🐷 Animal Farm by George Orwell | Book Review

Don’t let the talking animals fool you! Animal Farm is way more than a barnyard bedtime story. George Orwell’s classic might look like a simple tale about some fed-up farm animals kicking out their human boss, but it’s really a brutal, genius takedown of power, lies, and how even the noblest revolutions can go rotten. Written in Orwell’s signature no-nonsense style, this book goes beyond the 1940s politics, because it’s a mirror held up to any society where people promise freedom but deliver the same old oppression. And yeah, it’s got pigs. Scheming, power-hungry pigs. You’ll never look at a farm (or a politician, or a pig) the same way again.

(Jangan terkecoh sama para hewan yang bisa ngomong! Animal Farm itu jauh lebih dalem daripada sekadar dongeng sebelum tidur. Cerita klasik karya George Orwell ini emang kelihatannya simpel, tentang hewan-hewan yang ngamuk terus mengusir majikannya. Tapi sebenernya, ini buku yang savage banget yang membahas soal kekuasaan, kebohongan, dan gimana bahkan revolusi paling mulia pun bisa berakhir busuk. Ditulis dengan gaya khas Orwell yang blak-blakan, buku ini nggak cuma bahas politik jaman dulu, tapi jadi cermin buat masyarakat di mana aja di mana orang-orang menjanjikan kebebasan, tapi ujung-ujungnya melakukan penindasan yang sama. Dan iya, ada babi-babi licik yang haus kekuasaan. Setelah baca ini, kita bakal mikir dua kali tiap lihat peternakan (atau politisi, atau babi beneran))

BLURB

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.

When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.

TL;DR: A bunch of farm animals overthrow their human boss, dreaming of a fair society only for the pigs to turn into even worse dictators. Basically, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," but with more oinks. A savage roast of power, propaganda, and how revolutions often fail.

⚠️ SIDE EFFECTS

✔️ May cause: Sudden distrust of politicians, side-eyeing your manager, and realizing your fave influencer is low-key a Squealer.

✔️ Common symptoms: Rage-reading, yelling at the book ("BOXER, NO!!"), and existential dread about society.

✔️ Severe reactions: Questioning every system you’ve ever believed in. Orwell doesn’t do happy endings, just harsh truths.

🚫 Not recommended if: You’re looking for "and they lived happily ever after." This is "and they lived miserably under new management."

❤️ THIS BOOK IS PERFECT FOR YOU IF

✅ You love dark humor that’s "funny ‘cause it’s true."

✅ You’ve ever side-eyed authority ("Why do the pigs get all the apples?")

✅ You’re into short books that punch way above their page count

✅ You stan antiheroes, or in this case, antipigs.

🚨 AVOID IF YOU

❌ Think "trust the process" is always good advice (RIP Boxer)

❌ Can’t handle satire that’s too real ("Wait, is this about my job?")

❌ Need hopeful endings. The closest thing to hope here is "stay vigilant or get scammed."

❌ Hate books that make you question everything 

ANIMAL FARM BOOK REVIEW

Animal Farm is the kind of book that sticks like a bad dream you can’t shake. On the surface, it’s about a bunch of farm animals who overthrow their human owner, but don’t be fooled. Orwell’s not messing around here. He takes the Russian Revolution, strips it down to its ugliest parts, and dresses it up in a barnyard fable so sharp it’ll leave paper cuts. The animals start off dreaming of freedom, but before long, the pigs in charge are pulling the same old tricks as the humans they kicked out. Same oppression, different faces. Sound familiar?

And yeah, some people might say it's an animal story for kids, but unless your idea of a kids' fable includes propaganda, backstabbing, and a heap of broken promises, this ain’t it. The animals’ big motto (All animals are equal) starts off strong, but give it a few chapters, and the pigs are rewriting the rules to suit themselves. Spoiler: "equal" suddenly has a lot of fine print. Orwell’s genius is how he makes you watch, helpless, as good intentions get chewed up and spat out by greed. 

Meet the pigs running this mess: Napoleon (a.k.a. Stalin with a snout), Squealer (the ultimate spin doctor), and poor Snowball. Napoleon’s the paranoid bully, Squealer’s the smooth-talker who could sell ice to a snowman, and Snowball? Well, let’s just say the farm’s new management doesn’t tolerate competition. Orwell’s not subtle here, this is exactly how power plays out in the real world. The pigs start off as comrades, but before long, they’re lounging in beds, guzzling booze, and the other animals? Back to breaking their backs, just under a different flag. Some revolution, huh?

