Looking
for a "classic" novel to read, i decided to read Animal Farm with
a friend to be talked about afterwards. After we read the book though, we then
had a problem. The book is kind of obvious. (For a summary of the book and the
allegory it is supposed to make see the wiki).
While its direct correlation to historical figures may not be obvious, the more
general ideas were. So much so, that throughout the book I was able to
guess the next part of the plot. While reading I understood why Animal
Farm is used so frequently in younger grades. It is an easy
target for understanding allegory in books and sets up an understanding
at how to do this in general. What I didn't understand at first was why this
was then considered such a "classic" book.
About
a week ago, I decided to learn how to make my Bubbe's (grandmother's) chocolate
chip cookies. They had always been mine and my sister's favorite, and so she
made them every time we came over, and we couldn't have been more excited. When
I tried to do it though, I saw how absurdly simple the "recipe"(as
recipe like that grandmothers actually use) was. It had merely simple
ingredients, and there was nothing particularly special in the cookies at all.
What I learned though is that the beauty in the cookies were their simplicity.
Always the same, always with five chocolate chips on each cookie. They were
simple, good and standard, and that made them great. Leo Tolstoy once said: “There
is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth”. My Bubbe's
cookies were great because they were simple and good, and they tried to be
nothing more. Perhaps this is what is so great in Animal Farm. Orwell tries to do no more than he needs to.
He does not make it complicated, but merely tries to get over his point in a
truthful, good and simple way.
Things are getting more and more complicated in a
world that continues to move forward, but it is the building blocks of society
that are good, and simple, like family and community that are truly the
important things.
