Controversial Classics: Animal Farm

I first read Animal Farm by George Orwell in my eighth grade ELA class. This was my introduction to what I categorize as a haunting dystopian style of literature. Unlike The Hunger Games or The Giver (both of which we had read in seventh grade), Animal Farm showed further disturbing and hauntingly realistic depictions of corruption, propaganda, and brainwashing within our own world. Which is ironic, since it revolves around the premise of talking animals who take over a farm.

Animal Farm is widely acknowledged to be an allegorical novella depicting the events of the Russian Revolution. Napoleon, the antagonist of the novel, would be symbolizing Joseph Stalin, meanwhile Snowball would symbolize Leon Trotsky. The other farm would symbolize Winston Churchill whereas each animal would represent certain groups of people, such as the beauracracy, working class men, working class women, and so forth.

For its too-specific parallels to the Russian Revolution and the darkness behind it, Animal Farm has been challenged and banned in many parts of the world. Not only for censorship reasons, but also because of the gruesome and disturbing events that take place in the novel that may not be suitable for general audiences.

One of the biggest overarching philosophies in Animal Farm is Karl Marx's philosophy, as expemplified by Old Major, who dies at the beginning of the story. Karl Marx's philosophy revolves around communism and socialism, where the proletariat must rise against the bourgeoisie. Old Major's speech at the beginning of the novel, which induces that all animals are equal, closely resembles Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto.