The Russian Revolution and Animal Farm

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The book Animal Farm by George Orwell was written in comparison to the way that the Russian revolution had taken place. The main idea of the book was that the petite bourgeoisie’s (the middle class people) were the ones who took advantage of the revolt. The petite bourgeoisie moved up the social tower to be the bourgeoisie (the noble class). The proletariat (peasants) did not want to rebel because they were to worried about what they were going to eat the next day.

Mr. Jones the owner and farmer of the Manor Farm from the book Animal Farm symbolizes Czar Nicholas II, leader of Russia during the revolution. Jones represents the old government, the last of the Czar’s. Czar Nicholas II was a poor leader at best, irresponsible with his public duties, cruel and at one time Czar Nicholas and Mr. Jones were actually decent leaders of their own affairs.

Animal Farm begins describing how Mr. Jones did not really care about his farm. “Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen houses for the night, but was too drunk too remember to shut the popholes” (Orwell 3). The chickens could have gotten loose, or a stray animal could have reached the chickens and killed them. Czar Nicholas believed that certain events were bad omens, which in my opinion symbolized his poor leadership and irresponsibility towards Russia. Just like Mr. Jones not shutting the pop holes was symbolic of his bad leadership and irresponsibility towards the farm.

“ Born on the day of the Russian calendar assigned to Job, a biblical character who endured many hardships, Nicholas often expressed a wry, fatalistic attitude about life. Various events seemed to him bad omens, meant to confirm his feelings of dread. For instance, at his coronation, an impo...

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...f terror and slaughter were not what they had looked for” (Orwell 60).

Similar to Russia, people did not revolt to become less united. People in Russia were in need of being one and learning to work as one.

“After the revolution, many people had hoped for a government made up of elected representatives of workers, peasants, merchants, and minorities…. 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". So Jones and the old government are successfully uprooted by the animals. Little do they know, history will repeat itself with Napoleon and the pigs.” (Animal Farm)

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