I don’t know if this is truly a review for this book, a major reason
may be that most of the people pass out of high school having read a book and written
a book report too sometimes; thanks to our education system, somehow I skipped
that complete episode. At this age, if I write a book review, it wouldn’t be
fair; on the internet there is no shortage of different reviews. One more
additional review is not going to make any difference; the difference lies in
how and what lessons can be taken away from this classic.
Animal Farm is a satirical
allegory – the different characters portray different characters of Russian
revolution; given the era in which this book was written, it is obvious. I
would talk about two characters who I believe are the two kinds of people we
see in our society. First would be the Boxer, one of the farm’s cart horses,
the strongest and hardest worker on the farm. Initially, his motto was “I will
work harder”, and later when the going got tough he shrugged every bit of doubt
out of his mind and made his motto to be “Napoleon is always right”.
On the other hand, Benjamin was the ill-tempered, cynical donkey of the farm. His kind was completely detached from whatever happens in the world, because they have accepted that things would always be the same and would always be bad. He worked as usual, never did anything extra, and never expected anything extra.
On the other hand, Benjamin was the ill-tempered, cynical donkey of the farm. His kind was completely detached from whatever happens in the world, because they have accepted that things would always be the same and would always be bad. He worked as usual, never did anything extra, and never expected anything extra.
Of course Benjamin was right,
things did go from bad to worse. Benjamin is the voice of the author, as well
as the contemporary strategists who saw the consequences of the Russian
Revolution. But it is Boxer that influenced me the most, as it is Boxer who at
least tried to believe that his actions and contributions would make a
difference to society. I do not say it is the best way to approach a problem or
issue, but it is definitely better than doing nothing and simply accepting destiny.
As every author adds irony and a little
spice in the story, Orwell made Benjamin and Boxer close friends; though
completely opposite, they still had deep mutual respect for each other. I do
not know what could have been the reason behind it but as I see it, the author probably
wanted to say something like this -
“There are seven billion people in this world, and seven billion unique
ways to live life, no one knows which one is the best, so let’s live ours the
way we want to, let others live the way they want to.”
Coming back to the book, lots of
people say it is about socialism, and how it is bad for the society. But
considering the fact that Orwell was himself a socialist, I do not think it is
entirely about the evils of socialism. I do not deny that this book cannot be
the product of a broken-hearted man who expected a lot from socialism, but
still it is about more than just socialism.
To me, the book talks about the
two aspects of life: first, about the little seed of corruption which is
present in every single one of us, and the other aspect about how history can
be changed. The revolution was started with a very good intention; it was the
little seed of corruption present in the hearts of everyone, especially the
pigs who ended up taking control of the whole farm with Napoleon as the ruler.
The second aspect can be justified by the fact that the seven noble commandments
were changed from time to time, and ultimately nobody remembered what the
actual seven commandments were. It shows how easy it is to change, manipulate
and sometimes even wipe out history. A similar message was the main theme
behind another Orwell’s classic 1984.
The book also tries to shred to
pieces one of the most basic assumptions for any process or action –‘humans are
rational animals’. We are not. If someone asks me to explain in one word why
the revolution didn’t work, I would say ‘irrationality’. The revolution was too
idealistic from the start, there was no room to compensate for our inherent irrationality.
The whole story revolves around nothing but the betrayal of ideals.
The irony of life is that despite
such a story, full of answers and lessons, similar events continue to occur. In
the most recent past, the credit crisis that started in 2008 can be seen as a similar
happening. It took place because of our irrational thoughts and greed, which is
nothing but a form of corruption.
Companies like Enron, who started
so well, and looked so promising does not exist at present, and the reason behind
it is obvious - the initial seed of corruption had flourished into a full-blown
tree inside those who led the company. From being a company promising solutions
in the energy sector, they dreamt of ruling and controlling the energy
distribution network. Can we call it a betrayal of ideals, in my opinion yes,
in the truest sense.
In a broader sense, I would like
to say that this book teaches us only one thing - when the journey is long, and
the hurdles are too many to count, there is one thing we should not forget is
the reason we took the first step of this journey. Irrationality and corruption
are bound to creep in, and there should be mechanisms to avoid or neutralize
them. Even then, I do not think a journey can end with the same objectives with
which it was started, but the least we can do is try.
