To be fair when I was a teen I thought the part with Boxer gets shipped to the glue factory even though he was such a loyal worker perfectly mimiced what it’s like for workers under capitalism. Particularly because my father worked manual labour and was fired after his body broke down from the hard labour.
It’s because American schools don’t teach international history or reading comprehension. Animal farm was basically my introduction to Russian history at 14 years old and I had to Google Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin to figure out wtf was going on.
What is embarrassing is that people come back to the text as adults (many college educated!) when they’re supposed to be smarter and they read it with the critical skills of a 15th century Bavarian peasant.
You didn’t understand Animal Farm in your teens? It’s the world’s most unsubtle allegory.
To be fair when I was a teen I thought the part with Boxer gets shipped to the glue factory even though he was such a loyal worker perfectly mimiced what it’s like for workers under capitalism. Particularly because my father worked manual labour and was fired after his body broke down from the hard labour.
It is what happens to workers under capitalism. The accusation is that Stalin is like the capitalists.
Aye, teenage me didn’t think of it that way as I knew nothing about Stalin and could only relate to my own experiences
Same usually happens with 1984, ime. I didn’t know that it was an anticommunist book until I joined Lemmy
It’s because American schools don’t teach international history or reading comprehension. Animal farm was basically my introduction to Russian history at 14 years old and I had to Google Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin to figure out wtf was going on.
What is embarrassing is that people come back to the text as adults (many college educated!) when they’re supposed to be smarter and they read it with the critical skills of a 15th century Bavarian peasant.
It hits you over the head so hard with it that they use it to teach 11 and 12 year olds how to analyze text for allegories lol