But this book isn’t just about 1917 Russia. It’s more about every time people rise up, only to watch their leaders turn into the thing they hated. Orwell’s basically side-eying all of history and going, "See this pattern? Yeah, it’s gonna happen again." It’s bleak, sure, but that’s why it slaps. The farm’s just a microcosm of how power corrupts, no matter the species. And that’s the scary part: you could swap out the pigs for politicians, CEOs, or anyone with a little too much control, and the story still works. Orwell packed a whole history lesson and a warning into a book you can read in one sitting. Now that’s talent.

The pigs are basically PhDs in propaganda. Squealer, the smooth-talking pig, could convince you the sky’s green if it kept the other animals in line. The farm’s original rules? Yeah, those get "edited" real quick. "No sleeping in beds" magically becomes "No sleeping in beds with sheets" once the pigs want comfy mattresses. Sound familiar? It’s the oldest trick in the book: change the words, change the truth. And the scary part? We see this same wordplay in real life every time politicians or corporations rebrand their lies.

Then there’s the farm’s most iconic line: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Absolute nonsense, right? But that’s the point. The pigs don’t even try to hide their hypocrisy anymore, they just gaslight everyone into accepting it. Meanwhile, the sheep bleat their slogans like brainwashed fans at a rally, and poor Boxer, the loyal workhorse, gets sold off the second he’s no longer useful. Orwell’s screaming at us here: Wake up! Power doesn’t reform itself, it just finds new excuses to stay in charge.

But the truth: this book is both about corrupt leaders and about how ideas get corrupted. The pigs start off quoting Marx and dreaming of fairness, but give them a taste of control, and suddenly "for the animals" means "for the pigs." Orwell’s warning us: any ideology, no matter how pure, turns toxic when its followers stop asking questions. The other animals? Too busy trusting, too scared to push back. And that’s how you end up with a dictatorship wearing a "worker’s revolution" mask.

This book leaves you with that infamous final scene: the pigs and humans partying together, so alike you can’t tell them apart. It’s bleak, yeah, but that’s why it works. Orwell’s not saying revolutions always fail, he’s saying they will fail if we’re not paying attention. This book’s power is in pissing you off enough to spot the patterns before they repeat. Because the real lesson? The pigs only win if we let them.

(Animal Farm rasanya kayak mimpi buruk yang nempel terus di ingatan dan nggak bisa dilupain. Keliatannya sih cuma cerita binatang di peternakan yang mengusir majikannya, tapi jangan salah. Orwell nggak main-main di sini. Dia menguliti Revolusi Rusia sampai ke bagian paling jeleknya, terus dibungkus pakai dongeng peternakan yang setajam silet. Awalnya para hewan punya mimpi mulia soal kebebasan, tapi gak lama, babi-babi yang berkuasa malah ngulangin kelakuan sama kayak manusia yang mereka gulingkan. Penindasannya sama aja, cuma beda muka. Familiar nggak tuh?

Ada yang bilang ini cerita binatang buat anak-anak, tapi kecuali kamu anggep propaganda, pengkhianatan, dan janji-janjian palsu itu cocok buat dongeng anak, ini jelas bukan. Semboyan keren mereka (Semua hewan setara) di awal-awal keren banget, tapi beberapa bab kemudian, babi-babi udah mulai utak-atik aturan buat kepentingan mereka sendiri. Spoiler: kata "setara" tiba-tiba punya banyak footnotes. Orwell jenius banget bikin kita cuma bisa nonton pasrah, melihat niat baik dikunyah dan diludahin sama keserakahan.

Ini dia para babi yang bikin rusuh: Napoleon (bayangin Stalin tapi pake moncong), Squealer (jago pidato yang bisa jual es ke orang Eskimo), dan Snowball yang malang. Napoleon si tukang bully paranoid, Squealer si pembual licik, dan Snowball? Yah, bisa dibilang manajemen baru peternakan nggak suka persaingan. Orwell nggak pakai basa-basi di sini, buku ini beneran menggambarkan kekuasaan di dunia nyata. Awalnya para babi kompak, tapi bentar aja mereka udah nyantai di kasur, mabuk-mabukan, sementara hewan lain? Kembali kerja keras, cuma untuk bendera yang berbeda aja. Revolusi macam apa ini?

Tapi buku ini bukan cuma tentang Rusia tahun 1917 doang. Ini lebih ke gambaran tiap kali rakyat memberontak, terus lihat pemimpin mereka berubah jadi sosok yang dulu mereka benci. Orwell kayak lagi side-eyeing semua sejarah sambil bilang, "Lihat pola ini? Iya, bakal terulang lagi." Memang suram sih, tapi justru itu yang bikin keren. Peternakan ini cuma miniatur bagaimana kekuasaan itu bisa merusak, nggak peduli spesiesnya apa. Dan yang bikin merinding: kita bisa ganti babi-babi itu dengan politisi, CEO, atau siapapun yang terlalu haus kekuasaan, dan ceritanya tetep masuk. Orwell berhasil masukin pelajaran sejarah dan peringatan ke dalam buku yang bisa dibaca sekali duduk. Keren banget kan?

