Animal Farm is perhaps one of the most famous allegories and in that it is anything but subtle, just like the pigs in the story. Any elementary knowledge of soviet history can be mapped onto the book in almost 1-to-1 fashion, where different animal types and individuals represent either real historical figures or well-known societal archetypes. For example, horses and especially Boxer can be seen as the honest, lower- and middle-class working everyman who pride themselves on their hard work and enable the functioning of society but who do not necessarily have the time, energy or interest in politics or excessive introspection. The sheep on the other hand may be characterized as devoted party followers that are politically active but lacking in their own thinking and intellectual integrity, thus merely following and shouting the latest party doctrine, poisoning and preventing productive public discourse. Even the role of religion is investigated through Moses, the tame raven who professes about the Sugarcandy Mountain beyond the clouds where animals go after death, initially hindering the rebellion spirit and eventually aiding in getting the animals to work ever harder on ever lower food rations.

Through masterful, targeted manipulation of each of these groups, the pigs manage to impress even the humans in how efficiently they manage to exploit the other animals, thus warning of how easy it can be to capture revolutions and to only change the elite on top while actually worsening the quality of life of everyone else. As long as the change is gradual enough and appropriate distractions, narratives and threats are provided, any movement can slowly be turned into its polar opposite with few, quickly forgotten complaints. Animal Farm illustrates the mechanisms by which this is done and thus highlights what we ought to most think about and protect if we wish to truly progress, among those being: education, public forums and freedom of assembly, diversity of viewpoints and independent thinking, nuance and freedom of speech, democracy and preservation of history and above all, uncompromised equality before law.

The book is very well written, and its legacy is apparent in 1984, which I also greatly enjoyed. The writing is clear, concise and often very matter of fact, which creates a sense of inevitability and triviality, emphasizing just how vulnerable a revolutionary movement characterized only by a common enemy is. It is also very predictable for the cynically inclined in an almost funny way. The book is very short at less than a hundred pages and fast to read as well as entertaining in the way that watching the funniest home videos or fail compilations is – it keeps you wincing and cringing at the edge of your seat but, in this case, at the continuously and unchallengedly growing oppression by those that portray themselves as allies and who the subjects continue to accept as such despite an insurmountable amount of undisputable evidence of the contrary.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of the most important and relevant classics for a reason as it perfectly captures the slippery slide of compromising on your fundamental values, something which you ought to never do neither as an individual or as a society if you wish to build an equitable and just world. It is an important warning about the importance of integrity, which seems to be an eternal lesson we must continuously relearn. Better to do so by reading a book rather than facing the dire, often even globally catastrophic consequences of failing to uphold your integrity in the real world. I recommend this to absolutely everyone and due to its shortness and clarity, there is really no excuse not to read it.