Throughout the later half of the third quarter and fourth quarter, our class read the allegorical novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. The book tells the story of a farm in Europe in which the animals coordinate an overthrow against the farmer and establish their own "equal" society. This story, through a mask of innocence and careful planning, holds an allegory for the establishment and ideology behind Marxism and the Soviet Union in which the workforce overthrows the established government and creates their own communist Soviet Union. Characters such as Napoleon and Snowball portray various political figures throughout the Cold War and Soviet Union era, including Stalin, Lenin, Gorbachev, Marx, and groups or institutions such as established religion and the masses of followers. The portrayal of characters and the events of this era through the story in planned in a way that sarcastically puts the communist regime in a good light, even persuading some readers that the animals were right to overthrow the farmers in order to establish their equal society. The satirical and planned format of the story brings many to confusion on the validity of the figures in Soviet Russia and their ideology behind supporting the communist regime. It also brings a strong question to light: How does the knowledge of an individual's perspective of communist ideology change your opinion of the regime's ideology and validity as a whole?