₦airaland Forum

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IFEOLUWAKRIZ:
I read it as a child. I will surely re-read it.

Don't forget to share your thoughts when you do so.

thesicilian:
That is a book that will never get old, because we will continue to see "animal farm" in the everyday politics of all African nations.

Exactly! Our dear continent (even tho the author had somewhere else in mind) is vividly represented in the novel.

I remember when I was in junior secondary school; my elder sister-being in secondary school at that time would always talk about this book with her classmates.

I couldn't take out any remarkable points from their discussions but I remembered noting how they talked about the book with utmost admiration, how it was the best curriculum-book they had ever read for school.

I finished secondary school without ever encountering the book, but yesterday it crossed my mind and I got a copy and finished reading it today.

The book was incredibly intriguing.

It's a perspicuous caricature of what happened in Soviet Russia and the animals subtly represent some of the human figures of that time.

My epiphany as I read the book was that it's story, theme, and characterizations can be juxtaposed with Nigeria; from the colonial era to this very day.

From old Major (the guys who dream of revolutions but either don't act upon it or don't live long enough to, but their dreams and idealogy could become the rallying cry for revolutionists), these guys are everywhere, they dream of a better country but can only talk about it, sadly they ever only die with their dreams.

The pigs- Snowballs and Napoleon. The guys who start out with good intentions, mobilize the mass and boot out the current occupants of power but become corrupt by power along the way.

There is the donkey, Benjamin, people who have a good grasp of what's going on but are too self centered to react in any way. They see bad things being done but won't speak against or do anything unless it affects them directly, being passive and resigning to their fate.

There is the horse- boxer, the most tragic character in the book. He works and works, always eager to serve the farm, never failing, he puts in extra efforts to see that the work on the farm is being done, he does so out of love, he is committed to the farm and to his idealogies. And, when his strength finally leaves him, instead of being treated with the love and respect he deserved, he is set aside and shipped away.

Then there are the sheeps, this kind of people can be found all around us, they are the reason bad leadership thrives, why politicians are able to cling to power no matter how they act. They are the blind followers, never able to think for themselves, always eager to use noise to silence any voice that opposes their masters.

And finally the end of the book was as classic as an ending could be. It stirred pity from me and the realization that that's how Nigeria has become, we have all resigned to the conclusion that nothing can be done to rectify our current predicament.

When the pigs and the humans started fighting in the farm house with the other animals looking from outside, the last paragraph of the book reads:

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

So please share your thoughts on the book if you have read it, if you haven't, I suggest that you do so.