Animal farm is a classic by George Orwell. I have read Animal Farm atleast twice before picking up this week for Dialogues with Books. Each time I got a different perspective while reading Animal Farm. This time I had read some backstories of First world war, Russian Revolution, Second world war and that gave a complete perspective of the book. Infact I would say I have understood the satire much better than all the previous reads.
Title: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Synopsis from Goodreads:
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.
I'm not going to talk about various interpretations of Animal Farm and how the satire relates to the various events during the Russian Revolution and world wars. I'm thinking of writing my own piece of Animal Farm. Please bear with this not so good attempt at rewriting some classic. And again this is a blog post, so this whole attempt will be in a narrative style.
My own Animal Farm
Disclaimer: Usage of Animals as characters is never intended to have any racial implications
In the town of Ucord, there are as many as 10 farms that are owned and run by Pigs. Each of these farms have their own internal conflicts. They withstood an epidemic few decades back. Post the epidemic, the sty is full with piglets. Growing population need food and the resources available in each of these 10 farms are limited to serve all the pigs. Some pigs started venturing out in search of a mystic farm called Chariot. The Chariot farm is rumoured to be occupied by a lot of cattle. The cattle are well equipped to do farming and weaving than the pigs. Some flocking birds bring nicely woven clothes to the Pigs which they picked from Chariot. The name Chariot is used colloquially to signify the riches of the farm.
The pigs who ventured out find a farm in their west. The inhabitants look like cattle but are red in colour as opposed to the brown and black colour described by the flocking birds. The pigs called the new found cattle Charioteers. But the farm doesn't look similar to the descriptions given by the flocking birds. The pigs are offered stay in the new found farm. It's a very vast farm with little occupancy and there are abundance of raw land and resources. The pigs start bringing more members from their farm and start cultivating the new farm. The pigs bring in disease as well due to their long journey by foot and new found Charioteers die due to the disease as their immunity is not well developed. There are also accounts of assassination of Charioteers by the Pigs to gain supremacy over land and cattle. Eventually the migrated Pigs fight and disconnect themselves from Ucord. The pigs become majority in the new found Chariot. The pigs know it's not the right Chariot and name it Beric.
The pigs in Ucord are relentlessly trying to find Chariot. One of the pigs with a Greek alphabet Beta in his name reach Chariot with much difficulties. Now slowly Chariot comes under the control of Porifera farm as Porifera funds Beta's travel. Pigs are not good in agriculture but have found how to make machineries which help in travel and shoot living beings from distance. With new found machineries, the pigs fight among themselves.
The fight also expands to farms in and around Chariot. Hintherlands causes damage to Porifera and become a powerful farm with control in and around Chariot. Porifera invites Lingua farm by giving Silent Bay in Chariot as a gift to the Lingua farm. The Lingua farm slowly captures all of Chariot. Chariot was earlier divided into small divisions and administered by Yaks. The Lingua slowly kills the Yaks or traps them in some cave with the help of disloyal bulls. The Lingua with disloyal bulls are brutal and slowly brings the whole of Chariot farm under their control. The Lingua sees some resistance by another pig farm Broadway supporting few Yaks. After brutal fights, Lingua takes over the Chariot farm. Lingua places Pigs to administer Chariot. Chariot has prosperous wealth and copious agriculture.
The actual Charioteers are made to fear new Pig administrators. The established bureaucracy has some Nilgais as well along with the pigs. But the pigs are the actual controllers of Chariot. The original owners Charioteers are asked to pay rent to Lingua, to use the land for agriculture. The produces are also sent to newly established machineries in Lingua. For example, cotton grows in abundance in Chariot. The cattle locally spin cotton and make fabric out of it. Now the Lingua imposes a rule to transport the cotton via new rail road to Lingua factories. The factories make clothes at amazing speed and send back to Chariot. Lingua's machineries are hungry for resources and markets. Chariot act as source of raw resources and markets
Meantime on the way to Chariot, the Ucord folks also see a place Onric. Onric is inhabited by cattle as well. The cattle here look more hardworking. Onric is never divided neatly into farms. Pigs divide Onric to multiple farms and each takes control of few farms. This settlement is not happy to all Pig farms. Many felt Lingua and Broadway has got the best share. Porifera and Hintherlands are too weak to oppose. Bold farm and Attitude Farm are definitely unhappy and are looking for a chance to avenge the dominance of Lingua.
The hungry machines need new markets and raw materials. Lingua finds new unowned land parcels near Beric. Lingua starts agriculture there by migrating cattle from Chariot and Onric. The living conditions during migration and residence is so bad that "cattle class" becomes defacto term for bad living conditions. The migrated cattle are called slaves. Slaves are also traded with Pigs in Beric. Apart from resources and market, new farm workers are also available from Onric and Chariot.
In between all this, huge fight breaks out in Ucord mostly due to discontent among pigs and new found feeling of supremacy called Patriotism. There are also skirmishes on the border of Ucord in Fear farm. The Fear farm is a big farm on the way to Chariot. They had a very incompatible abusive marriage alliance and the victims are asking their fair share from the Fear farm. This slowly turns into full blown war in Ucord. Lingua gets more cattle from Chariot and Onric to support them and Broadway. Slowly the farms of Ucord fall in two groups. Lingua, Broadway, victims of fear farm, Rush farm in one group. Attitude farm, Bold farm, Fear farm, Pelar farm in the other group. The former group wins the war and shames the other farms
The Attitude farm and Pelar farm is split into multiple farms, Fear farm also lost lot of land. Bold farm lost its possessions in Onric. Meanwhile Rush farm is also affected by the war though they have won. This causes a rebellion and Pigs who rule Rush farm are toppled. The control of Rush farm is right now with a group of Red Pigs. Rush farm is now renamed as United Red Pigs Farm. Lot of cattle have lost lives in this war which is not much noticed.
Not happy with the settlement Pelar declares war along with Bold farm again. This time Pelar looks winning the war. Pelar fights the war against Lingua and United Red Pigs. Broadway is already down. In the east, colonies around Chariot and infact Chariot to some extent is threatened by Anzap. Anzap is a farm in the far east. The inhabitants of the farm monkeys are in alliance with Pelar. Pelar, Bold and Anzap are very brutal this time. They ransack each farm they conquer and spread hatred. Anzap also threatens Beric. Beric jumps into the war. All pigs officially enter the war. As usual cattle are dragged to support their farm Masters. Eventually Pelar falls down and Anzap is blown out.
Finally Beric and United Red Pigs become new leaders among all the farms. Though Lingua wins the war, it has no power as it had earlier.
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This is where I will stop my premise. I know I'm lazy and introducing farms left right and centre. But it's not going to be super difficult to understand what is what in real world
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