Let me start off by telling the story of why I chose to read this satire book. I have already read it except I was in the seventh grade and k did not even know what satire was. Mr. Reynolds just told my class that George Orwell had a bone to pick with Stalin and instead of saying it to him, Orwell wrote a book about it. Of course, thirteen year old me did not really care. I cared more about why the pig was named Snowball (why I don't know). Now That I am older and have gained a bit more intelligence (at least I think I have), I see now what elements of satire are being used to make a social commentary on how the people in Russia followed Stalin blindly and did not see the signs that he was becoming exactly like the leader prior.
With a title like Animal Farm one would think a novel would be filled with fun and cheerful farm animals like cows and horses. However, George Orwell takes a more realistic take to Old MacDonald’s farm in his satire since all the animals decide to gang up against their farmer. Mr. Jones is a mean drunk but that was his farm that he and his men were chased off of. Similar to how the people chased the Romanovs out of power. The Tsar was not the drunk Mr. Jones was but he was kind of blind and just plain dumb. He didn't see how miserable the people were and the people would have done anything and followed anyone to stop their suffering, similar to how the animals on the farm followed the pigs around.
This work of literature being a satire and keeping that in mind, one has to remember this is a social commentary on something happening society. This book Was written during World War II and Orwell was a British writer. I am not exactly sure how people know that Orwell was making fun of Stalin and the Soviet Union but he was and it is even brought the characters of Snowball and Napoleon. These two pigs (yes pigs and they are not sweet like Babe) become the leaders of the farm. The same way Stalin and his men took over the Soviet Union. Snowball calls everyone “comrade” which is something frequently used in the red community which also alludes to that fact that Orwell was talking about Stalin.
