Animal Farm, by George Orwell

This was a great example of Communism in a small, realistic setting (realistic SETTING!). Orwell's message comes through much clearer in his "fairie tale" than if he had expressed his political opinions in an essay or nonfiction novel. Orwell was a well known democratic socialist, and absolutely hated Stalin, his basis for the pig Napoleon. He also tried to make a statement about the absolute power involved with communism, and that it corrupts - using the outcast pig, Snowball, as his example (modeled after Trotsky). If you really read into the dialogue and events that take place, you will see that Snowball was not actually a champion for the animals. While Napoleon was more direct about his quest for power, Snowball did not protest when the pigs were given special privileges. It is more than likely that Orwell was trying to make the point that the end result of Animal Farm would have been the same, regardless of whether Snowball or Napoleon was in charge. I loved how Orwell showed the progression (or rather, degradation of) Animal Farm by showing how the pigs used propaganda to achieve their goals. For example, they changed the fundamental prospects of Animalism in subtle ways - for example, after the pigs changed the commandment "No animal shall ever drink alcohol", it read "No animal shall ever drink alcohol in excess". They also lied to the animals (for example, sending off poor Boxer to the glue factory) and used made up figures to "show" the animals how the situation was improving since they drove out the farmer (much like the communist nations of the mid-20th century did, when in reality, people were starving). At one point, Orwell goes so far to say, "But sometimes the animals wished they had less figures, and more food." Orwell's book is more than meets the eye, as with many of his books, and is no less a classic because of it.

Overall: 10 of 10.