Animal Farm
By: George Orwell / Narrated By: Ralph Cosham
Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
Soooo harrowing it made my heart and soul hurt…!
Y’all are going to wonder whattheheck we DID read in high school when I tell you that, yet again: We read neither Animal Farm, nor did we read 1984. Believe me when I say that I’m trying, and trying super hard to think of what all WAS on our list of reads!
So let’s start with what I discovered with this, the audiobook version, of one of George Orwell’s most frequently cited books… that I never read…
IF you’ve, like me, been living under a flippin’ rock, skip over/through the Introduction as it’s an analysis of the book as a whole and as such comes complete with telling us all how things are going to wind up. Of COURSE I knew, despite the whole rock-thing, I do pay attention to what’s said around me… sorta… so it wasn’t an outright shock. Still, it would’ve been nice to let the story play itself out in the manner in which Orwell had decided.
In case you’re familiar with the bottom of a rock, here’s how the story goes. An old boar sets minds spinning in the barn when he tells all the farm animals that nobody need work for their drunken, feckless owner, the farmer of Manor Farm. Their “owner” takes all their service, he takes every thing they give of their bodies, and he’ll eventually decide when each and every animal will be led to the chopping block for the bitter end. The boar says that soon they shall be driven to act, and he stirs their hearts, minds, and souls with what becomes their anthem, “Beasts of England.”
There is indeed a rebellion, and a sort of democracy ensues, even tho’ the better educated pigs are calling the shots. But there is enmity between Snowball and Napoleon, and Napoleon, through his previous “educating” of the puppies, now full-grown dogs, has Snowball violently chased from Animal Farm. Soon, what were the Seven Commandments of the Animals become adjusted, ever so slightly, as Napoleon and his crew of pigs take more and more control of the farm and of the lives of all the animals. And soon, Animal Farm is led by a sort of dictatorship. Do the animals question? Will they rebel against these new demands?
So it comes down to this: Orwell wrote it as a twisted account of the Russian Revolution, of how the high ideals that came with the birth of a new sort of nation were distorted and misused, and then Stalin took over. Go ahead, read the Cliff Notes, and you’ll get the actual individual that each animal was written to represent. Trotsky is there. Lenin. Molotov. DEFinitely Stalin comes through loud and clear. Plus, we have Moses the Raven who stands in for organized religion with his promises of a better world to come called “Sugarcandy Mountain.” The Masses come in with the Sheep, You name it, Orwell managed it, and he managed it in such a well-told and creepy fashion.
What I found disheartening was how it parallels our political world today. We have news networks that we can rely on to give us certain biases/slants in their coverage. What in heaven’s name is The Truth nowadays? And must we always be like the Sheep who mindlessly bleat out what we’ve been told?
And I must say that my biggest gripe comes from Ralph Cosham’s brilliant narration. Seriously, I’m bleating out phrases in my own head, and the way he masterfully sang out “Beasts of England” has that diddy stuck in my head also. Especially as Cosham was true to the text and made the song most clearly akin to “La Cucaracha.” Listen to this if you’re prepared for THAT horror!
So all in all, I do wonder how I would’ve received this tale whenst I was but in high school. Honestly? I think I was too shallow, too easily led in my opinions, for it to have resonated with the heart-deadening thud that I felt now.
Massively good Listen. But boy oh boy: What After-Effects you’ll have!
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