Animal Farm: Children's Fairy Tale With A Great Depth!

By Staff

George Orwell's Animal Farm, published in 1945, retains its prominence in the modern era too, due to its mastery craft. This is a simple tale told with the deep meaning. During your childhood you can read it as a children's fiction but; as you grow old you may wonder how skillfully the writer had sketched the condition of his contemporary society in it.

Animal Farm has the plot at Manor farm under the ownership of Mr.Jones. However, the animals in the farm are united under the prize winning boar-Old Major- to retaliate against the oppression and control by the human beings. However Old Major breathes his last without realizing his dream and three younger pigs-Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer- formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism. The animals drive away Mr.Jones from the Manor farm and rename it as Animal Farm.

Now, Animal Farm takes a new run to prosperity under the dictation of Snowball and Napoleon. However, as time passes, however, Napoleon and Snowball increasingly quibble over the future of the farm, and they begin to struggle with each other for power and influence among the other animals. Very soon, Napoleon becomes the unquestioned dictator of the farm by chasing away Snowball with the attack dogs.

Napoleon begins expanding his powers, rewriting history to make Snowball a villain. He asserted that the pigs would only make the decisions at the farm for the good of every other animal. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, known as the Seven Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn, become reduced to a single principle reading, "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Years pass by and the other animals return to the old condition of cold, hunger and overwork under the dictatorship of Napoleon.

This novel has been highly cited as the satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism. The novel describes how a society's ideologies can be manipulated and twisted by individuals in positions of social and political power. Even the Utopian visions can be getting changed under the corrupting nature of democracy. Orwell at times directly connected Napoleon to Stalin to make his ideas clear.

The book was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005) and was number 31 on the Modern Library list of the best 20th century novels.