From Keyhole Publishing
Orwellian America: 9/11 and the Road to Iran
Richard M. Dolan - May 9, 2008

Played Like Suckers

As the father of two homeschooled children, I find myself doing all kinds of unusual, albeit engaging, activities that I might not otherwise be doing. For instance, my son, Michael, who is nearly 12 and shares many of my interests, graciously encourages me to read some of the books that he’s reading. He’s still trying to hook me on his Dungeons & Dragons library – not much luck there yet – but we do love history both ancient and modern. Last year, we read all of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey together. Most recently, we finished George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

I have been a fan of Orwell since my teens. Yet, it’s been many years since I read this little classic novella, a brilliant allegory of the Russian Revolution. Napoleon the pig was modeled on Stalin – he eventually becomes indistinguishable from the humans, even to the point of walking on his hind legs and carrying a whip.

One of the horses, Boxer, is the tragic hero. Boxer believes in the Revolution, he believes in Animal Farm. He works and works, and then works himself into exhaustion. His two mottos are “I will work harder,” and “Napoleon is always right.” At the end, he is sold to the slaughterhouse and turned into glue. The money from his sale brings in a crate of whisky for Napoleon. read