Perhaps The Easiest Read For The Most To Be Gained

books:


	• "Animal Farm" (Literature Guidelines) Longman, 1990 - 48 pages average customer review:based on 1148 reviews
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highly recommended

Brilliant Allegory Lacking In Positive Vision

Although I think Orwell accomplished what he intended in Animal Farm (a tight, crisp, seemingly flawless allegory of the horrors of pre-Soviet and Soviet Russia and the dangers of Stalinist totalitarianism), I still only give the book three stars, because I WANT MORE!

I want a book that does more than just criticize a system. I want a book that offers a vision for something greater. Although they say Orwell was a socialist, I feel this book risks leaving the reader to default into thinking that a capitalist system like the modern one is the best, because "it works." No wonder this book is assigned en masse to public high school students in America - or was, at least, when I was in high school in the 1980s. Yuck!

I don't like this book because it's utterly depressing: it offers no hope. It's just an endless spiral into misery. I want a vision of a society that is beautiful, that isn't destructive, where hope and healing are real, where exploitation is not the byword of the day.

My answer: I see our hope in healing our childhood traumas, working out our ancient rage and our ancient fantasies that our traumatizing parents will rescue us. If the masses of humanity work out these inner demons then capitalism crumbles, totalitarianism is rendered irrelevant, war becomes moot - and beauty can rise to the surface.

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Animal Farm-Book

The book was in great condition and was promptly delivered. I highly recommend using you guys again.

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Communsim in a Farm?

George Orwell's classic novel, Animal Farm, is basically a book that shows the reader all of the problems with communism. Animal Farm first addresses the problem of how tempting communism sounds to the uninformed, and in some cases uneducated, ear. Doesn't it sound nice that everyone pulls their own weight and everyone reaps the benefits? It did to the animals of Manor Farm. At first it was great without those pesky humans around; the animals ate all of the food and got to keep their children. However, it quickly became very obvious that this system wasn't working. The pigs, the smartest of all the farm animals, began to take over led by Napoleon and Snowball. Soon after the establishment of Animal Farm (formerly known as Manor Farm) seven commandments were set forth such as "no animal shall sleep in a bed", "no animal shall kill any other animal", "all animals are equal", etc. After Napoleon ran Snowball off the farm with vicious dogs, Napoleon claimed full leadership of the farm and its animals. One by one, Napoleon modified each of the seven commandments to fit his liking such as "no animal shall drink alcohol to excess." In the end of the book it is impossible for Clover, a horse of Manor Farm (formerly known as Animal Farm and more formerly known as Manor Farm), to tell the difference between the pigs and humans while they are playing a card game.
I would recommend this book to the reader that loves irony. Throughout the story I kept wondering who was going to be the first animal to figure out that in order get rid a tyrant (Mr. Jones the farm owner) they acquired another ("Comrade" Napoleon). Alas I was relieved when a horse realized that Napoleon was changing the commandments for his own benefit. However, when the horse kept this knowledge to himself I was angry at him. I asked myself, "Why wouldn't he show the animals who Napoleon really is?" I never figured it out but for the reader who loves character analysis, this is the book for you! However, this book isn't written for the people who want everything spoon-fed to them. But for the reader that feels the need to read between the lines Animal Farm is full of mysteries for you to figure out.

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Perhaps The Easiest Read For The Most To Be Gained

The story is well described in the other reviews, especially in the first one above from the professional reviewer, but I do find it necessary to point out a few observations:

First: George Orwell is a literary genius. There's a reason why he graces the cover of the book: Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept). If you liked "Animal Farm", "1984" is going to knock you into another thought paradigm.

Secondly, and more important: Whether you read about "Animal Farm" from the professional reviewers, Cliff Notes, or in the introduction to the book itself, there is one self-imposed "limitation" that stays consistent throughout, and that is the sovereign state Orwell has in mind when he wrote "Animal Farm" (or "1984" for that matter)is the Soviet Union. While this may be true, the bigger and more relevant point is getting missed. This bigger and more relevant point is that for ANY sovereign nation, when there is a change of power in its governance (for its betterment), it is ALWAYS the case, I repeat, it is ALWAYS the case that the new governance will gradually become the same as the one it replaced. Look no further than the United States of America. The 1776 rebels overthrew the British tyrant, King George III, mostly due to oppressive business practices, taxes and lack of representation. And look where we are today, in 2008! Corporations rule. Taxes, which we already fought one war over, are exorbitant, and Congress is simply a millionaires club representing the wealthy.

How do we know that George Orwell saw this happening? Because he worked in the BBC and the BBC was spewing the SAME propaganda that the Soviet Union was using. How do we know this? Because writer Martin Esslin worked at the BBC at the same time as Orwell and he wrote that this was the case! For further reference, see my review of the book: U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960 (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication).

So the point, as is the point with ALL my reviews is this: Become a CRITICAL THINKER!

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Timely reading because the world is still not free

Better (?) than a horror movie because it's real. Monarchy, revolution, communism, state capitalism. Sound familiar? Check the Olympics.

Animal Farm catches you off guard with the animal characters, sucks you in and keeps the plot fast. History of the Soviet revolution in an hour of entertainment. But it quickly ceases being entertaining, and becomes very realistic. Ride up the roller coaster of genuine hope that communism could work, and then down into the depths of war and murder. Finally, settle into a gray, hopeless dictatorship that lasted 70 years for the USSR, but repeats itself in other countries today. If you want the power of irony, this is about as powerful as it gets: these animals do kill each other (if not their own species). Pigs! Sounds like ... people.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

A special large-format fiftieth-anniversary edition, illustrated in full color by Ralph Steadman. Includes Orwell?s proposed but unpublished preface to the original edition and his preface to the 1947 Ukrainian edition.

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