Animal Farm

 Animal Farm is a tragic allegory, and a political satire. It's author, George Orwell called it a fairy story. It was written at the time when communism was spreading throughout Europe and when Joseph Stalin was the dictator of Russia. The book is set on a small farm in England, and it was meant to warn western Europe of the evils of communism, and to cleverly expose it's methods.

 The main characters in Animal Farm are farm animals with human qualities. The leaders of the animals are the pigs, who are the smartest. The leader of the pigs, Napoleon, is very secretive and is a plotter. Everyone thinks that he is always right, but he is the antagonist. The pig who does the most talking is Squealer, and is aptly named. He is the persuasive one and is more of a politician than Napoleon. Another pig, Old Major, dies at the beginning of the book, he is an old and respected pig, and a dreamer. Snowball, another pig, is more of a thinker and a doer, he is innovative and a great organizer. Boxer is the horse on the farm. he is very old, and equally large. He is loyal and strong, but very gullible. All of the other animals are stupid mindless, naive, etc. But the they all desire a better life.

 All of the animals desire a better life without Mr. Jones the evil farmer, so they decide to revolt. It all begins with the speech which Old Major gives to the animals one night. He speaks of freedom and teaches them an emboldening song called the "Beasts of England." Soon afterwords, Old Major dies. Then one day, Farmer Jones does not feed the animals because he is too drunk. The animals revolt, driven by hunger, and take over the farm. The change the farm's name from "Manor Farm" to "Animal Farm." The pigs begin to run the farm, and for a while all is well and happy. The best harvest ever is brought in, because the animals worked together. At the meetings that they begin to have, they create seven rules that ensure equality among the animals. All would agree that life was better than when Farmer Jones was in charge.

 But soon, Snowball was exiled by Napoleon who then became the total dictator of the farm. After that it was very clear that the pigs had become the rulers using terror and propaganda. Soon the animals lose the right to vote and consequentially they get less food and more work. Then the song, "The Beasts of England" is banned for it's rebellious message, then Napoleon has the dogs kill some animals because they threatened his reign. The pigs also start sleeping in the house. After a while the pigs start changing the commandments one by one. Soon it is apparent to the reader that the pigs are no different than Mr. Jones, perhaps they are even worse. The entire book is a warning about blindly trusting communism., like when Napoleon took over.

 Animal Farm is a clever and powerful message about the evils of communism, and it gets it's message across and I think that the author accomplished his purpose. He used allegorical elements like portraying Stalin as Napoleon, using lies and terror through his dogs. The animals were the general people of Europe who were naive. George Orwell also used irony in his story. One of the great ironies in Animal Farm is the fact that the Animals worked harder but less food under Napoleon then they did Mr. Jones. The blatant stupidity of the animals gets the reader mad at them and at Napoleon and they wonder why that happened.  The Book is a stirring warning against communism.