I cannot deny the brilliance of using a farm (a thing so easily understood by most folks) to illustrate the vast complicated workings of communism. Personification is not my favorite literary tool, but Orwell does the best job a human can with it, and manages to avoid the "animals are people too" madness in the process. It begins so humbly and simply, with the reader rallying along with the underfed, ill-used farm beasts as they sally forth to liberate themselves and run the place properly.
The Utopian rules they made were charming and one beings to hope the pack of pigs, horses, sheep, dogs and other four-legged creatures actually pull it off; how fun it would be to visit a road side stand to purchase greens manned by a cow and a pig. Then, once the novelty wore off business would invariably slacken, as most folks want to do business with those whom can communicate properly.
As in every communistic government in history, someone takes it upon themselves to run things, and as the axiom goes, they become completely corrupted. The Pigs, in this instance, personify the greed-in-rule well, first bend the ’rules’ the commune has set up, then breaking them completely. They sleep in the former farmer’s house, eat his food, wear the People’s clothes and finally, begin walking on two legs. One pig goes so far as to strip pups from their mother to raise in secret as bloodthirsty personal body guards; these apparently come in handy when he takes power, killing the nearest rival via the dog-guard.
Meanwhile the ’dumb masses’ must be kept in check; they are given an arduous, worthy task by the pigs (whom don’t do any work), one that is touted to provide the electricity that will ’relieve the animals from all burden of work’... if they can just get a windmill built. Over and over they try and fail to accomplish this task. The reader cries with frustration as the noble, devoted plow-horse kills himself with exhaustion trying to better the farm by building this ’wonderful’ windmill. It seems the farm in general has good ideas, but somehow they all go awry with bad leadership, greed... and animal’s inhumanity to animal. Eventually the entire thing implodes and the people descend on the place to restore order.
Paired with a little Solzhenitsyn, this is a great read, displaying well the fallacies of one of the greatest lies in human history, that somehow we can ’all just get along and share equally’. Someone will always take power and thus be corrupted, gradually throwing tarnish on that shining ideal.