Animal Farm Book Review Essay, Research Paper

Many people have many different reactions after reading George Orwell s Animal Farm. Some think it fascinating, some educational, and some long and tedious. Most everyone agrees that it is a political satire on the Revolution, however, and equates each character with a historical figure. For instance, Donlee Brussell speaks of Napoleon as the most corrupt character in the book with a brutal system of ruling Manor Farm that magnetizes an idiosyncratic correspondence to Joseph Stalin (A Soviet politician). To contradict, Edward Tanguay, and Kathryn Obenshain agree the characters don t seem to be representing individuals from the Russian Revolution but rather stereotypes. Keith Mackenzie does not think of the book as a satire of totalitarian rule at all, but rather as a depiction of the natural tendencies of the human animal. I can see truths in all of these assumptions. I certainly think that the allusions to communism are obvious in the use of a common enemy, most often presented by Squealer s statement of Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back? (p. 80), and also in the constant rewriting of history ( The animals now also learned that Snowball had never as many of them had believed hitherto received the order of Animal Hero, First Class. p. 103). In this aspect of the novel, I found Animal Farm to be similar to another of George Orwell s books, 1984, in which a power driven government attempts to control every aspect of the world. It cannot be controlled how people are going to read a book, and there may not be an accurate perception of the book. With this in mind, I thoroughly enjoyed Animal Farm as a political satire, an educational tool, and as my own personal entertainment, and I would recommend it to anybody.