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pillywiggin's review
3.0
Orwell is not known for character development or dialog, but this is an important book. It is not one of my favorites, but if I require my students to read it, then I need to read it again, too.
worrski's review
2.0
yeah no wonder i only barely skimmed across this book in sophomore year
maybe this book is just a product of its time but the obvious symbolism just seems so half baked to me. YEAH we get it the book's about RUSSIA and it's telling us that communism is BAD. now i haven't been passionate about my leftist beliefs since that aforementioned sophomore year, so i won't go ranting about how a dead guy was "so totally wrong about communism yo" but i just can't wrap my head around about how preachy this book is. maybe i could begrudgingly tolerate the large thinly-veiled autobiographical aspect of the book but i just can't understand how this book is so critically acclaimed when it only says one thing and that is "communism sound good but actually bad".
i would have liked for the book to have a little more nuance and have more of a "discussion" with orwell, who seems to be putting so much of himself into the book yet somewhat not enough at the same time. but as i see it, animal farm is nothing but a preachy retelling of the failure of the soviet union with a cheap metaphor perfect for indoctrinating american high school children and giving pink floyd a backdrop for some badass rock and roll. even 1984 arguably had much more to say than this.
oh and obviously if we were to place orwell on this farm, an asshole rat who preaches hypocrisy and gives mr jones a list of dissenting animals might just do the trick ;)
maybe this book is just a product of its time but the obvious symbolism just seems so half baked to me. YEAH we get it the book's about RUSSIA and it's telling us that communism is BAD. now i haven't been passionate about my leftist beliefs since that aforementioned sophomore year, so i won't go ranting about how a dead guy was "so totally wrong about communism yo" but i just can't wrap my head around about how preachy this book is. maybe i could begrudgingly tolerate the large thinly-veiled autobiographical aspect of the book but i just can't understand how this book is so critically acclaimed when it only says one thing and that is "communism sound good but actually bad".
i would have liked for the book to have a little more nuance and have more of a "discussion" with orwell, who seems to be putting so much of himself into the book yet somewhat not enough at the same time. but as i see it, animal farm is nothing but a preachy retelling of the failure of the soviet union with a cheap metaphor perfect for indoctrinating american high school children and giving pink floyd a backdrop for some badass rock and roll. even 1984 arguably had much more to say than this.
oh and obviously if we were to place orwell on this farm, an asshole rat who preaches hypocrisy and gives mr jones a list of dissenting animals might just do the trick ;)
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