Animal Farm

The last time I read animal farm was, I believe, 8th grade. It’s certainly something important to assign at that age, but returning to it when older, and especially at this time in history, was very valuable to me.

In such a short work, Orwell is able to show the sweeping decline into totalitarian regimes we’ve seen again and again in history; the promises of equality, the gradual mistruths turning into justifications for violence and theft against the populous, and above all the incredible irony strongman leaders rely upon for control.

This copy began with two helpful mini-biographies of Orwell and his own journey and the word conditions that coincided with his two most known works, Animal Farm and 1984. Among the many reminders they served, one was how unpopular criticism of the Soviet Union was in WW2 America; Orwell wasn’t initially able to find a publisher willing to back Animal Farm because of these mores.