oppression arise not only from the motives and tactics of the oppressors but also from the naïveté of the oppressed, who are not necessarily in a position to be better educated or informed. When presented with a dilemma, Boxer prefers not to puzzle out the implications of various possible actions but instead to repeat to himself, "Napoleon is always right." Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the full extent of the ruling class's oppression. In Animal Farm, the pigs gradually twist and distort a rhetoric of socialist revolution to justify their behavior and to keep the other animals in the dark. The animals heartily embrace Old Major's visionary ideal of socialism, but after Old Major dies, the pigs gradually twist the meaning of his words. As a result, the other animals seem unable to oppose the pigs without also opposing the ideals of the Rebellion. By the end of the novella, after Squealer's repeated reconfigurations of the Seven Commandments in order to decriminalize the pigs' treacheries, the main principle of the farm can be openly stated as "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS." This outrageous abuse of the word "equal" and of the ideal of equality in general typifies the pigs' method, which becomes increasingly audacious as the novel progresses. Orwell's sophisticated exposure of this abuse of language remains one of the most compelling and enduring features of Animal Farm, worthy of close study even after we have decoded its allegorical characters and events.
Rating:
Summary: fiction or reality?
Review: Is interesting to notice that for the mayority of the people reading this book they will consider it fiction while for the people that is a reality they will not be allow to read it! I come from a communist country (Cuba) and I was amaze by the painting so true to the reality that Orwell makes about communism in 1945!
One would think that they will have learned from past mistakes but not so. In Cuba they committed the same mistakes and some new ones. Then I realize this where not mistakes. Given the same rules you always end up with the same result is like a mathematic theorem deduced from the axioms.
Cuba is not the Soviet Union but their communism inherited all the same defects. We can even see their Napoleon (Fidel Castro) selling now Cuba piece by piece to anyone that wants to buy it just to keep himself in power.
I never understood how was possible to meet productions quotas at 150 % like the state own media will repeat and the living standard will still be the same or worst, "Patria o Muerte Venceremos" the ending in every speech. The Blockade from the USA was to blame for everything bad to the revolution just like everything bad in animal farm was Snowball's fault.
Some people make think that other people out there will have learn this lesson but we just have a look at the Venezuelan people now with another Napoleon (Chavez) they always start making many promises of equality but once their power is secure just like in Animal Farm the rule is change to "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS".
I remember the last sentences of Marx's Communist manifesto.
"Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Proletarians of all countries, unite! "
How mistaken was he. Proletarian you stand to lose more than chains. You will gain more sophisticated chains that will cover your mouth (loosing your freedom of speech and your own personal freedom) they will even play like Humpty Dumpty with the meaning of words and will change the meaning of words like "freedom" so to erase the "capitalist meaning".
Learn everything there is to learn from this little book about the end result of the same set of rules. Learn that communism always goes to the same place as demonstrated by the Soviets and the Chinese and that is back to Capitalism! So why go on such a painful and shameful route. Save yourself the trouble.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best.
Review: I read 'Animal Farm' on a beautiful summer day in my backyard. I read it in one afternoon. Look how smart I am!! Great book that everyone should read.
Rating:
Summary: political satire disguised as fairy tale
Review: This stark satire is brilliantly disguised in the form of a fairy tale with animals who take over a farm by ousting it's original human owner.
In this story the animals on a certain farm led by the pigs launch a revolution to take over the farm.
After driving out the farmer they set up a republic or a mini-state where they declare the equal rights of all animals and attempt to live in harmony and freedom.
After a period of time however it becomes apparent that it is the pigs who are running the show as they are the ones who exercise the power.
Like all groups who exercise authority,they the pigs use theirs for their own benefit and convenience-at the expense of others.
The pigs even start to take on human traits and habits.
After awhile even the other animals cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.
It also becomes apparent that the other animals are no better off than they had been under the humans whom they had originally ousted.
What originally started out as a revolution for animal rights has become the foundation for the priviliged class of swine or pigs.
The more discerning among readers can see quickly that this story is a mirror image of what has happened among some of us humans.
A group of people launch a revolution to end oppression and injustice but simply end up replacing one rotten apple for another rotten fruit.
What starts out as a fight for the freedom of all ends up being the establishment of a power elite that rules over others.
There are some around the world who could see this story as a description of their country's history or current political situation.
This story by George Orwell is usually seen to be a portrait of the Soviet Union,similar in some ways to his other novel 1984.
It is easy reading but by no means less profound or less meaningful than other books.
What it has to say about the human condition is brutally frank and revealing.
Which is the main why I appreciate this story and recommend it
especially to those naive enough to believe that they can go out and save the world.
This is not a fairy tale with a happy ending but a grim political satire that is enough to justify a sense of cynicism.
There is nothing here to uplift one's spirits.
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