Theme Of Pigs To Power In Animal Farm

1414 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: who do the pigs symbolize in animal farm

Pigs to Power The novel Animal Farm, published in 1945, right after the World War II ended, reflects the political problems of that period of time through another perspective where the animals decide to change roles, and do not allow humans to control them. This period covers the last few years of the World War II (1943-1944) in which Russia had a communist government governed by a dictator, Joseph Stalin. In the novel, the pig Napoleon represents Stalin. Stalin created a corrupt society where he robbed the citizens for his own benefits, and the ones that supported him and could help him in some way. Great Britain and France, after seeing his increase in power, started to resent him. According to Moss, “The Soviet leader signed a nonaggression …show more content…

The novel has a similarity with the history of Russia. Knapp affirms that “The novel is built around historical events in the Soviet Union from before the October Revolution to the end of World War II; it does this by using the frame of reference of animals in a farmyard, the Manor Farm, owned by a Mr. Jones” (Knapp). Orwell thinks that in Russia exists a ruthless tyranny which has nothing to do with ideas of Marxist socialism. In Animal Farm, Orwell says, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” (Orwell 112). The novel explains the process of the revolutions, all of them begin with ideas of equality and justice, but when the revolutionaries come to power they become corrupt, and end up being like the previous tyrants. The book coincides with the period in which Joseph Stalin has the power, he took over the Soviet Union and the Communist Party establishes a series of reforms and changing the basis of the revolution. With Stalin, it began the political purge system; Leon Trotsky, democratic communists, and anarchists suffered political persecution, and many of them end in prisons or murdered. Also, Orwell says, "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing” (Orwell 7). Tyrannies result of the attitude of revolutionary leaders, who once they came to power, they acquire privileges over the rest of the population, and settle on a corruption in which the priority consists in to lead a comfortable life without worrying about the rest of

Show More
Related

  • Recipe for totalitarianism

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firstly, perhaps no book has linked animals to human counterparts better than Animal Farm. Orwell's beasts serve as a representation of important characters of the World War II era and beyond. For example, Karl Marx, the inventor of the communist movement, was represented by Old Major, the most important animal on the farm until his death. Much like Old Major, Marx was a visionary who dreamed of equality. Old Major states:"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!"(Orwell, Animal Farm, 30). In addition, he inspired the Russian Social Democratic Leader Party, led by rivals Joseph Stalin and Leon Trostky. Napoleon is represented by Joseph Stalin and much like him, he builds loyalties within the communist party ( pigs and dogs) so that he can overthrow Snowball (Trostky). Snowball displaying similar traits with Trotsky in the fact that they both fight bravely in their respective battles. Trotsky was an important component to the victory in the Russian civil war, Snowball displaying this bravery during the battle of the cowshed. The hens, geese, and sheep that are executed are a representation of the millions who opposed Stalin's, and who are killed banished as a result. The hens and geese are not known for their docile natures, and serve as perfect rebels . As well, the pigs' metamorphosis of their face and behaviour is symbolic of the transition of a government initially for the people, into ...

    Read More

  • Why Is Animal Farm Inevitable

    332 Words  | 1 Pages

    In today’s society, unfair treatment is inevitable, and this is especially true in Animal Farm. George Orwell uses Animal Farm to describe the fascist behavior shown by Joseph Stalin after the Russian Revolution. He also uses the novel to incorporate his own beliefs about human nature, and to imply evidence that Dictatorships can happen in today’s society. Throughout the story, it becomes evident that not all animals are as equal as Napoleon says they are.

    Read More

  • Failed Revolutions and Tyrants in Animal Farm

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    Animal Farm, by George Orwell was published in 1945, a crucial time in history because of Stalin’s takeover of the Soviet Union and his exploitation of the centralized communist government. This was in direct contradiction to the expected results of the Russian Revolution. Orwell felt that revolutions fail because the end result is a change of tyrants and not of government. Orwell exemplifies this failure through the goals of the revolution and their failure to meet them, the malfunction of Napoleon and Snowball’s rule together, and Napoleon’s disastrous reign.

