Animal Farm by George Orwell
By: Ellen Payne, Assistant Professor of English
“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”
― Stephen King
I have loved reading since I was very young. Both my parents were educators. My mother was a Reading Intervention Specialist, and my dad was an English teacher at our local high school. You might say I was destined to be a reader. Books were always available in our home, and reading was encouraged. Reading not only builds vocabulary, but it also challenges the reader to think and to use his or her imagination. Reading encourages creativity and fosters stronger writing skills.
My favorite banned book is Orwell’s Animal Farm. I love Orwell’s approach, as he used the plot and characters to criticize the Russian government and the ideals of communism. Orwell used lies to tell the truth, in that he used fictional characters, in a fictional setting, with a fictional story to tell the truth about communism. For instance, Napoleon the pig is a charismatic leader, and eloquent speaker. He is ambitious and competitive, and these characteristics play an important role in his rise to power. This is reflective of communism and dictatorship emerging in the Soviet Union at the time the novel was written. This book is allegory and satire at its best, in that Orwell used the simplicity of animals on a farm to represent the flawed ideals of corruption and revolution held by Soviet leaders.
I recommend Animal Farm to new readers, due to Orwell’s characterization. He used animals to deliver a very serious message-that communism was a threat to society. His characters are very diverse and each one serves an important purpose in the story. Some of the best loved characters in literature are animals: Smaug the dragon, from Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Charlotte the spider from White’s Charlotte’s Web, and Aslan the lion, from Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Orwell’s Napoleon the pig is no different.
