The first George Orwell book I read was Nineteen Eighty-Four. Having been deeply intrigued by its content, I developed a keen appreciation for Orwell as a writer of political fiction. As a result of which, I made the mistake of reading his Animal Farm judging the book by its cover. 

The cover of the novella Animal Farm is adorned with sketches of sheep, an ox, a pig, a couple of horses, a hen and some chicks that appear to have been copied off of a children’s book of alphabets. The very simplistic cover and layout of the book tricked me into thinking that the book is a simple read that does not require any background knowledge of any form of political ideology or history. And right there, I became witness to the literary genius of the India-born Orwell. 

Like the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, which we were made to read in different grades at school, this book should also be read at different intervals in our transition between childhoods to adulthood. Reading Frost’s poem, I realized that the same piece of literature can be a seemingly simple poem that school children can draw morals from, and yet, it is also a profound piece of poetry that adults in their late years of life can interpret in a wildly profound way. The same can be said for Animal Farm. 

I have decided to talk about the book from two different perspectives; one is that of a naïve kid who is taking up the story of pigs and cows and horses, while the other viewpoint is that of a student of Law, with a brief background of world history and the rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union. 

The plot of the book is centered on the Manor Farm, later named Animal Farm. The owner of the farm is a cruel master who feeds the animals poorly and over works them. One day, the animals revolt and throw the master out. They are now the sole owners, the managers, the workers and the benefactors of their farm. There is celebration and contentment amongst them for a short while. What follows is interesting. Will the animals be able to make the most of the farm resources consistently or will some kind of clash between them throw things askew? 

Children are likely to view the ups and downs in the lives of the farm animals as merely happy days and sad days. The use of personification to bring the animals into life as major characters in the novel is its strong suit. The book due to its characters; their apparent similarities and insightful differences captivates us. 

The narrator appears to be not omnipresent but merely a “part” of the events. He/she is not an outsider who knows too little. Neither is he/she a close watcher who knows all the secrets. The narrator just happens to be where every character is and sees what they see.

What I enjoyed the most about this book is that it is surprisingly easy to read and yet difficult to comprehend. See, there an entire system of governance that was opposed, revolted against and new governance created from among the revolutionaries. This is a real world scenario with real world ideologies, actions and events that have been seamlessly transported into the animal world 

of Manor farm. The tiniest details have been taken care of, leaving us readers with almost no place to find faults. Or maybe, the wow factor of the book has the power to blind its readers into being unable to see any mistakes there. 

Through the other perspective, we see that Orwell has been on top of his game at infusing the political element into the story. Animal Farm is a political allegory of the Russian Communist Revolution, one that resulted in a government more oppressive, totalitarian, and deadly than the one it overthrew. 

The accuracy of information is not really a concern here since this is a work of fiction. But the allegations are that Jones is Tsar Nicholas II and Old Major is Karl Marx who did not live to see the revolution. It is the story of USSR where a new system was attempted but failed. 

In all, I’d say that Animal Farm is a great read for everyone. A child, a teenager, a thesis-writing grad student, anyone and everyone is sure to find this tiny book interesting. Being very thought provoking or inquisitive, Animal Farm is sure to stay in the minds of its readers for a long time after the first read. 

If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that no last sentence of any book will make as lasting an impression on the minds of readers as Animal Farm’s does. What the sentence says? I suggest you grab a copy, read and find out for yourself.

- Nepal is a student at Kathmandu University School of Law