Animal Farm (end)

I have just finished reading Animal Farm by George Orwell.  This was a good book throughout, but the ending was absolutely phenomenal.  It was one of the best endings to a book I have ever read, no exaggerations.  The main theme I saw throughout the book is how easily a government can become corrupt.  In the beginning, the animals hated the corrupt government which was the humans.  So, they overthrew their leaders and became their own government.  They lived in prosperity for a few years, but then the leader's of the animal's government became corrupt and turned into the same corrupt government that was there before.  One of the best parts about this novel is how the reader can see the transformation from the good government to a bad one in a short span.  It is truly marvelous how Orwell paves this change and makes it seem natural, almost to the point where it surprises the reader when he/she actually realizes how bad the government now is.  Now, back to this terrific ending I was talking about.  When the animal government was first created, they never wanted to be like the humans.  Their motto: "Four legs good, two legs bad".  When the government is fully corrupted, however, they change their motto to "four legs good, two legs better".  At the very end, the animals in power (who are corrupted) have humans over to their farm to eat dinner.  They are playing cards, but then it is realized that at least one person is cheating.  They start a huge fight, and, for the animals looking in through the window, " [they] looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which" (Orwell 141).  Talk about a good ending, right?  For some reason, that ending sentence really stuck with me, and I think that is the biggest take away from this novel.  Basically, it is the danger of corruption and the power of money.  It is saying that greed, wealth, and power will turn someone of goodwill into someone selfish and dangerous.  There are many real world examples, but this book was especially meant for Stalin of communist Russia.
This is a few letters between Orwell and Peter Davison talking about the moral of Animal Farm: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/animal-farm-what-orwell-really-meant/
I think that this article is very interesting, especially that Orwell says that violent conspiratorial revolutions always only end up with change in masters.  Fascinating.  Anyway, check it out, it is pretty neat.
If you are thinking about reading Animal Farm, I definitely recommend it. 
I will leave you with a quote from the novel:
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself."