What a strange/interesting/hilarious book ...Animal Farm is a brilliant commentary on the corruption of the Russian Revolution ... in the form of a satire. A barnyard full of animals revolt against their human masters in the hopes of achieving an idealistic state of justice and progress. The revolt is initially a success: the animals meet to debate farm policy and complete the harvest. The pigs are the most intelligent animals and are therefore put in charge; Napoleon (one of the pigs) is initially the leader of all of the animals. Some premises behind the revolt ...
"Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes up on four legs, or has wings, is a friend. And remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him. Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices. No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco ... All habits of Man are evil."
They even set forth the "Seven Commandments," one of which is "No animal shall sleep in a bed." Yet throughout the story, when Napoleon and the other pigs start (among other things) sleeping in beds ... the commandment changes to, "No animal shall sleep in a bed ... with sheets."
The farm is doing well, although "it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer ..." except, of course, for the pigs. The pigs start taking on many qualities of their human oppressors, including walking on their hind legs and gambling. The Seven Commandments are eventually reduced to a single law: "All animals are equal; but some animals are more equal than others." The book ends with a drawing (yes, it has sketches!) of the pigs sitting around a table playing cards ... looking like strange pig-human hybrids.
I might have appreciated the book even more than I did if I knew a bit more about the Russian Revolution; nonetheless, I know enough about Communism to have gotten the gist and to have definitely found the book very, very funny!
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