Animal Farm, written by George Orwell who is famous as the author of 1984, is a wonderful book filled with critical views.

It seems like a fairy tale but actually it is so serious that it reminds us of bureaucracy and autocracy as well as leads us to think about what is democracy and freedom indeed.

It is said that this is a story indicating Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Actually, I do not care whether it really has something to do with USSR or socialism because this story reflects phenomena that all countries share in common.

What I can learn from the book is that there is no absolute hero or bad guy. Everyone may make contributions to the world while ruining the world at the same time due to ambition.

When it comes back to the book itself, the tale happened in the so-called Animal Farm. I regard Snowball as a creative and smart pig who lacked leadership. In contrast, Napoleon was a brutal emperor, changing his mind frequently to make him adapted to new situations in order that he could take control of the farm firmly.

At the very beginning, animals drove Mr. Jones out of the farm and believed they had got rid of autocracy. These innocent animals worked hard together and shared everything they had, feeling as if they were totally free and lived in heaven.

However, everything came to the opposite after Snowball had been expelled. After all, there was no possibility that two pigs shared leadership with each other. Napoleon became the only king of the farm. What’s more, he denied equality and democracy.

According to him, someone was born noble, for example, pigs could live a much richer life than other animals, especially Napoleon himself. In addition, he did do something which was not allowed in THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS. But Napoleon distorted the contents of THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS and claimed what he did were all right.

Obviously, Napoleon wrested food from other animals. However, he made false statistics for the purpose that he could cheat others and let the ignorant guys submit to him.

One of the most ironic facts was that Napoleon firstly resisted the idea of using machines especially electrical equipment because those machines represent wisdom of human beings. In Napoleon’s opinion, animals should feel ashamed if they used machines. What an arrogant and foolish pig!

Nevertheless, Napoleon accepted inventions of human beings eventually. It sounds really strange. What he said didn’t agree with what he did, which seemed to be the key to leadership.

Aside from the facts mentioned above, Napoleon cut down the amount of food provided for animals as welfare and changed the food into money in order to satisfy himself.

The most horrible part of the story was that Napoleon killed a great number of animals without mercy for the reason that he suspected they were spies. Apart from it, the great leader also forced animals to inform against one another.

In fact, it is a long story to tell.

After reading it, I have thought a lot.

As far as I am concerned, there’s no difference between the new rulers and the old rulers. Old rulers kill a number of people to make the rest be in their favor and new rulers do the same. Old rulers punish people strictly if anyone complains about their control and new rulers do the same. And old rulers care only about enjoying themselves but pay no attention to improving living standard of people, in the meantime, new rulers do the same.

It is supposed that once new rulers take place of old ones, we could make great progress and lead much better life, which is, unfortunately, not true at all. The famous novel A TALE OF TWO CITIES has explained new rulers are almost the same as old ones. Maybe I don’t want to but I have to admit that the true rule of our society and history is rags to rags, riches to riches. No matter who is the leader, this true rule always works.

Every time a revolution happens, the leaders often declare that they are the representatives of the masses and they fight for justice and equality, yet the result is that those so-called great men betray their belief. In other words, those leaders don’t insist on their original dreams which are on behalf of the people. Instead, they collaborate with enemies, such as bureaucrats and the rich, enabling themselves to take over the country for ever. Of course, they do not allow the people to get involved in power and democracy.

It is absurd that a revolution for freedom and democracy at last results in autocracy once again.

Considering that new rulers share the same shortcomings with old rulers, I don’t think they still have rights to stand up for justice, democracy and equality. They are not qualified at all.

Besides the disadvantages mentioned above, supreme leaders take advantage of the masses as well. They trick the people into fighting for them as well as convince the people that only if they overthrow the government, can they free themselves. But as a matter of fact, the only aim of leading people to overturn the government is to establish themselves as new kings. The new kings sacrifice plenty of lives to satisfy their demands for power and wealth. They cash in on the masses because they cannot make it on their own.

Most of the revolutionists are not only ambitious, aggressive and selfish, but also shameless and brazen.

As we all know, some of the rulers distort history and facts. For example, they forbid historians from writing down something wrong that they did before and historians are only allowed to sing the praises of leaders. With time flying, next generations will not get access to truth and facts. So that following generations may regard leaders as gods without faults and adore them crazily and blindly. Rulers use false history to cheat people, making those poor guys believe they are living much better now so they should not complain about anything and what they could only do is to be loyal to the leader. Furthermore, rulers use false history to prove their political opponents are absolutely devil while they themselves are as perfect as god.

What I have just referred to are ridiculous, but they are not the most shaking one.

If people realize the new life is not good enough or they do not live with democracy and equality, they will rebel. Then the rulers will crack down on them, which can result in massacres. If you don’t support the powerful rulers, they will have you disappear for ever as if you never lived in the world before. No information about you will exist. And you will be sentenced to death without reasonable causes. It sounds awful.

As many lives are taken away, the new rulers are gradually turning into old rulers. Then wars take place again and those brutal rulers are overthrown. After that, new rulers are in power and then change into old ones again.

History repeats itself.

I hope everyone can live equally and safely. In addition, I hope we can care more about others instead of thinking only about ourselves and doing harm to other people to fight for power or wealth.

This story reminds me of keeping cool-headed to make it clear that who the most qualified leader is. It also tells me to think over which is right or which is false by ourselves. I feel that we ought not to trust somebody easily and we must stick to truth but not a person or an organization.

I am looking forward to a real People’s Republic.