'Animal Farm' at 80: Orwell's parable remains 'horribly' relevant

George Orwell's "Animal Farm" may be 80 years old this weekend but it still "resonates today" – and "not just as a terrible indictment of left-wing idealism and Communist tyranny", said writer A.N. Wilson in The Times.

His "incomparable masterpiece" illustrates "exactly what Lenin, and then Stalin, did to the population of the USSR" at the beginning of the last century but the animal characters' "pathetic weakness to believe political mantras" remains "horribly" relevant in 2025.

'Forever current'

The book is a "parable about our willingness to compromise with evil when it suits us", said Wilson. "We hold up our hands in horror" at Jamal Khashoggi's murder in a Saudi consulate, but "we'll extend a warm welcome" to the kingdom's ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. "And we all know what is going on in China" but see British trade as "more important" than "the mass imprisonment of Uighurs".

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Orwell may be "long-dead" but "he remains forever current", said Matthew Purdy in The New York Times. It's his "posthumous fate" that "Animal Farm", and his other great work, "1984", have been "stolen" by people of every political persuasion.

Warnings that language can be "a weapon of manipulation, obfuscation and oppression" run through his work. For progressives, Donald Trump and other right-wing leaders embody that sinister authoritarian overreach, while the right sees Orwellian traits in "the left's approach to transgender issues and Covid mandates, and the 'cancelling' of people who do not comply". It's "unlikely" that Orwell, a "writer of precision", would have "approved of being slotted into every hole equally and simultaneously".

'Indelible mark'

Orwell’s writings have "left an indelible mark on American thought and culture", said US Mark Satta, an assistant professor of philosophy, on The Conversation. Sales of "Animal Farm" and "1984" soared after whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked confidential US national security documents in 2013, and "1984 rose to the top" of Amazon’s bestseller chart after Trump's first inauguration in 2017.

Orwell's description of "democratic socialism" and his "recognition that there are various forms of socialism "remain important today" because "political dialogue", particularly in the US, often "overlooks much of the nuance" he "brings to the subject" – not least, the difference between socialism and communism.

Although "Animal Farm" is an extended metaphor and "not really about animals", said Charlotte Sleigh on The Conversation, "what if we were to take the animals in this famous tale more seriously?" It's a novella where a pig dreams – something that "would have the 20th-century animal psychologists turning in their graves". But "any dog owner" today will tell you that their "four-legged friend" has dreams, and, in 2013, anthropologist Eduardo Kohn, argued that "all animals think and imagine their future".

"Animal Farm" endures because "Orwell was also an artist", said Jim Beckerman on My Central Jersey, and in the "struggles of his animal characters, there is real pain". The part where Boxer the cart-horse is "sent to the glue factory" has "made more than one kid tear up". But "by osmosis", young readers can also absorb Orwell's warnings about "how power corrupts, truth can be distorted, and high-sounding phrases can be used to justify horrific crimes".