I'm not sure how this classic managed to escape me all throughout middle and high school. When I did finally decide to read it on my own time, Orwell's story hit me swiftly and powerfully, making me understand why it has proliferated across United States classrooms for over fifty years.

Here's the basic plot of Animal Farm for those whose schools, like mine, decided not to dedicate any time to it in class. A group of farm animals rebel against their keepers, claiming their barns for themselves. They establish a new society, one in which they will treat one another as equals. Quickly, this rule devolves as some animals take advantage of the relaxed distribution of power, as well as their own intelligence, in order to secure more authority for themselves. Essentially, this novel satirizes the political setup of the Soviet Union, depicting the ease with which a theoretically perfect society can become the opposite in practice.

So much about this work is unadorned: the characters, the writing, the plot. This simplicity does not diminish the quality of the novel, though; rather, it amplifies the core ideas. I think that Animal Farm is important because it teaches that utopia cannot be reached simply. There will always be someone seeking more power, and no one can afford to be naive about that reality. We should strive for an equal society, but do so in a way that accounts for human flaws.