Animal Farm (middle)

I am halfway through Animal Farm by George Orwell.  And it only took me one day!  But on a more serious note, this book is actually very good.  Before I started reading the book, I thought it would be boring, but it is not in the slightest.  While there is not a ton of action, it is very interesting to see the way the characters develop and continue to try to make the correlation between the farm and Stalinist Russia.  I am constantly trying to see the relationship and I can see it very clearly.  I am also making the connection between the farm and events that have happened more recently, namely Syria and Egypt.  While these comparisons are not as direct and accurate as the one with Russia, they still provide an interesting perspective on the events that are occurring in the novel.
My favorite character in the novel so far has been Snowball, an obvious choice. What basically happened in the first half of the book is that animals on a farm revolted against their owners and created a new society of only animals.  Snowball became the natural leader and instituted good policies through mainly communism.  All of the animals enjoyed it and the societal improvements made by Snowball were huge.  However, Snowball was kicked out of his kingdom by Napoleon, who is the obvious antagonist.  He provides the reasoning behind the fall of communism and the prosperity of the animals. 
One thing that I think this book shows perfectly is how, if done right and in small groups, communism can be the best hing for a society.  During the "golden age" of the farm, communism is soaring and leading to a great life for all of the animals.  However, later in the story, the novel explains why communism is terrible in practice (although great in theory) and the reasoning behind the fall of communism.  This all starts with the danger of a naive working class.  Besides the pigs (Snowball, Napoleon, the smartest of the animals), no animal is educated.  They simply do what the leader tells them to.  Now, this works in communism when there is a great leader because then he has a loyal, reliable workforce, but when there is a bad leader, the animals cannot rebel and they now have to suffer.  Even when the animals feel like something is wrong with the leadership, they still do not do anything about it. At one point in the novel, Squealer (Napoleon's assistant) has clearly lied, but "[Squealer] repeated a number of times, 'Tactics, comrades, tactics!" skipping around and whisking his tail with a merry laugh.  The animals were not certain what the word meant, but  Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions" (Orwell 58).  Since the animals were so gullible and loyal, they just accepted a flawed explanation.  This leads to the destruction of the farm (or so I predict).