Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell in 1945.On the surface it is only a fairy tale,but actually the novel has a profound background,it is based on the historical events from the Russian October Revolution in 1917 to Stalin era,and every character is representing a real man in the Soviet Union.Thus the novel is regarded as a criticism on the politics and has been banned for many years.

The story began with Old Major’s meeting.He was an old pig but also the spiritual leader of the farm,he said to all the animals that human was parasites who always oppressed them and therefore they should revolt,all animals were excited about these.After Old Major’s death,two young pigs,Snowball and Napoleon,became the new leaders,finally drove the owner,Mr Jones,away from the farm and changed it name to “Animal Farm”,made Seven Commandments.Since then animals here had a happy life,but it didn’t last long,soon afterwards,Snowball was declared to be the enemy of the farm and was expelled.So,Napoleon became the only leader,he began to purge the farm with his dogs,kill the animals who spoke ill of him,and no privilege he had promised before became reality.Animals remained thinking that they have a better life than the time of Mr.Jones,but in fact nothing has changed except the ruler.Years pass,pigs walked upright and wore clothes,they had no differences between human and even held a dinner party with them to celebrate abolition of revolutionary traditions.Everything went back to before.

After reading the whole story,I think of the famous saying,”Power corrupts,absolute power corrupts absolutely.”Napoleon indeed had some political talent and he actually did good to the farm at the beginning,but once he got in the center of power,the weakness in his personality has been magnified and became more evident.In order to control the farm on his own,he used a merciless trick to chase his fellow,Snowball,away.After Napoleon became the dictator of the farm,he wanted to have a better enjoyment,so he broke all the commandments and exploited the laboring animals crueler.while doing these,he let his follower,Squealer, to tell the animals what the pigs do are beneficial to the farm.The most tragical character in the story is the horse,Boxer.He included all the good qualities in laboring class:strong,loyal,dedicated and devoted his whole life into the construction of the farm.But when he badly hurt because of overwork,Napoleon sold him for money to buy himself whiskey.The plot makes me feel despairing,a most devoted,long-suffering worker became the victim of the dictator’s material desire.Therefore,we could see that the bottom of society is so poor,these harmless people even become the opposite to the ruling class,as Mr. Pilkington said in the last chapter,”If you have your lower animals to contend with,we have our lower class.”In the end,the pigs who used to be the leader of the revolution,is as same as their enemy in the past,human,and maybe a new round of revolution will begin.