Animal Farm

ANIMAL FARM

Summary/My Take: AF, by George Orwell, is an allegory about the post-Russian Revolution and Stalin's rise to complete dictatorship. Of course, if you know your Russian history, the book in completely predictable, but that doesn't stop chills running down my spine every time I close that last page and scream, "...AND WE LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!!!!" (I really do scream that). I've read AF over 12 times and it never seems to make me sick and disgusted and completely enamored with George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair). The book is a perfect study of the success of propaganda and communism. It is a very direct allegory and nearly every seen in the book represents a Stalin moment (for example: The Red Army's victory to the Battle of Stalingrad, the Great Purge [Stalin killed between 8-13 million people- we don;t know the real number because we left him in power and he had lots of time to destroy all the records] to his pre-KGB secret police. You'll even see is 5-year-plan and Pravda).

If you have never read this book with fresh Stalin-geared eyes, you simply must! It is an essential piece of literature that every person on earth should study- if only to prevent totalitarianism from wafting its ugly head again!!!! In fact, I think every American citizen has the responsibility to read this book (so does Time magazine). If you need a hand catching the real story behind the farm, just shoot me an Email- I could discuss Stalin's tactics all day long!

AND TO THINK: To Orwell's horror, this book was first placed a children book shelves! It gets worse... some moron made it into a cartoon! Don't show your kids- they'll be scarred for life.