As I normally do after completing a particularly interesting or symbolic novel, I checked a bit more about Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution and find that it evidently follows reality quite closely in historical context. Of course, Orwell has carefully selected his names, animals, and metaphors very carefully, and this reminds me somewhat of Voltaire’s Candide; political satire that must be powerful yet delicately hidden.
What I would then focus upon is the writing style. It is straightforward to the point where the characters need be animals to add the only real color to the book (except for the Red perhaps). There is no humor in it, except to elicit an exasperated humph! as the reader guesses what will happen as the paths take a destined direction and the signposts clearly seen by those who would understand the nature of man. There are no surprises; this could be a story about any of sadly too many societies over the centuries.
In the end, a rebellion against unfair treatment of the animals by the humans went full circle as the pigs slowly fell prey to their own ambitions. Orwell’s final statement is genius:
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which ws which. (p. 128)
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology