Book 1: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Spoiler Alert...I will be talking about parts of this book freely, so if you haven't read it please don't read my review. 

Who hasn't at least heard of this book? I definitely had (multiple times) in the 27 years I have been alive. I knew that this book would be a good place to start my journey. I also appreciated how short it was (83 pages). To be honest, I didn't know much about this book. In fact, beyond knowing it was written by George Orwell, I knew next to nothing. I didn't even read the summary before beginning, so little did I know this was about a farm animals rebelling against their human owners and then trying to make a life for themselves (successfully and unsuccessfully). Maybe it should have been obvious it had to do with animals from the title, but I assumed the title was abstract. I guess not. 

After reading the 'Notes on the Text', at the beginning of the book, I learned this was a satire of the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution is not a revolution I remember learning about in high school. I probably did, but I honestly don't remember anymore. I feel bad about that especially after watching the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I learned a little about their past from the Opening and Closing ceremonies, but not too much. I also (maybe embarrassingly) know a bit about the revolution from the "Lost Princess", Anastasia, and the "not-disney" movie Anastasia. This doesn't surprise me, but it's still not a spectacular way of remembering another countries revolution. 

Back to the book...

After learning that I would be reading about how the Russia Revolution and communism came to be in the form of discontent farm animals I was hooked. Not only because I sympathized with these farm animals and understood why they wanted to be freed from their oppressors, but also because reading about animals who learned how read and run a farm happened to be entertaining. However, I quickly read beneath the entertaining qualities of the text and saw what the book really was. (And the story quickly turned dark.)

I read this book in about 2 hours over the course of a workday. Twenty minutes during my metro ride into work, an hour during my lunch break, and 40 more minutes after work. I was enthralled in the story. I found myself shouting out loud at some of the things that were going on. The blatant manipulation and lies. The false anger that was piling up from the so called treachery from Snowball, the pig who was kicked out of the group fairly quickly. The fear mounting from the mass executions going on for insubordination and treason. The animal's strong desire to be free from a tumultuous past that made them look beyond the horrible things happening in their present.  It was chaos and it's hard to understand why the "lower class" animals choose not to see Napoleon (Stalin) for who he was. A crazy, self-rightous dictator who thought he knew best and just steam rolled anyone who disagreed. Steam rolled being the kinder way of saying, execution. 

It's easy to criticize the characters who weren't standing up for what they thought was right. But then you remember they weren't under the constant protection of guard dogs. It's easy to become annoyed at the animals who kept on forgetting what the original 7 Commandments were. "Hello!" I shout out, "Don't you remember it was "All animals are equal"!? It's wasn't that long ago you made these up!" But then you remember these are animals. These characters stand for the real people who fell under Stalin's spell or reign of terror. How did they not notice they were slaves? How did they not notice how much their lives now sucked!? They probably did, but fear is a powerful tool. It clearly works when a dictator is in power. 

I can assume this is how it was during the Russian Revolution and beyond. In fact, I know a lot of this mirrored that time as I read about it shortly after finishing the book. These types of books make you realize how lucky you are. It definitely makes me realize how lucky I am. This is not a type of world I would want to live in. It's a type of world I might not survive in. Being put face to face with this "fairy tale" world that Orwell has written makes you count your blessings. 

Endings are a big part of books for me. Anyone who knows me knows how much I despised the ending to Harry Potter. I never needed to know how they ended up in their late 30s and that Harry gave his youngest son 15 different names to memorialize important people in his life (of course 15 is an over exaggeration, but it shows how much this ending bugged me). With a disappointing ending to one of the most important book series of my childhood destroyed, I now approach endings of great books with care. I was surprised how abruptly this book ended. I was hoping to find out what happened to Snowball. If the "lower class" animals would stand up to Napoleon after seeing him interact with "the enemy" so freely. If Benjamin, the donkey, would finally stand up and rebel in some way. Those are questions that would never be answered, but after ruminating on the end for a few hours I have come to appreciate it more. Understanding that this ending was to indicate the start of the Cold War, I walked away blown away and satisfied. 

At first glance, this book looks simple. If I hadn't known it was an satire of Russia history I would have walked away thinking how sad it was to see these animals rise so high and then fall so low. I would have found it merely entertaining without understanding the deeper meaning. I'm glad I took the time to learn more about this books background and author. 

Though I might not have blown you away with anything new about this book, above are the feeling and thoughts I walked away with. It was a great book to start with and gave me a strong push toward the next one. Who knows what it will be! 

- P