Animal Farm

As I promised in my last post, I will give you a little bit of info about the books I recommend. Since I don't want to spend all night on the computer, I'll start by covering the books I already have on my blog, then slowly expand. I may as well start with the first book on my list, and I promise I'll keep it short.

Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is best described as a political allegory, though for years it has been read as a fairy tale about animals taking control of their farm from their human masters. Superficially, that is what it is. It doesn't take much imagination to make the connection between the actions of the farm animals and the politics of Orwell's day. During Orwell's lifetime, communism was a plague that was sweeping across the globe, virtually unstoppable. The animals of Animal Farm - which is the name they chose for their human-free farm - play out the inner conflicts of the burgeoning Soviet empire. It lays out the revolution born of misguided idealism, the power struggle between the leaders who once fought together, and the downward spiral into show trials, executions, and corruption.

"But it's a story about pigs and goats and ducks, and sort of about the Soviet Union. Big deal." Well, it is, because it is no longer about the Soviet Union. The story of the Animal Farm is being played out today in the United States. While we may not mirror every detail from the book, and by inference the Soviet Union, the plot line continues to parallel our own political state ever more closely.

So, I would recommend Animal Farm for a couple reasons; first, it is wonderfully written. It tells the story of the beginnings of one of the most powerful nations on the planet, and one which we struggle to deal with to this day. And it tells us where our nation may be headed if we are not supremely diligent. You don't have to be a politics junkie to read it, either. It is one of the most enjoyable political reads you will find. That, and it has talking pigs.