Author: George Orwell
Genre: Political allegory and/or dystopian, novella
Other works by Orwell: 1984, Down and Out in Paris and London, Shooting an Elephant, Coming Up for Air, and many more.
Orwell used a farm peppered with barnyard animals to conceal a much larger-scale issue: the corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union. He uses his skill as a writer to critique the rhetoric of the Russian Revolution. Like the real struggles between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, there is a struggle between two literal pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, for preeminence.
Animal Farm also offers commentary on the development of class, a sub-topic to the corruption of socialist ideals in Russia. The novella focuses on the tyranny and the human tendency to maintain and reestablish class structures even in societies that allegedly stand for total equality. Orwell's writing creates an image of unity when a particular group of people is faced with a common enemy. In the case of Animal Farm, the animals are united against the "tyrannical" humans. However, when that common enemy is eliminated, a group can become internally divided.
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