Preface Animal Farm

By David Villacorta


The preface is written to address the British and western public at the time of the book’s
publication in 1945. To understand the preface it is necessary to fathom the context in
which Britain lived at the time the book was written. The war was soon to be over but the
alliance with the Soviets during the war to fight Nazi Germany made the content difficult
to tolerate by the British government. For many years, as Orwell explains it, the way the
British public viewed the events of Russia was seemed as something “away”, they had no
idea about deportations, concentration camps, interrogations, etc. When Stalin turned
into the side of the allies in World War II, The English government supported the actions
of the Russians to maintain the “war effort”.

So the author stated all those points to make the public understand the nature of the
book. The fact that he used pigs to depict Russians, especially to Stalin and Trotsky, could
have caused some resentment among the soviets. He even explains how a publisher
house refused to publish Animal Farm because it could create tension in the diplomatic
side.

It’s also important to say that Orwell did not write this book because and anti-soviet or
because he belonged to the rich class of the English society and just wanted to state how
much he hated communists. He had worked side by side with the socialists republicans
during the Spanish civil war and had endured difficult hardships throughout his life,
probing this fact when he died at a young age. He lived intensely, and after he and his
wife received persecution by the communist sided with Stalin in Spain for being accused
of being “Trotskyists” he decided to say something about it. So he didn’t just “decide” to
write this satire, he pre-conceived years before it was written.

It also interesting to mention that there is a preface for the Ukrainian edition. I do not
know how this book reached Ukraine, considering that this country was a soviet state,
however, in this preface, he sort of explains the same background he explained for the
British public only that aimed in the understanding of the Ukrainian society.

The book was written during turbulent times (WWII) and it was printed in a key year for
the development of political and economic events which led the course of the 20th century
and until today. That year the Allie forces defeated Germany and set foot the events to
which Churchill had labeled as “the iron curtain”, causing polarization among the entire
world in two principles: if you are capitalists, you are American, if you are socialists-
communist, you are influenced by the soviets, and the world, in means of politics and
economics and other areas, was only understood based on that principle. So, the book, in
all, as the writer said, it’s meant for the average public, so that the less literate individual
may be able to understand fully, that’s why he chose animals to depict it, because we
humans torture and take advantage of animals, making it clear and easier for everyone to
understand.

Chapter 3 Summary Animal Farm

By David Villacorta

Here we clearly see how the animals start to see signs that the way things are ran aren’t for the best of their interest, but thanks to the dialectic of the pig leaders they are persuaded to remain doing the same for the “collective good”. The two main pigs who are also the leaders of the whole group start to antagonize with each other. The animals also start to learn how the humans worked to harvest the land. All the animals struggle to learn how to read and write with little success. Only the donkey remains skeptical, thinking it is all the same as it was with the farmer.

This entire chapter parallels with the Russian revolution of 1917. The animals are starting to organize and the leaders begin to separate to create their animal “politburo”. The antagonism of the pigs was the one between Stalin and Trotsky, who couldn’t agree in the ways the revolution was to be led.  I also can distinguish how the little utopia isn’t as perfect as everyone hoped to be and most of them have to be reeducated into the new way of life. It isn’t easy for the animals since they have to continue working to maintain the farm running. The animals represent the people in the communist world where they had to carry the weight of production and dynamo of the country.

Chapter 2 Summary Animal Farm

By David Villacorta

In this chapter the animals become united after the death of old major. They plan to carry on the message he had given them. The pigs start to get smarter and start to teach the animals about the Importance of rebelling against Mr. John. They have a hard time trying to convince them at first, but at then they follow suit. They also struggle with Moses, an animal which preaches them about a paradise the animals go after they die. One day, the farmer doesn’t feed them and gets drunk, infuriating the cows, who fight the workers back and make the other animals join their fight. Little after, the revolution based on “animalism” is underway.  The chapter ends with one of the pigs stealing the milk and staying over at the farm while the others are at work.