Babi-babi ini sebenernya adalah para lulusan S3 propaganda. Squealer, si babi jago pidato, bisa aja meyakinkan kalian kalau langit itu hijau, asal bikin hewan lain patuh. Aturan awal peternakan aja tiba-tiba direvisi dadakan. "Dilarang tidur di kasur" dengan ajaib berubah jadi "Dilarang tidur di kasur pakai sprei" begitu babi-babi pengen kasur nyaman. Kedengeran familiar? Ini trik klasik yaitu dengan mengutak-atik kata, kita bisa mengubah kenyataan. Dan yang ngeri? Kita lihat permainan kata-kata kayak gini tiap hari, dari politikus sampai iklan.

Lalu ada slogan paling iconic: "Semua hewan setara, tapi beberapa lebih setara". Ngaco banget kan? Tapi itu justru poinnya. Babi-babi bahkan nggak repot-repot menutupi kemunafikan mereka lagi, mereka gaslight semua orang biar menerima slogan itu. Sementara domba-domba mindless ikut teriak slogan itu kayak fans K-pop lagi di konser, dan Boxer si kuda pekerja yang setia? Langsung dijual begitu dianggep nggak berguna. Orwell kayak teriak-teriak lewat buku ini: "Sadar bro! Penguasa nggak akan berubah sendiri, mereka cuma cari alasan baru buat tetap berkuasa."

Tapi sebenernya, buku ini nggak cuma soal pemimpin korup, tapi juga gimana ide-ide bagus bisa dirusak. Awalnya babi-babi mengutip Marx dan memimpikan keadilan, tapi begitu dapet kekuasaan, "untuk hewan" tiba-tiba artinya berubah jadi "untuk babi". Orwell ngingetin kita kalau ideologi apapun, sebaik apapun, bisa jadi racun kalau pengikutnya berhenti kritis dan asal ikut aja. Hewan lain? Sibuk percaya, takut melawan. Dan begitulah akhirnya kita semua mendapat diktator yang pakai topeng "revolusi rakyat".

Buku ini berakhir dengan scene paling ngena: babi dan manusia pesta bareng, sampai-sampai kita nggak bisa bedain siapa babi siapa manusia. Bikin depresi? Iya. Tapi justru itu kekuatannya. Orwell nggak bilang revolusi selalu gagal, dia bilang revolusi bakal gagal kalau kita lengah. Kekuatan buku ini ada di kemampuannya bikin kita emosi sampai bisa lihat polanya sebelum terulang di dunia nyata. Karena pelajaran sebenarnya? Babi-babi menang cuma kalau kita biarin mereka menang.)

THE FAVORITES

■ The way this book shows leaders turning into the very monsters they replaced? Chef's kiss. It starts with noble ideals, but give those pigs a taste of control, and boom! They're worse than Farmer Jones ever was. Feels way too close to home when you look at real-world politics. Absolute power doesn’t just corrupt, it also turns heroes into hypocrites.

■ Using pigs as power-hungry politicians and sheep as mindless followers? Brilliant. What seems like a cute barnyard story becomes a razor-sharp mirror of human nature. You catch yourself thinking, Wait, do I know that pig in real life? Spoiler: You probably do.

■ Napoleon’s the ultimate tyrant-in-training, Boxer’s heartbreaking loyalty will wreck you, and Squealer? That smug liar could sell snow to a yeti. They’re atually us in animal suits. Orwell makes you rage at their betrayals and mourn their wasted hope.

■ The pigs screaming "All animals are equal!" while living in luxury is peak hypocrisy. Orwell’s not subtle, and that’s the point. It’s like watching politicians promise change while lining their pockets, darkly hilarious until you realize it’s not actually funny.

■ Written in 1945, but swap the farm for a modern office or government, and nothing’s changed. Inequality, gaslighting, broken promises, it’s all there. Orwell basically predicted the 21st century, and that’s equal parts impressive and depressing.

■The pigs rewriting commandments and history? Textbook propaganda. Sound familiar? Cough fake news cough buzzer cough. Orwell shows how power keeps control: muddy the facts, repeat catchy lies, and watch everyone fall in line. Terrifying because it works.

