When I was in eighth grade civics, my class watched the British animated film adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” that the CIA partly funded back in the 1950s to fight communism. I remember being haunted by this story about beasts of burden throwing off the yoke of their neglectful farmer, only to set up a despotic regime run by pigs that was far worse than life under human rule had ever been. When the horse, Boxer, was sent off to the glue factory, I wanted to cry.
Although I was deeply moved by Orwell’s tragic fable, I understood little of its allegorical message about communism until our teacher explained the meaning to us afterwards. Even then, it was only when I read the book as an adult that I really understood what Orwell was trying to say. Several years later, I found myself in the opposite role when, as a substitute teacher, I found myself teaching the book to a middle-school class.
