Read Banned Books: Animal Farm

Read Banned Books

Read the books "the man" says are dangerous. Be a rebel! Read banned books! Think dangerous thoughts! Read Animal Farm.

Previous entries in this series:

• Between the World and Me

• A Wrinkle in Time

• Fahrenheit 451

• Internment

• The Outsiders

• It Can't Happen Here

• The Hate U Give

• The Diary of a Young Girl

• Bag of Bones

• Lock In

Read Banned Books: Animal Farm

I recall reading Animal Farm whilst in high school many, many years ago. I read it sometime after plowing through Orwell's other classic, 1984. My reasons for rereading Animal Farm were threefold: first, it is an often-challenged if not a straight-out-banned book, second, my 15-year-old read it in freshman English, and third, I suspected that in this time of political turmoil, featuring far right parties with authoritarian leanings rising up across Western democracies, that the lessons of this allegorical fairy tale would be as pertinent today as when it was written.

The story is straightforward enough. The barnyard animals, led by the highly intelligent and capable pigs, carry out a revolt against their human overseers. At first, the animals make a real attempt to live in a pastoral agrarian society where all animals are equal and, of course, going on four legs is preferable to going on two legs like those damn humans.

The pigs, however, have too much power for the good of all the other creatures and for the sake of their piggy souls. In the end, power corrupts, and those darn pigs turn out just like those damnable humans—indistinguishable from them, in fact.

Animal Farm has faced challenges over the years for being being politically subversive, inciting revolution, and too darkly dystopian. In fact, it was banned as recently as 1987 in Florida.

Why do I think the book banners take umbrage at Animal Farm? I think "political subversiveness" hits close to the mark. You see, the pigs lay bare the hypocrisy of society. They begin by stating that all animals are equal, but by the end, they proclaim that all animals are equal, though some are more equal than others. In all honesty, that is how many ideals regarding equality, equity, and the like play out in reality: we are taught to strive for the ideal of equality, but the rich and powerful among us know that they are more equal—they just leave it unsaid. Orwell possessed the temerity to say that bit out loud, and that is something the powerful and the book banners desperately want left unsaid.