    Read More

  • Animal Farm Essay

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    George Orwell’s foremost objective when composing Animal Farm was to depict the Russian Revolution of 1917 as an affair that produced a government more repressive, totalitarian and lethal than the one it replaced. Various components of the text including the setting, characters and plot were created intentionally to parallel key figures and events surrounding the communist territory of Russia during the revolution. Manor Farm – where the plot unfolds – is based on the country of Russia. The character of Mr Jones is a replica of Tsar Nicholas II, the final Russian emperor. Throughout Nicholas’ rule, the Russian people were faced with horrendous poverty and turmoil, just like the animals in Orwell’s novel lead lives of starvation and desire, as revealed when the creatures rebel against Mr Jones due to the fact that he hadn’t fed them in days (page 12)...

    Read More

  • Allegory used in Animal Farm

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    Written in the middle of World War II, it took two years for George Orwell’s Animal Farm to be published, finally, on the 17th of August 1945, into a post-war world. His novel contains themes of satire and the general characteristics of dystopian fiction, although its primary convention is allegory. George Orwell was an outspoken democratic socialist and his imposed his concerns and criticism of Soviet Russia into his book. On a literal level, Animal Farm can be interpreted as how ethics can easily be twisted into warped versions of the original and provides a good moral lesson for those who are reading, yet on a more symbolic level, it exhibits Orwell’s concerns on the use of education and knowledge as tools of oppression, the pitfalls of revolution and the corruptive qualities of power.

    Read More

  • Animal Farm: An Allegory of Russian History

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the main characters of Animal Farm is an allegorical parallel of Joseph Stalin. Napoleon is the pig that emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion. He represents the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Animal Farm, but can easily stand for any of the great dictators in world history. Napoleon seems at first to be a good leader, but he is eventually overcome by greed and becomes power-hungry. Stalin was the same in Russia, leaving the original equality of socialism behind, giving himself all the power and living in luxury while the peasants suffered. While Stalin’s national and international status flourished, the welfare of Russia remained unchanged. In Animal Farm, Orwell writes a similar thing: “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves richer – except of course the pigs and the dogs.” In the novel, Napoleon openly seizes power for himself by using the dogs he trained to chase Snowball off Animal Farm. He banishes Snowball with no justification and rewrites history in order to further his own ends. Similarly, Stalin forced Trotsky from Russia and seized control of Russia. Stalin used his secret police ...

    Read More

  • The Satire of Animal Farm

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    Orwell's book, "Animal Farm", is full of satire. This satire is Orwell's way of communicating problems and resolutions. The main message in Animal Farm is that power cannot be divided equally. There will never be equality for all. Once power is obtained it is always abused, and power causes all to think as the leader does. Equality does not exist, for it is impossible for everyone to be equal.

    Read More

  • The Warnings in George Orwell's Animal Farm

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    George Orwell's goal in writing the novel Animal Farm was to portray the events surrounding the Russian revolution that took place in 1917. Orwell's tale of Animal Farm is seemingly a story of how a group of farmyard animals plot to overthrow their owner and seize control of the land. The novel seems to be a simple story, however Orwell wrote this book as an allegory, a story that has a clear secondary meaning beneath is literal sense. Everything in Animal Farm is used to represent people and events that took place during the Russian revolution from 1917-1939. Orwell chose to represent Russia's three famous leaders during this time with three pigs. Each three are drastically different and have dissimilar beliefs. Snowball representing Leon Trotsky, Napoleon by Josef Stalin and Old Major by Karl Marx. Orwell wrote this and many other books as warnings. The warning is that people must change their ways, or we are most surely doomed.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Animal Farm

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    In his book, Orwell uses his allegorical farm to symbolize the communist system.  Though the original intention of overthrowing Mr. Jones (who represents the Czars), is not inherently evil in itself, Napoleon’s subsequent adoption of nearly all of Mr. Jones’ principles and harsh mistreatment of the animals proves to the reader that indeed communism is not equality, but just another form of inequality.  The pigs and dogs take most of the power for themselves, thinking that they are the best administrators of government.  Eventually the power corrupts them, and they turn on their fellow animals, eliminating competitors through propaganda and bloodshed.  This is of course a reference to Stalin, who murdered many of his own people in order to maintain his dictatorship of Russia.

