On Animal Farm

Animal Farm

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

George Orwell to me is one of the best writers in English. The subtle horror he induces in the readers mind lingers long after the book is read. Animal farm still haunts me. Apart from noticing the obvious reference to The Russian Revolution there is something darker something more sinister in the treatment of the idea of power. Power is a heady drug the animals embrace the revolution readily but what awaits them is not a new world but a variation of the oppression they knew.

The other horrific idea Orwell leaves the reader with is of animal revolt.  In Orwell’s words

...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

It’s this very idea that Orwell wants us to dwell on, how an animal rises against oppression and functions just as we do. Turning the power hierarchy upside down can be quite unnerving for the reader. It’s this very idea that makes Orwell stand out, the limit to which he pushes not just his own imagination but also the reader’s imagination. 

The audacity to challenge human power even if it is a work of fiction takes courage. Even though the animals falter we tend to sympathise with their condition because it is our condition as well, and we know it is inescapable.

This is the third element in the novel that horrifies the reader. Replacing one power structure does very little to liberate the animals so much so that in the end the humans and the pigs are indistinguishable. As Benjamin (the donkey) sums it up “Life will go on as it has always gone on — that is, badly.”

Animal farm demands the reader introspects. It deliberately horrifies and the reader and makes the reader ponder about the nature of power.