A Cynic Meets Hope

THE BOOK (in brief)

Old Major sets off a revolution in Manor Farm after an impassioned speech against humanity and what he perceives to be unjust oppression in the hands of their tyrannical “overlord”, Mr. Jones.

The boar dies of old age three days later, sparking a revolt that eventually chases Jones and his family away. Napoleon and Snowball claim leadership in Major’s place. Animal Farm (its new name) prospers for a time under this new system and the Seven Commandments.

Their differing ideals, however, later pit both sides against each other. Napoleon condemns, ousts, and exiles Snowball, labelling him a traitor to the Animalist cause. Snowball is from then on the book’s scapegoat of choice – repeatedly blamed for everything from an upturned apple basket to the (not the final) destruction of their hard-earned windmill.

Napoleon grows steadily more despotic, ordering the immediate execution of Snowball’s alleged supporters and negotiating with humans. Hunger, overwork, and disillusionment stalk the farm. Squealer, Napoleon’s masterful pet spin-doctor, attempts to pacify the other animals into submission through propaganda, gradually altering the sacred Commandments to suit the now-supreme ruling class’ (pigs) every whim.

The book does not end on a happy note. Napoleon ends up ruling Animal Farm (now re-renamed Manor Farm) with impunity, in a state worse than its first.

REVIEW

Should be on the reading lists of dedicated mavericks, students, cynics, freedom-lovers, reality-huggers, and those who dare tread the long walk toward true liberty.

Animal Farm is at once as free of emotion as it is striking; both a “fairy-story” – a mere fable – from the outset and a powerful political satire that attacks all naïve notions of communism, statehood, and “equality” (its handy cliché) with fiery zeal.

George Orwell shapes Animal Farm with classic Orwellian depth from whose author the term truly deserves its name – and simple prose a child could understand. His message is clear-cut and hurts as the truth so often does:

There is no Utopia; no perfect world. Only more suffering.

Set around a bunch of farm animals and their impossible dreams, the author wrapped Animal Farm around an age of Soviet supremacy dominated by witnesses who chose the lesser of two evils (Stalin versus Hitler). While Orwell himself was a dedicated socialist, he was well aware of a new, potentially toxic, form of socialism brewing in Russia.

The animals sadly realized this too late, that even the best intentions go awry and that power, allowed to run unchecked, corrupts all but the most resolute. The farm becomes a stark reminder of the threat of ignorance on a populace far too willing to swallow the lies of Squealers and Napoleons.

A nation that, at the end of the day, looks 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.”

ANALYSIS/CHARACTER DISCUSSION

“Walang mang-aalipin kung walang nagpapa-alipin.” – J. Rizal

Politics boils down to two words: power corrupts. The responsibility to reclaim a government of the people, by the people, and for the people thus lands on the shoulders of ordinary humanity – us, the masses, trodden underfoot.

Orwell’s use of irony and allegory pervades Animal Farm. He urges us to question the “pigs” we see parading our courts, congress, senate, and halls of government in an air of oblivious political machismo.  Like Biblical sheep led astray (or to slaughter), the animals’ initial search for a better life beneath the banner of “freedom and equality” is destined for failure from the start.  He doles out bits of silent history with even more subtle commentary in fable-like control.

The result is a masterpiece of satire that is every bit as symbolic as the political genius meant it to be*:

Napoleon = Joseph Stalin

Snowball = Leon Trotsky

Squealer/Minimus = media propaganda

Old Major = Karl Marx/Vladimir Lenin

Mr. Jones = Tsar Nicholas II

Mr. Frederick = Adolf Hitler

Mr. Pilkington = the capitalist West

Moses = the Russian Orthodox Church

And finally,

Boxer = the oppressed, beguiled, and abused

The world has seen enough of Napoleon in kings, presidents, generals, popes – in Hitler, Stalin, Franco, and Marcos.  Freedom is still beyond our reach.