If I hadn’t read about the relation of this book with the Russians I would probably think this is a makeup tale or a children’s story.  I can superficially say that the farmer is the Tsar of Russia and the other characters, or the main ones are the revolution leaders. It’s interesting how it all aims to be understood from the animal’s standpoint. The slavery and their conditions, used for an idea of a utopia of equality. What I find odd is the fact the pigs are the only ones who are smarter than the rest, as if they were gifted with special intelligence or something.  

Chapter 1 Summary Animal Farm

By David Villacorta

In this chapter it opens with an explanation of the horrible conditions in which all animals are used for. The owner of the farm is described as a despicable character, using atrocious actions to control the farm. However, the animals don’t know about this and they simply carry on in their daily labor. One day one of the oldest pigs, who is about to die, starts a speech to explain how things “work” in their community. He is used here as a figure of “reason and understanding”. Here he expresses that the human beings, represented by the farm owner, uses all of them to gain wealth and power, and that their mere destiny is to die, thus they must all join in order to bring down the reign of terror in which they have been born.

I didn’t know how to relate all this information so I have to admit I had to look up information regarding the book and I found out that this book is a satire of the Russia, former Soviet Union. So I can simply say that the old pig, which is about to die, represents Karl Marx, and the rest of the animals are the people, or proletarian. What I find amusing is that he uses the pig to depict historical figures. So it is kind of funny but overall this chapter is interesting.

Chapter 26

By David Villacorta

This chapter talks about expelling barbarians from Italy. Just as it was in the fifth century, when the barbarians took over the Roman empire, Italy still had barbarians in their soil. Nicholas, is sending a message to all princes in their different principalities to raise in arms and fight against them.

Now, we have seen all over this book that the author is clearly stating to wage war and to endure a strong hand whenever is necessary to keep a government up. In this final chapter he talks about joining forces for the barbarians to leave Italian provinces.

This is to me a classical example of medieval time’s way of doing things, like; they would join forces to fight a common enemy. In today’s nowadays or modern times, what I can get from them is World War II, where different nations joined to fight against other nations, who they believed had it wrong.

In Central America, I would quote the example of William Walker, the pirate, wanting to take over the region.  All of Central Americans joined and expelled him in one of the most glorious fights of our history.

To sum all up, this is a brilliant book for politicians, if they wish to stay in power, the methods, even though medieval at times, are the same in it essence.

Chapter 25

By David Villacorta

A ruler cannot base his fate on fortune, for it can change from one minute to the other, and can make the ruler lose immensely. He says that something’s cannot be avoided, and that it has to be that way thanks to fortune and God, however he says there are things that can be avoided.

He uses women as figure to make the reader  understand how fortune has to be managed. He says that it has to be done in a way in which  many obstacles can be avoided. Fortune has to be beat down and controlled, for it prefers younger men like women, because they are docile and easy to handle.

Today many rulers do not act on fortune, the ones who do, fail, and besides, the figure of God is not as important as it was in those times. Now, many may still base their actions in fortune, and that would be a pity for the ruler since he needs to have it all figure out by their own intellect. 

Chapter 24

By David Villacorta

Just because things are right now it does not mean they will be that way all the time. Many governments fail because they not to foresee future actions which will bring them to their end. Nicholas talks about why some Italian princes have lost their principalities, and it is mostly because of their indolence, as he calls it, but also because they did not know how to manage their power.

It seems important to keep the people happy and to follow all the directions he has been talking about throughout the book, but also to keep in mind that nothing can prevail more than being aware of the surroundings, and in that case, they must follow suit to what is best at the time.

He also mentions something important to understand to anyone who’s considering to rule, and that is that the people mostly enjoy their present time. That is all they care about. They care very little about what happened before, they just want to enjoy the present, and so a prince or ruler must hold this accountable, for they need to use the present to run efficiently their office time.