"Animal Farm" by Mr. George Orwell.

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Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a satire on the Russian government in the phases before during and after the Russian Revolution. It was written in 1945 by a Mr. George Orwell, who did not want to come right out and write a scathing attack on the Russian government because, at the time, Russia had just helped defeat Germany in the war. As it was, Orwell found it hard to get someone to publish Animal Farm because of the pro-Russian sentiments felt by the people of the day. Orwell uses allegory, or the use of animals to paint a portrayal of the Soviet-Communist systems.

The idea of communism came from a young man named Karl Marx, who along with Friedrich Engels, created a pamphlet entitled The Communist Manifesto. The Communist Manifesto paints a portrait of a land where everyone lives in harmony and no man has more than another. Each person provides only what they can provide, and uses only what they need.

Marx determined that the wealthy people, who had nothing to gain by this, would not be too happy. Marx believed that there must be a revolution of sorts by the common people against the aristocracy before this Communist Harmony could take place.

The book begins with all the animals living under the tyrannical rule of Mr. Jones, a bitter old farmer whos farm has fallen to ruins in the past years because of his alcoholism and the dishonesty of his workers. Mr. Jones treats the animals very unfairly and sometimes even forgets to feed them or lock their doors at night.

Between the years 1914 and 1917, Russia was buckling under the pressure of food shortages and poverty, The Czar at the time, Nicholas II, paid no attention to the needs of the common people and continued funneling...