After reading Robinson Crusoe, the novel, another novel entitled "Animal Farm" captured my attention. This novel, Animal Farm, is written by George Orwell in 1945 and this might be the most famous work of political allegory ever written. The author wrote this novel to bring out a historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism and using farmyard animals such as pigs, horses and dogs who overthrew the farmers in search of utopia to show that a state of equality is impossible to achieve due to the corruptive influence of the power required to necessitate it. This novel succesfully presents how mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarians regimes.

-Story background
Although the title of the novel suggests that the story is only about animals living in a farm, the story is actually a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The farm animals are used to illustrate how the communist class system worked, and how the Russian citizens reacted to this, and how propaganda was used by early leaders of Russia, and the effect this type of leadership had on the behaviour of the people of Russia. The three pigs, Old Major, Snowball and Napoleon, are the main characters in the book and they are all used to be compared to different leaders in the Russian Revolution. In this novel, the author is trying to illustrate his own thoughts on Soviet Communism which is a hot topic.

-Story Summary
This story is about Old Major, the boar who was a much respected leader, started with a dream of taking over the running of a farm from the farmer by animals for animals. Old Major hoped that animals will form a rebellion and overthrew the human race and thought that there were liberty and equality for all in the farm. After since Old Major had passed away, the animals of Manor Farm were led by the two pigs who were also the protagonists, Napoleon and Snowball, and drove out Farmer Jones and his wife. After gaining power of the farm, the animals set up Animal Farm which their dream seemed to be coming true. After the revolution, the pigs became the leaders and gained power while taking over the running of the farm as they were the most intelligent animals. That was when the corruption started. The pigs started to control the animals of the farm and set down some rules which is the Seven Commandments to ensure equality and prosperity for all. The animals in the farm first agreed to these rules as they felt that they would get what they believe - equality and communism. It is written as follow:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

As the months and years past by, Napolean who was one of the leaders got the control of everyone and slowly exerted his influence. Napoleon began to twist what was once the truth but not now and used his trusty spindoctor to ensure the animals of equality and communism but eventually forgot what was agreed by all which was to be equal. As each passing day went by, this continued until eventually no animal could tell the difference between the man and the pig (Napoleon and Snowbell). Eventually, power corrupted and influenced the pigs. Hence, it appeared that the revolution was a failure from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism. The pigs, however, being the leaders of the animals, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda established the rule of an elite of pigs, which was led by Napoleon which was the most revered and sinister pig.

In the story, Squealer, a pig "could turn black into white" was much responsible for propaganda caused. Squealer could speak very well and was persuasive as he could argue at some difficult points yet, he had a way of skipping from side to side. He managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"which was presented in the story. In addition, he also managed to convince the animals that the pigs could eat more than the others as their roles were very important and they had heavy reponsiblities as they "helped the animals to run". As a result, this caused the gullible animals to believe what the pigs said and become thankful to Napoleon, for what they believed that Napoleon had "made their dream to reality".

A contributing factor to the propaganda showed in the story was that the pigs, which actually worked less but received more rations than other animals. This increased the confusion of the animals as they wondered why one species was receiving more than another in an equal society as the pigs promised. However, the other animals still respected and trusted their leaders and were willing to sacrifice to work harder for a better life. Here, the story brings out the situation in Russia which was more or less similar. In both the story and real life, greedy leaders took full advantage of the desperate commoners who were willing to sacrifice anything for them. The leaders were capable to turn matters upside down which were different from what they promised before. The commoners were then subjected to propaganda.

In "Animal Farm", Squealer and Napoleon which were he leaders decieve the animals that Snowball was a traitor and convinced them that he was a criminal through propaganda in order to gain more advantages for themselves. In the sotry, the horse, Boxer, actually represented the cruelty of how people are used for their skills and talents for others' advantages but as they turned powerless or useless, they were then disregarded as they were not needed anymore. Boxer which was the hardest worker on the farm as he contributed the most to the building of the windmill in the farm. But when Boxer was unable to continue work, Napoleon then got rid of him. This showed that the cruelty of human nature as man have the tendency to use other people to achieve their goals but disregarded them once they are useless or when man have found someone better. In the story, the author also presented the confusion of the animals as they all believed that Napoleon was right but they were confused by the better treatment which the pigs recieved.

-My reflection
After reading "Animal farm", I feel that this novel is more than a book but it can be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime and shows the the situation of propaganda and totalitarianism in general. In my opinion, I feel that it is really well-written and might be the best book in the world to show the negative side of politics. In addition, I also like the ending of the story which was a warning to the society about propaganda which is written as follow:
"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".