    Read More

  • Use Of Propaganda In George Orwell's Animal Farm

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in 1975 that reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917. The novel provides an effective use of propaganda techniques by the pigs to manipulate the meaning of equality, freedom and unity in Orwells speech and how they completely abolish the values and attitudes of ‘animalism’. There are many values such as equality, freedom and unity incorporated in Old Major’s speech that commenced the revolution. It appears all animals had the same values but that was until the pigs destroyed it. They use verbal techniques to destroy the values and this played a major effect on the animals who know nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of their new leaders. Furthermore,

    Read More

  • Human Nature in Animal Farm

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel based on the lives of a society of animals living on the Manor Farm. Although the title of the book suggests the book is merely about animals, the story is a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The animals are used as puppets to illustrate how the communist class system operated and how Russian citizens responded to this. And also how propaganda was used by early Russian leaders such as Stalin, and the effort this type of leadership had on the behavior of the people of Russia.

    Read More

  • The Progression to a Totalitarian Nightmare in Animal Farm by George Orwell

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author of the novel “Animal Farm” George Orwell once wrote “every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been against totalitarianism”. Similarly “Animal Farm” also highlight about the totalitarianism. As all other revolutions, the revolution of animal farm also arises with the dream for a better and more perfect society which transfers in to a totalitarian night mare with the urge for the power in the minds of animals, who symbolizes the people who live in society. “Animal Farm is a satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism during the Stalin era. In the novel Orwell uses pigs to represent the ruling class and throughout the story he represent how the ruling class people spread and improve their power employing pigs as the characters.

    Read More

  • Animal Farm And The Russian Revolution

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is a great example of allegory and political satire. The novel was written to criticize totalitarian regimes and particularly Stalin's corrupt rule in Russia. In the first chapter Orwell gives his reasons for writing the story and what he hopes it will accomplish. It also gives reference to the farm and how it relates to the conflicts of the Russian revolution. The characters, settings, and the plot were written to describe the social upheaval during that period of time and also to prove that the good nature of true communism can be turned into something atrocious by an idea as simple as greed. This essay will cover the comparisons between Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution. It will also explain why this novel is a satire and allegory to the Revolution that took place in Russia so long ago.

    Read More

  • Totalitarianism Animal Farm

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    George Orwell’s Animal Farm was published in August 1945. This novel was the author’s satirical take on equality and governing leaders in which farm animals live free from their human master and his tyranny. In fact, Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory where his goal was to depict the Russian Revolution as one that resulted in a more totalitarian and corrupt government than the one it overthrew. One of the ways he illustrates this was through anthropomorphism. Orwell utilised metaphorical characters that were reflections of significant persons in the Russian Revolution to express the kind of people those of the Russian Revolution were. Through these metaphorical characters, George Orwell had impacted the

    Read More

  • Totalitarianism Animal Farm

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    The fable Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, depicts social and historical contexts from the Russian Revolution of 1917, as well as the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R). Orwell’s novel is unique in its use of farm animals to portray the rise of Stalin,a totalitarian leader, and the dehumanization of Soviet Union citizens during the Stalinist era. The novel is set on a farm in Great Britain by the name of Animal Farm, where the values of Animalism and neglective behavior of the farm owner lead to the overthrow of human jurisdiction. The basis of the newly implemented animal run society was to have equality among animals along with branding humans as the common enemy of all animals. However Napoleon the pig, the character representing

    Read More

More about Theme Of Pigs To Power In Animal Farm

Open Document