Use of Humor to Describe Historical Events Illustrated in George Orwell's Animal Farm

George Orwell created the novel Animal Farm as a pun to historical events. Orwell created a funny farm story based on the occurrences of the Russian Revolution. It is a novel based on the first thirty years of the Soviet Union, a real society pursuing the ideal of equality. Orwell uses many comical approaches in the novel depicting the historical events. Many of the events, people, and animals within Animal Farm are a direct representation of the Soviet Union. This story shows the reality of a corrupted society. It perfectly relates to the history of Russia and its problems with the Soviet Union. It develops a controversy between the intelligent and the simple-minded. The novel depicts the Russian Revolution, retelling the story of the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of an animal fable.

Each event that occurs in Animal Farm has a historical parallel. The Rebellion is the October 1917 Revolution, the Battle of the Cowshed is the subsequent Civil War. Mr. Jones and the farmers are a representation of the loyalist Russians. The hens revolt stands for the brutally suppressed 1921 mutiny of the sailors. Napoleon’s deal with Whymper represents Russia's 1922 Treaty of Rapallo with Germany. The animals follow the seven commandments throughout the novel. The building of the windmill is the most important event in the novel, which represents industrialization. Orwell ends the novel with a satiric portrait of the Teheran Conference of 1943, the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin who are now allies. All of these events are noted in the novel in a humorous way.

Orwell uses humor in a way to enhance the story and events in the novel. All of the animals portray human qualities. They eat, sleep, act an...

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...create electricity for themselves is also humorous.

Orwell created Animal Farm as humorous approach to the Russian Revolution. Majority of the events in the novel closely relate to those in history. The animals possess humanistic qualities and eventually take over the farm. The novel depicts the Russian Revolution, retelling the story of the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of an animal fable. Orwell’s use of humor throughout the novel is a depiction of historic events from long ago.

Works Cited

Kreis, Steven. The History Guide: Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe, The Nazi-

Soviet Pact (1939), 2001. Web, 18 March 2012.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. Strand London: Penguin Classics, 1989. Print.

Rong, Sheng. Oracle Think Quest. The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia, 2001.

Web. 18 March 2012.