I finished Animal Farm in a single day. It is probably more accurate to call it a novella than a full-length novel: ten chapters, not long, and very easy to get through quickly.
To be honest, the plot itself is not especially gripping in the usual sense. What kept me reading was something else. Many of the details feel strangely familiar, so real that they make you want to turn the pages faster, just to see what will happen next. While reading, I kept thinking how remarkable the author was. Without personally living in a country like this, he was still able to write such a precise and brilliant allegory. If one did not know better, it would be easy to assume the writer must have been Russian or Chinese.
The story begins with an animal on the farm whose thinking has awakened. It believes animals should not continue to be exploited by humans. They should stand on their own, fight for freedom, and build a more equal society. But what exactly that society should look like, it has never experienced and does not really know. After passing this idea on to the other animals, it dies before long.
Later, the remaining animals turn that vision into action. They unite and drive away the farmer. Yet the farm they build afterward is nothing like the one they had imagined at the beginning. The new animal rulers gradually seize the fruits of the other animals’ labor and exploit them in turn. They also begin controlling the animals’ thoughts. The animals work more than before and eat less than before, because most of what they produce is now offered up to the rulers.
So often, the ideal sounds beautiful, but what is actually built through action can be completely different. I felt truly sorry for those animals who were full of passion, who sacrificed themselves and gave everything for a cause. If they had known that their sacrifice would only lead to an even deeper injustice, what would they have thought?
I also felt helpless thinking about the animals who remained on the farm. And most of all, I felt sad for that strong male horse: ignorant, thoroughly indoctrinated, hardworking, obedient, and willing to bear every burden without complaint.
The ending of Animal Farm is almost surreal. The animal rulers and the human farmers sit together, drinking and laughing. By then, no one is paying attention to the animals on the farm anymore.