■ Pigs debating philosophy while drunk on stolen whiskey? Hilarious until you remember they’re starving the other animals. Orwell’s humor is like a grenade wrapped in glitter, pretty until it blows up in your face.

■ No fluff, no filler, just 100-ish pages of slaps and hits. You’ll finish it in one sitting, then stare at the wall rethinking your life. That’s the power of a classic that doesn’t waste your time.

(■ Cara buku ini nunjukin pemimpin berubah jadi monster yang mereka gantiin? Chef's kiss banget! Semua diawali dengan cita-cita mulia, tapi begitu babi-babi ngerasain enaknya kekuasaan, mereka jadi lebih jahat dari Farmer Jones. Mirip banget sama politik di dunia nyata. Kekuasaan absolut nggak cuma korup, tapi juga mengubah pahlawan jadi munafik.

■ Pakai babi sebagai politisi rakus dan domba sebagai pengikut yang naif? Jenius! Kelihatannya kayak cerita peternakan yang lucu, tapi sebenernya ini adalah cermin dari sifat manusia. Kita bakal mikir, "Wait, kayak kenal deh sama babi ini di kehidupan nyata?" Spoiler: Mungkin banget.

■ Napoleon si calon diktator, Boxer yang loyalitasnya bikin nyesek, sama Squealer si pembual licik? Mereka tuh kita semua, tapi pakai kostum hewan. Orwell bikin kita emosi sama pengkhianatan mereka dan sedih lihat harapan yang terbuang percuma.

■ Babi-babi yang teriak "Semua hewan setara!" sambil hidup mewah? Puncak kemunafikan! Orwell nggak pakai kode-kodean lagi dalam hal ini, dan itu emang sengaja. Baca buku ini tuh kayak lihat politisi yang ngasih janji perubahan sambil tetep korupsi. Pengen ketawa tapi kita semua sadar ini sebenernya nggak lucu sama sekali.

■ Buku ini ditulis tahun 1945, tapi kalau kita ganti peternakannya jadi kantor modern atau pemerintah? Gak ada bedanya, bestie. Ketimpangan, gaslighting, janji palsu, semua ada. Orwell kayak bikin ramalan buat abad 21, dan itu sama-sama keren dan ngeselin.

■ Babi-babi ngedit peraturan dan sejarah? That's what you call propaganda! Kedengeran familiar? Ehem fake news ehem buzzer ehem. Orwell nunjukin gimana cara kekuasaan mengontrol: bikin fakta jadi keruh, mengulang-ulang kebohongan yang catchy, dan akhirnya semua orang nurut. Ngeri karena emang berhasil.

■ Babi-babi debat filsafat sambil mabuk whiskey curian? Lucu banget, sampe kita ingat mereka sengaja bikin hewan lain kelaparan. Humor Orwell tuh kayak granat dibungkus glitter, kelihatannya cantik tapi begitu meledak di depan muka, hmmm.

■ Nggak ada basa-basi, nggak bertele-tele, cuma 100-an halaman isinya tamparan demi tamparan. Kita bisa baca sekali duduk, terus ngeblank sambil mikirin hidup. That's the power of klasik yang nggak buang-buang waktu.)

CONCLUSION 

Animal Farm is not your favorite happily ever after story. Orwell isn’t here to tell you how to fix the world because he’s here to show you how it keeps breaking, over and over. This book’s magic (and horror) is how real it still feels, whether it’s twisted propaganda, greedy leaders, or well-meaning rebels getting played. That final scene, where the animals can’t tell the pigs apart from the humans? Yeah, that’s the point. Tyranny doesn’t always come with a scary mask, sometimes it just wears a new uniform. But this book is both depressing and warning. Stay sharp, question everything, and never trust a pig in a suit. Read this book before the pigs rewrite history and say it never existed.

(Animal Farm bukan cerita happy ending ala Disney favoritmu. Orwell nggak mau kasih solusi karena dia mau tunjukin ke kita gimana dunia ini rusak terus-terusan. Kekuatan (dan kengerian) buku ini ada di betapa relevan-nya buku ini sampai sekarang, entah itu propaganda yang dipelintir, pemimpin rakus, atau pejuang idealis yang akhirnya dikibuli. Adegan terakhir, di mana para hewan nggak bisa bedain babi sama manusia? Nah, itu poinnya. Tirani nggak selalu pakai topeng seram, kadang cuma ganti baju doang. Tapi buku ini bikin depresi sekaligus kasih peringatan. Tetep waspada, pertanyakan segala hal, dan jangan percaya sama babi yang pakai jas. Baca ini sebelum para babi menulis ulang sejarah dan bilang buku ini nggak pernah ada.)