Animal Farm: 75th Anniversary Edition (Signet Classics)

I can’t believe it took me this long to read this masterpiece. Towards the end my stomach was in knots - I was hoping, desperately hoping, the animals would not go the route they so clearly were going. The writing was on the wall but I still gasped when the pigs were seen walking upright. I still gasped when the sheep bleated four legs good, two legs better. Incredible novel. Especially in today’s times. It just shows how easy it is to be conditioned to accept things. Slow and steady gaslighting can eventually lead you to being on the opposite side of what you thought you were fighting for. I think this novel calls for us all to stop, step back and look around us just to make sure that we aren’t sitting in a simmering pot. 4.5 stars

This book was required reading when I was in middle school but I definitely appreciate it more as an adult. The more things change the more they stay the same. The creativity of using different animals to portrait different types of citizens in an oppressive regime was uncanny and unique. This book is one of my favorite satirical pieces.

Good length for what it is not my favourite book but still good to see how leadership can be easily changed and corrupted

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a warning about Stalinism, but the pigs have found plenty of modern successors. Napoleon promises equality, progress, and a better future while hoarding resources and silencing anyone who questions his authority. The language changes across generations. The hunger for power does not. The animals overthrow Mr. Jones after Old Major inspires them to imagine a farm free from human exploitation. Snowball and Napoleon emerge as leaders under a new system built upon the belief that every animal deserves an equal life. Their revolution begins with hope. It soon becomes another structure designed to benefit those at the top. Snowball wants to build a windmill that could improve life across the farm. Napoleon drives him away, claims the project as his own, and blames every failure on his former rival. Squealer reshapes each lie until the exhausted animals begin doubting their own memories. The pigs do not seize permanent control through brute force. They gain it by controlling information, punishing disagreement, and convincing workers that their suffering serves a greater purpose. The comparison to modern billionaires and trillionaires is obvious. Corporate leaders often praise technology as humanity’s future while workers are measured by productivity rates, treated as replaceable, and discouraged from challenging the people above them. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are not literal versions of Napoleon. Their companies operate within laws, markets, and institutions that do not exist on Animal Farm. The similarities between the two still feel unsettling. Workers have accused companies connected to both men of retaliation, unsafe expectations, and cultures that protect leadership from meaningful criticism. Snowball’s expulsion is painfully recognizable as a metaphor for whenever an organization removes dissenters. Boxer remains the book’s most devastating example of what unchecked power takes from ordinary workers. He gives the farm his body, loyalty, and faith. Napoleon rewards that devotion by disposing of him once his labor is no longer useful. Boxer believes working harder will save everyone. The pigs understand that his obedience only saves them. This reread confirmed how fantastic and relevant Animal Farm remains. Orwell delivers a quick book with enormous points. I wish he had left readers instructions for overthrowing the overlords rather than only detailing their rise. Greed feeds the pigs, but public exhaustion, manipulated information, and misplaced loyalty keep them in power. A required annual reading of Animal Farm might help us remember that no leader deserves enough authority to rewrite truth while everyone else is ordered back to work.

This book opened my eyes