A personal comment on the novel.
It is the story of an animal farm which’s name is Manor farm. There are various kinds of animals in the farm such as Horses, Pigs, Cows, Sheep, Hens Ducks, and an old Donkey. The farm belongs to Mr Jones who is a drunkard and almost everyday comes to the farm intoxicated. He is unjust towards his animals because of which, Old Major (an old pig) plans rebellion against his human master. He tells the animals that, we will attack Mr Jones and after that the farm will be ours and we will lead our lives as we wish to. He tells the animals that we the animals produce milk, eggs and the humans produce nothing but still they are our masters. It is not easy to revolt against humans for animals but the old major motivates the animals. Though after sometime the Old major (Pig) dies but the plan reaches to success by his successor pig whose name is Snowball. Nepolean and Snowball are never agreed in arguments while making arrangements in the farm therefore After sometimes Snowball gets kicked out by Nepolean’s tamed dogs.
After Snowball the person in charge is Nepolean who is famous for his short and to the point speeches amongst the animals. He makes a windmill in the farm for the benefit of animals to provide electricity to the farm. All the tasks performed in the farm are directed by pigs and done by other animals. The pigs consider themselves superior over the rest of animals. Their ration and life style is different, rather better than other animals. They have ruling position in the farm because they are intelligent and well verse with reading and writing.
This novel is a masterpiece of George Orwell. It is a social and political satire.
I will put it as:
The pigs represent the high class.
Other animals represent lower class.
The pigs make certain rules such as:
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
As it is said that, “rules are made to be broken”, such is the case here. They say, whatever goes by two legs is an enemy but they learn to walk on two legs. They say, no animal should drink alcohol but they start drinking it. They break almost every rule they’ve made. But the worst of all is, they say All animals are equal. It is not the case in reality. Their lifestyle is luxurious than other animals. All other animals work very hard in the farm and they are never let to complain regarding the pigs. Other animals trust the pigs and do hard work for them but they manipulate them and get their work done by them. They misuse their trust and deceive them by saying that we are comrades. They are sincere to the pigs but their sincerity remains unrewarded. It is as though that the pigs relieved them from the slavery of Humans and enslaved them by the name of animalism. The pigs take undue advantage of their trust.
Everything thing I have mentioned hitherto, can be applied to our society both socially and politically. Class discrimination and stratification is the worst thing of our society. It is said everywhere that we are all equal but it is practiced very rarely. Politically the lower class is deceived by slogans and sugar-coated language. They call them their own people as the pigs in animal farm would call other animals as comrades.
Lower class people are only tools for the high class which they only use for their interest and never value them. The most painful idea this novella gave me is that, you get manipulated and used when you are honest and sincere. You are glorified and valued when you are a hypocrite and make use of sugar coated language.
As we see the other animals are manipulated by pigs. The reason behind this was, that the pigs knew how to read and write. We must get this to our mind that awareness and education is very important. Mere honesty and sincerity are not enough, one must be well aware of the ways of world so that he should not be manipulated and used.