Talking Animals

Animal Farm was written as a satire to the communist government of the Soviet Union. This novel was actually rejected by three different publishers in Britain and George Orwell was told by some American publishers that "Animal stories didn't sell." The story was written in 1945 but because of the paper shortage during the war, publication was delayed until the following year. Despite the derogatory responses from the publishers, Animal Farm ended up selling over 600,000 copies from 1946 to 1950. Critics consider Animal Farm to be one of the greatest political satires of all time. It is even observed that the corrupting nature of power illustrated in Animal Farm still applies in the world today even after the breakup of the Soviet Union (Court).

Jessie, the dog is the main character in the story who gives the whole account of how the animals revolt against Jones who is the owner of Manor Farm after being inspired by a pig named Old Major who convinced them that Man was their enemy and that they must overthrow the oppression that the farmers were putting them through. After the death of Old Major, a pig named Snowball begins to step up and lead earning the respect of many of the animals, but is then driven out by a pig named Napoleon. Napoleon then assumes total control of the farm and destroys the vision that Old Major had of animals bearing no resemblance to Man. He becomes a harsh dictator and orders the death of any animals who oppose him. Ultimately the animals revolution was for nothing since they overthrow one oppressor only to put another in place.

Works Cited

Animal Farm. Dir. John Stephenson. Perf. Kelsy Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julia Ormond, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Scofield, Patrick Stewart, Peter Ustinov. 1999. Halmark Home Entertainment, 1999. DVD.

Court, Ayesha. "George Orwell." Bookmarks July/Aug. 2004: 14-19. SIRS Renaissance. Tarrant County College Lib., Fort Worth, TX. Web. 19 March 2010.