“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Animal farm is one of those classics that are pretty much absorbed and ingrained in society. It tells the story of some animals on a farm becoming deeply enraged about the unfairness as they do all the work and the farmer reaps the reward. They stage a revolution and rename the farm “Animal farm.”
They adopt the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is, “All animals are equal.”
And for a while this new society is a just one, but soon some animals start reading books while other animals are out in the field and slowly but surely the seven commandments of animalism are altered, for some of the animals.
“No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
The book is an allegory of the Russian revolution of 1917, but it really represents any society slipping into fascism and dictatorship. Nobody is inherently evil, they start out with good intentions. Then power corrupts and the ‘masses’ are kept in their place by lies and lack of education.
“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.”
This book scarred me after we had to read it in 9th or 10th grade. The poor horse, he worked hard and believed only to be thrown away when he became useless.