Animal Farm is a wonderfully clever, short novel. The theme of the novel is of a
revolution gone wrong; of the almost
inevitable corrupting influence of power. What makes the novel so fascinating is that George Orwell chose the least likely means by which to transmit his message; that of a book written in the style of a children’s barnyard adventure. Here the animals – be they pigs, horses or dogs – have both voices and personalities of their own and interact with each other in an anthropomorphic manner.The farm is run by a cruel and drunken farmer and, thus, the animals decide to overthrow him and take control for themselves. At first, all goes according to plan. The animals take control and the future looks good. However, this animal collective does not last long. The pigs have taken over the day-to-day running of things for the benefit of all; however, their control and exercise of power very quickly become for the benefit of the pigs themselves.The novel ends with the pigs assuming the role of the human master the animals overthrew, and all those other animals who took part in the
revolution find themselves as powerless and abused as ever they were. All that has happened is that their master has changed from human to pig.This is a very simple tale with a very simple moral. However, it is written in such a way and by such a novel means that it is successful in creating an extremely powerful and moving twentieth century
allegory.