Animal Farm

Spearheaded by pigs, a group of animals in Mr Jones’ Manor Farm rise up in rebellion, aspiring for a life without human control and injustice. However, the ideals of a society that enjoys freedom, equality, and happiness veer to a new form of oppression that is perpetrated by some animals against their barnyard fellow animals. Napoleon, the pig, becomes a tyrant, successfully using propaganda to make the other animals toil more and eat less, and reducing the initial Seven Revolutionary Commandments to a single slogan: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Published in 1945, Animal Farm is a political satire for which George Orwell uses farm animals as characters. The allegory hints to the Russian revolution of 1917 and the ensuing one-party rule in the Soviet Union. As Lord Acton, the 19thcentury British historian puts it, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”