At one level, George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is an entertaining fable of an animal revolution in England. However, beneath this innocent storyline lie several bleak invited readings presented through textual features such as literary devices, characters and events which parallel the Bolshevik Revolution. These readings, achieved through marginalising certain information and privileging other information, lead readers to adopt a pessimistic attitude toward particular groups and political ideologies. Among Orwell’s invited readings are the tendency of communist governments to become corrupt, the abuse of extensive authority and the effectiveness of propaganda.
Throughout “Animal Farm”, Orwell leads readers to view communism pessimistically by suggesting that communist governments are hypocritical and violate ethical principles. Communism is founded upon beliefs of freedom and equality. Indeed, when Old Major paints vivid pictures of animals living freely, he also points out that “no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind” and that “all animals are equal” (p.6). However, later in the novella, the pigs, having established themselves as the upper class, reign supreme. The pigs force the other animals to labour endlessly while they lead lives of luxury. Their oppression culminates at the modification of the final commandment to “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” (p.85). Despite Old Major’s dream of liberation and equality for all animals, democracy fails to materialise at Animal Farm. Here, Orwell’s text suggests that communism often becomes corrupt and violates the principles that founded it, leading readers to view communism negatively. This is reinforced when Orwell draws parallels between the corruption of Animal Farm and the corruption of the ideals of the Russian Revolution. Rivals for Soviet leadership Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin are burlesqued by Snowball and Napoleon respectively. Privileged readers who are aware of the events in the Russian Revolution comprehend the irony and are thus presented with two communist governments that failed. Consequently, readers are led to believe that communism rarely works. While communism may be an unsuccessful form of government, its disastrous effects were worsened by extensive authority in the hands of corrupt leaders.
Orwell privileges the concept that the vices of leaders possessing extensive authority are reflected in the society which they govern. Napoleon, who is the leader of Animal Farm, is naturally selfish. This trait is exhibited when Napoleon and the pigs lead luxurious lives while the other animals live in poverty. For example, after Mr Jones is overthrown: “it was agreed that the milk and the windfall apples…should be reserved for the pigs alone” (p.
In 1917, Russia underwent a massive transformation. Common folk revolted against the corrupt Russian government and attempted to create a better system. However, humans are all flawed and because of this a perfect system of government is an unreachable standard. George Orwell's Animal Farm describes a situation which at first glance appears quite unrelated. In reality, Animal Farm is actually an animalistic version of the revolution. The animals in the book overthrow the farmer and strive to operate the farm without human aid. Eventually, the animal's revolution follows the same path as the Russian Revolution, the perfect intentions of the revolution soon gave away to corruption and greed as leaders chipped away at citizens' rights. Throughout the slow removal of freedom, propagandists spread the news that things were better than ever before. In Animal Farm, three characters represent key elements in a political revolution.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other.” is one of the most famous quotes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. From afar, Animal Farm is a fictitious novel with no real substance, but when carefully read, it is a chilling allegory of the horrors of the Russian Revolution. Orwell stresses in the novel, the dangers that go along with a bureaucratic or totalitarian regime. The novel supports the idea that Communism is an unethical and unjust system of government and damages society. While Orwell hides the fact that the novel has information, identical to events pertaining to Russia during the 1940’s, he utilizes it in an innocent way by using simple farm animals to directly compare different events and characters of the revolution.
One of Orwell's main reasons for writing Animal Farm was to show how the Russian (or Bolshevik Revolutionaries) Revolution of 1917 had resulted in turning a benevolent ideal of equality into a government of an even more oppressive, totalitarian, and dominating to the people, than the aristocratic one it had recently ousted. Many of the main characters (animals) and synapses of Orwell's parody, run parallel to the event of the Bolshevik Revolution: In Orwell’s novel, The Farm is a representation of Russia and its people, and the most important characters such as Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon parody the central figures that shaped it into the nation it came to be.
... while offering a critique on stalins’s Soviet Russia, and communism in general. Orwell is revolutionary in his work, as in 1945, communism was a “taboo” subject, punishable in post- war America by arrest and even death. Every aspect of context is explored in Animal Farm is an allegory of the situation at the beginning of the 1950’s and employs a third person narrator, who reports events without commenting on them directly. Animal Farm represents both the making and the breaking of communist society. The birth of the communist agenda in animal Farm is brought by the character “old major”. The conclusion is that Animal farm and Marxism have a lot in common.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs take over Manor Farm and dominate the weaker animals by using a combination of strength, fear, and trickery. This book is an allegory to the Russian Revolution, which led to Josef Stalin’s rise to power and the beginning of his dictatorship. In the novel Farmer Jones symbolizes Czar Nicholas II and Napoleon symbolizes Josef Stalin. The animals overthrow their dictator, Farmer Jones, and eventually end up replacing him with another dictator, Napoleon the pig. Napoleon demonstrates how the other farm animals’ weakness can be dominated by strength, fear, and trickery, revealing one of George Orwell’s themes.
