Jeimar Neiza Forbidden Books March 20, 2018 All Books are Equal, but some are more equal than others Just because one gains freedom, do not mean it’s permanent. The author of Animal Farm clearly knows that, as it tells a “fairytale” on the history of the Soviet Union. The story starts with a group of animals gathering together for the first time by an old hog named Old Major. Old Major tells his dream and preaches to the animals that they produce something, and the humans produce nothing. He then dies after the speech, leading the animals to form a coup against farmer Jones and his workers. They then burn everything that resembles their slavery, and create the seven commandments in which all animals live by. Two certain pigs, Snowball and Napoleon fight over the democratic control of the farm. It isn’t until Snowball presents of an idea of a windmill to the animals that he gains power. Napoleon, angered, send his forces to Snowball and run him off the farm. Napoenoen controls the farm, using the blueprints of Snowball and the labor of the animals to build the windmill . Overtime, Napoleon and the other pigs change the commandments until it is all corrupted. The betrayal of animal farm by the pigs isn’t fully shown until they betray Boxer, a horse/loyalist worker on the farm, and sends him towards a glue factory. As years pass, the pigs have begun to take more habits of humans, until the book ends with the animals looking at the pigs negotiating with humans, and not being able to tell human from pig apart. Truly, this is a tragedy as the animals are now forced into submission, and have been brainwashed to forget the ideas .In the end, it shows that all books have ideas that can create revolutions and make individuals fight back against the system. To ban a book would be banning ideas; therefore, no book should be banned despite the controversy surrounding it.
As stated, the book was based around the Soviet Union, the idea of dictatorships, the criticism of communism, and as well as capitalism in some respects. Thanks to these ideas, the book was banned not only in the Soviet Union, but also other countries around the world. These including United Arab Emirates, Kenya, certain groups from Poland. It was even banned in Panama City, Florida. One of the latest case with books censorship was in 2017 in Stonington, Connecticut, where the book was removed from the curriculum. In an interview with a teacher, Ed Goldberg, he states the reasons why the book was banned. Goldberg said, “I have heard 1) whole group discussion of a single book is discouraged 2) the book is age inappropriate and 3) it’s not part of a ‘list’ of approved books. I don’t understand this either” (Gomez). For Goldberg, the book was banned because of diversity, as it was hidden from children because it wasn’t “age appropriate”. Because the whole idea of the book was to criticize communism, as the story parallels dictatorships with the Soviet Union, certain communist countries have banned it on around the globe. If one may look at the book, a shining example would be “Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haunting glances from side, and with is dogs gamboling round him. He carried a whip with is trotter”(Orwell 133). This, of course, shows Napoleon as a sign of power, and a terrible one too. The whip symbolizes tyranny or dictatorship. Another interesting quote states, “But just at this moment, Napoleon stood up, and casting a particular side look at Snowball, uttered a high-pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter before. At this there was a terrible ganging sound inside, and nine enourmas dog wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn” (Orwell 52-53). If one looks at this more closely, one can see it resembles the banishing of Leon Trotsky. L. Trotsky was considered to be an idealist who wanted to spread the idea of communism, as the same with Snowball (Sparknotes). Just like Snowball, Trotsky was run out of Russia by the rise Stalin, a the real life counterpart to
Napoleon. Both having too many parallels to be coincidental, this is a complete link to both communism and dictatorships. Thus, why Russia banned the book in the first place. Many people wanted this book banned because Animal Farm is a book all about the dangers of manipulation that happens through a society. An example would be the reader seeing the change of the seven commandments, as well as the pigs manipulating all the other animals. Thus, it shouldn’t be banned because of these real life implications. Furthermore, the book as a fairy tale does not glorify communism, and only explains the extreme basics anyone can interpret as a cautionary tale of rulers going too far and a society doing nothing. Finally, even if one see these ideals, that does not mean society should hide this sort of information. It is always good to see several types of political ideologies that differ from from the majority. Just how this book comments on Communism, the people of the next generation should look at these ideas and see what they had done wrong. George Orwell himself stated, “The centuries of capitalism were held to have produced nothing of value. One could not learn history from architecture any more than one could learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names of streets-anything that might throw light upon the past had been systematically altered” (Orwell). Seeing from the quote, a person can tell that he had both criticized capitalism, and wasn’t on either side. To him, what matter the most was spreading information. People ban books not because it is mentally dangerous to the youth, but rather to the banners themselves. The main goal for the past generation is to pass on their ideals to the next generation, good or bad. This should not be the case however, as most, if not all information should be allowed to any child, adult, or person. With new ideas comes new actions, and self improvement/self reflection on what once was the society of yesterday.
Citations
Author Unknown. “Character List” Date Unknown. Sparknotes. Web.
Gomez, Betsy. “ Everything’s Orwellian: School Removes Animal Farm from Curriculum” CBLDF. February 3, 2017. Web.
Orwell, George. “Animal Farm” Signet Classics. 1956
Orwell, George. “ George Orwell > Quotes > Quotable Quote” Date Unknown. GoodReads. Date Unknown . Web.