Animal Farm by George Orwell: An Allegorical Satire

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Animal Farm’ is a novel by George Orwell which carries allegorical aspects. In other words, this novel is mainly focused on the Russian Revolution of 1917. Orwell has portrayed this revolution and the era of Stalin in the Soviet Union (USSR), in a satirical manner. Through out the novel, he has brought out a strong criticism about the power- hungry human kind and the way it affects a nation.

“….No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.” (Orwell,18). Through these words of the Old Major, the dream of the animals is carried out straight forwardly. They just dream of a world with happiness and freedom by changing the above stated ‘plain truth’. Though they succeed at the beginning, the totalitarianism throws the whole crowd of animals, except pigs, into a nightmare. It becomes a tragedy as this downfall of the animal’s dream befalls due to their own kind.

After overthrowing Jones, the owner of the Animal Farm, all the animals got together and worked with more superiority for the reason that they were not slaves of the human beings anymore. Nevertheless, they were not mature enough to realize the fact that, they are turned into the slaves of their own kind. The pigs become the domineering characters in the farm after defeating Jones. Keeping all the apples and milk came to be the turning point of the story, because it was from that moment onwards that the pigs instigated to tyrannize over the animals. The main reason for that was the greed for power.

”…And above all, no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind” (Orwell,21). These words of the Old Major which appear in the first chapt...

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...timately he was rewarded with a painful death in the hands of human beings. His loyalty and obedience were seen worthless by the greedy tyrants like Napoleon. Nonetheless, if Boxer admitted the real wicked nature of Napoleon, made the other animals understand the reality, and acted against Napoleon’s cruelty, he could have lived for some more years and he could have protected their dream from becoming a totalitarian nightmare.

In conclusion, in the novel ‘Animal Farm’, the dream of animals to have a better or a more perfect society, transforms into a totalitarian nightmare mainly due to the actions of the pigs. Yet in a way, the other animals are also responsible for that as they could not stand consistently for their dream. Thus ultimately, they become the victims of the totalitarianism of the pigs and loose their freedom and happiness.

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