Animal Farm

Thoughts_Arrive

I just finished reading this.
Anyone else read it?
Is it just me or does anyone else think that the animals society turned into a capitalist one by the end of the book?

tempo_n_groove

Is this a loaded question?

Great book by the way. It's about the rise of communism if I remember correctly.

Where's Brianlux? He'll be good for this.

tempo_n_groove

I just remembered it's about the Russian revolution. I can't remember all the parts and players though.

brianlux

tempo_n_groove said:

Is this a loaded question?

Great book by the way. It's about the rise of communism if I remember correctly.

Where's Brianlux? He'll be good for this.

Haha! Well, to be honest it's been about 1,000 years since I read that one. I remember being creeped out by some of the despotic characters in the story. I don't remember it so much being about capitalism but rather more about a brutal dictatorship and cruelty. Might have to read this one again one of these days though I'm more inclined to want to read some of my favorite Steinbeck's since it's been just as long.

Thoughts_Arrive

I just thought it seemed like capitalism as the gap between the rich (the pigs and dogs) and the rest seemed wide. The horses, sheep were toiling away for nothing whilst all the reward went to the pigs and dogs.

Thoughts_Arrive

tempo_n_groove said:

Is this a loaded question?

Great book by the way. It's about the rise of communism if I remember correctly.

Where's Brianlux? He'll be good for this.

I wouldn't think it's a loaded question.

tempo_n_groove

Thoughts_Arrive said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Is this a loaded question?

Great book by the way. It's about the rise of communism if I remember correctly.

Where's Brianlux? He'll be good for this.

I wouldn't think it's a loaded question.

Loaded in the sense that there is sooooo much to talk about on this book!

Who Princess

I read the book for school in the 8th grade, which was waaaay too young to understand what Orwell was getting at.

For more info than you ever wanted on Animal Farm, there's a lengthy Wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm. The main things I take away is that Orwell was trying to warn about the dangers of dictatorships. He wrote it during WWII, when the Soviets were allies with Britain and the thinking was that Stalin was a good guy. Orwell didn't feel that way and turned out to be accurate. Most of the characters and events in the novel had parallels with historical events that were recent enough (at least at the time it was written) to be well known--the Russian Revolution, Civil War, the purges of the 30s. Those kinds of allusions are lost on me as a modern reader unless I go back and study Russian/Soviet history.

I think it's interesting that the book was banned in communist countries until the collapse of the Soviet Union.