Although George Orwell’s Animal Farm was created in order to mimic individuals as well as occurrences that took place during the Russian Revolution period, it is still possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the text without a past knowledge of history through the exploitation of human nature’s imperfections. Following the publishment of his novel, Orwell confirmed that his goal in writing this fable was to expose the wrongdoing of the Soviet Union as well as the treachery of the true ideas of the Revolution. Nonetheless, there have been several other examples of events such as the French Revolution that can effortlessly be contrasted against components of the allegory. However, we need not to dig no deeper than to the fundamental faults in human nature to witness the catastrophic consequences that attributes such as hierarchy, propaganda and betrayal have on today’s society.
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.
The concept of identity is ever-changing throughout the life of a human being. This becomes especially evident when someone is put into a position of leadership and responsibility. This facet of identity is explored in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. The purpose of this novel is, specifically, to portray the uprising and corruption of the Communist regime in Russia, but in a broader sense, it shows how even the best-intentioned people can be overwhelmed and intoxicated by the sense and want of power. This change in attitude and identity is illustrated by Orwell’s use of the motif of the word “comrade”. At the beginning of the novel, this term is used as a sign of equality and friendship. However, through the development of the novel and the eventual dictatorship run by the Berkshire pig, Napoleon, the term seems to have almost a cynical meaning. The changing meaning of the word “comrade” throughout the novel symbolises the changing values of the Animal Farm society. For example, in the first meeting of the animals on their theory of Animalism, Old Major refers to all the animals as “c...
This story Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel about an animal revolution over an oppressive farmer. The irony in the story comes when the pigs turn into the very thing revolted against. They exhibit the same cruelty by treating the other animals the same or even worse than previous owners. This cycle of cruelty is shown in the Russian revolution by Joseph Stalin who is represented by Napoleon in the story. Cruelty in animal farm is shown by the human’s treatment of the animals, and the animal’s eventual treatment of each other and the ironic characteristics of the two.
The novel “Animal Farm” written by George Orwell revolves around the themes of dreams, hopes and plans. In the novel these themes clash with one another and bring out the turmoil in the novel. The writer has carefully chosen the appropriate characters which are helpful to bring out these themes. The animals in the farm, who insanely fallowed the dreamy utopian concepts which promised them a world of which everyone works well with each other and is happy, finally trapped and enslaved by the same concepts they fallowed. Anyone may argue that it is the self-centered rulers, the pigs who have power over the poor animal transform ‘the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare.’ This paper discusses ‘the main causes that transformed the dream of a better or more perfect society in “Animal Farm” into a totalitarian nightmare’, such as intellectual inferiority, violation of rules and regulation, lack of education and awareness in relation to the “actions” and the behavior of the subjected animals.
The effectiveness of propaganda is evident through the rise of a despotic and tyrannical government in Animal Farm. Used as a successful, manipulative tool in the story, Animal Farm depicts the dangers of propaganda to an ignorant and gullible society. Orwell’s story describes the actions that brought about the eventual collapse of an ideal utopian society. Orwell demonstrates the inhumanity and corruption of the Soviet system through the actions of Napoleon and Squealer. Animal Farm is a satire of the Russian Revolution, one that accurately describes the political actions of the Soviet government. Through his novel, Orwell warns the readers of the dangers of propaganda used skillfully.
...re breaking every rule that they themselves had put forth in accordance with Old Major’s revolutionary vision. Animal Farm was a mirror image of communism gone awry in the Soviet Union. It also shows Marx’s naivety of the fact that there will always be the clever that take advantage of the ignorant. By keeping the population ignorant, the clever gain even more power, which is was happened in the Soviet Union and Animal Farm. The ones that took part in the revolutions would never realize that they were holding the short end of the stick, just as they were in their previous state of affairs. They were cold, miserable, and starving. In their brainwashed state they still believed that the dismal state they were in was better than their situation before the revolution. George Orwell finished his book on a somber note, the state in which Joseph Stalin left the Soviet Union.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a main theme is that power corrupts those who possess it. A definition of corruption is,“dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.” Orwell develops this idea through the character Napoleon in various ways. Looking back in the book, the animal’s rebellion quickly turned political and revolved around, “Leader, Comrade Napoleon (Orwell 81)”. The power Napoleon possed was executed through lies and selfishness, aided by the lack of intellectual ability in the other animals. The corruption of Napoleon’s power is displayed when he favors himself, along with the other pigs, and eventually the dogs, who all get better rations of food compared to the other animals. Another main demonstration of how power corrupts Napoleon is how he separates himself from the other animals on the farm, displaying his feelings if superiority to the other animals. A ceremonial nature develops towards Napoleon. The last way power corrupts Napoleon is how he acts recklessly; killing other animals and lying about
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political satire of a totalitarian society ruled by a mighty dictatorship, in all probability a fable for the events surrounding the Russian Revolution of 1917. The animals of “Manor Farm” overthrow their human master after a long history of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for humans. Little by little, the pigs become dominant, gaining more power and advantage over the other animals, so much so that they become as corrupt and power-hungry as their predecessors, the humans.
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.