Why George Orwell's Animal Farm Deserves Literary Merit

Literary merit is not handed out gratuitously and is earned when all the requirements are fulfilled. Though it is not on the List of Literary Merit, Animal Farm embraces every aspect of what makes a book "great". Animal Farm comes quite close to the standards of the Scarlet Letter when compared to it, which IS on the list.

What exactly is literary merit? It is having themes, characters that change, a timeless main idea, and exploring a range of human emotion amongst other requisites. Both Animal Farm and the Scarlett Letter have themes, which were the actual purpose for writing the book, not just plot. George Orwell criticizes communism and its corruption while Nathaniel Hawthorne venerates the life of a person in sin and how the outside world responds to it.

Animal Farm is not merely about talking animals running a farm.

While some may argue over the book's length, a not-so-staggering 114 pages, upon completion the book causes extreme patterns of thinking to take place. It was not about the animals, it was about the government and one metaphorical "pig" having too much power.

In the Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale changes. At the beginning, he keeps his sin to himself and is ashamed of himself. As he is dying towards the end, he frees himself by revealing that he is Hester's lover and Pearl's father. In Animal Farm, Napoleon the pig does just that; he changes. He undergoes a 180 degree previously schemed personality transformation from revolutionary hero to macabre dictator. The animals also change from intense ebullience to collective disillusionment.

Also by George Orwell and on the List of Literary Merit is 1984, throughout which a range of human emotion is explored. Constant control and helplessness are prevalent throughout the text. Winston is always watched by the omnipresent telescreens and feels the need to escape for he is trapped. In Animal Farm, the common farm animals experience feelings of accomplishment when their rebellion is successful and of doom when they see Napoleon dressing, walking, and even dining like a human.

To put Animal Farm on the List of Literary Merit would only be practical and appropriate. It opened the eyes of millions of Americans and Britons to the true horrors of communism and totalitarianism. Any piece of literature that can do that on its own deserves literary and social merit as well. If it changes lives, then it should be on the List of Literary Merit.