Animal Farm #2

I am now halfway through Animal Farm and I have for the most part enjoyed it. One thing I had forgotten to mention in the first blog was that this is a fiction book that could be classified as an Allegory. To make a connection, in 8^th grade we watched an allegory about the Holocaust, in which they used animals and character named “the evil ones.” In the allegory, the evil ones would come and take each type of animal, one at a time, until only one species of animal, which would symbolize Jewish people, were left, and then “the evil one” took that species. Animal Farm is also an allegory, however instead of the animals portraying the Holocaust, they symbolize the USSR’s government system. It has an intriguing plot, in which the story starts out on a farm owned by a human named Mr. Jones. The animals are inspired by their leaders, two pigs (pigs are considered the most intelligent species in the story, also all animals have far superior talents, as most of the species learn how to read in the book), who convince them to rebel against their inconsiderate owner. They successfully drove their owner out and claimed the house. The two pigs who are leader are named Snowball and Napoleon. When they claim the helm of power, all the animals are filled with happiness from their recent victory, and Snowball and Napoleon write 7 commandments in which the animals must live by. However, as the story progresses, signs of corruption in communism start to appear. On page 24 the commandments are listed, and commandment number four says“No animal shall sleep in a bed.” However on page 69, one of the lesser animals, who does not have the intelligence of the superior pigs, notices that the pigs are sleeping in beds inside of the house. The animal, Clover, questions this, however she cannot read the commandments, so a pig just tells Clover that the sign says “It says, ‘No animals shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” There is also, not wanting to spoil too much, is blackmail and blaming between the two leaders and other signs of corruption such as lack of food on page 36. Overall I am enjoying the book, but I thought it would be more complex, however it seems that all Orwell has done is used animals to simplify the issue of communism. I would classify this books plot as a “which way is up,” because it all depends on which vantage point you're looking from.