Animal Farm - George Orwell
Animal Farm is a political allegory about revolution and power.
Through the tale of a group of farm animals who overthrow of the farm.
Animal Farm explores the theme of totalitarianism, the corruption of ideas and the power of language.
The themes in animal farms are--
class
equality and inequality
power control and corruption.
The moral of Animal Farm is that it demonstrates the idea that power corrupts power.
This is shown through allegory because the novel has a hidden message about real human politics and the role of morality in government.
Power and control is one of the worst aspects of the world of today, people use it to maintain their power.
There is an irony here, where human vices are condemned and there is an insatiable hunger for power.
Powers corrupt even when idealism is at play. The events of the animal farm are an allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917.
In this revolution, Bolsheviks overthrow the tsar in order to establish communist rule.
The three main pigs are old major, Napoleon and snowball.
These represent the three major figures of the soviet union.
The members of three Bolshevik leaders are – Napoleon – Joseph Stalin snowball – Leon Trotsky and Sequence.
The conflict arises when the animal's desire for freedom and equality is corrupted by the consolidation of political power amongst the pig.
The novel ends as Napoleon seizes power by force and ends up exploiting the animals, just as farmer Jones had done.
The novel ends with the pig behaving and even desiring like the humans.
The farm symbolizes the changing of the government order, with the animals accepting the pigs as their new, masters, just like Mr. Jones.
The sheep are part of the massive propaganda machine. Stalin used it when he came into power in Russia.
There were the people who were swayed by the same propaganda.
They just repeated the same slogans.
The biggest irony is, at the beginning of the novel, the animals wanted to get rid of the humans. But at the end of the novel, the pigs turn to humans.
To them who went on two legs were enemies.
Equality alone could bring justice to society. Orwell has no intention to show that these animals intend to revolt against humans.
But they desire to revolt against human exploitation.
Politics in the form of government brings misery to the people.
The miseries and the cause of poverty be removed by the policies of the government.
He believes in Democracy. But he says socialism aims at the whole of society.
Class capitalism favours a particular class.
For him, communism favours a particular class. This aims to Netorianism.
Political awareness is the utmost need of mankind.
The author appreciates those revolutions that are based on ideals and hopes.
In animal farms, he does not condemn old majors. Old Major represents Karl Marx.
In a way, he paid tribute to Karl Marx and Lenin by giving respect to the character of old Major.
Orwell attempted to show that communism was a lost revolution in Russia.
Animal Farm has been appreciated because of its allegorical style.
From the beginning to the end, the readers remain in the company of the animals.
Old Major stands for Karl Marx.
Napoleon and Snowball stand for Stalin and Trotsky.
The battle between them makes us aware of the Russian Revolution.
Snowball is the antsiness of Napoleon.
Snowball is the true disciple of old major, he is an avid organism and an effective leader.
After the death of the old major, he formulates a system known as ‘Animalism’.
He also asks the animals to sing the song of the Beasts of England.
During the revolution, he plays an important role.
The seven commandments are the outcome of the philosophy of ‘Animalism’.
He preached the principle of the old major on political awareness.
He organised committees such as ‘Egg production committee’ for the hens, the ‘clean tail committee for the cows, and ‘while the wool movement for the sheep.
He planned that every animal should be literate.
He also thinks about the welfare of the animals on the other farm.
So he makes the plan to awaken the spirit of the animals of the farms of Fredrick and Pilkington.
He presents the plan of a windmill. Napoleon opposes this plan. Snowball leaves the farm.
He could have attacked Napoleon. But he was a follower of old Major, who had said, ‘no animal shall kill any other animal’.
He changes the name of the manor farm to ‘Animal Farm’.
He came out with the slogan, ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’.
Snowball possessed all the qualities of an ideal leader. He did not think about his personal life.
The dogs of Napoleon attacked Snowball.
They derive away Jones and his men from the farm.
A stable boy is hurt during the fight boxer feels sorry.
Snowball tells him, ‘War is was, the only good human being is a dead one.’
He is given the honour, of ‘Animal Hero first class.’
He does not shrink away from silly questions Mollie asks him if she would get sugar and ribbons. He convinces her that ribbons and sugar stand for slavery.
He convinces the animals with his brilliant speeches.
Napoleon feared the popularity of Snowball. He succeeded in chasing him away. But the animals do not forget him.
Napoleon contrived that Snowball was a traitor, and that he was an agent of Jones the farmers.
Napoleon and Squealer try their very best to make the animals against Snowball. But Snowball was an ideal leader.
Animal Farm can also be said to be the story of the rise of the absolute power of Napoleon. The tyrannical power and evils are well represented in animal farm.
Orwell has portrayed the character of Napoleon as a classical example of the modern dictator, corrupted by absolute power.
Napoleon is the symbol of Stalin who tried to exploit the tyrannical ways of Stalin through the character of Napoleon.
After Snowball leaves the farm, the tyranny of Napoleon increases. No animal has the courage to revolt against him.
Like Jones, Napoleon had become corrupt and cruel.
When the windmill is destroyed by the storm, Napoleon contrives that it was Snowball who had destroyed it.
Napoleon adopts all the ways of human beings. He starts talking about wine. To hide it, he blames Snowball, that he had poisoned his food. So he needed to take wine as medicine.
He prohibits the animals to take wine.
He changes the fifth commandment that, “ No animals should take alcohol in excess”. He added in excess.
He started living in luxury. The cockerel acted as a trumpeter whenever he appeared. On his birthday a gun was fired.
He breaks the rule that no animals should deal with humans, He sells the timber to Fredrick.
From the very beginning, the animals rarely doubted him. Boxes said, “If comrade Napoleon says it, it must be true.” Napoleon is a hypocrite and cunning.
Whenever the farm is in battle, he escapes during the ‘Battle of Cowshed’ he escapes but late takes the credit for the victory to himself.
Like all human beings, he is also the most selfish among all the animals.
When he hears the news of Boxes accident he does not go there. Instead of sending him to Willingdon Hospital, he sends him to the butcher's house.
Because of his cunningness and the pig's propaganda the condition of the other animals worsened.
Orwell tried to prove that, ‘power corrupts man’.
Like modern leaders, Napoleon Two believed in the development of his community. He does his best to contribute to the progress of the pigs.
He asked all the animals to work hard. But the pigs will direct and supervise the work of the animals. the provides the pigs with special food.
He always threatened the animals that. ‘jones would be back if they disobeyed the pigs had grown rich.
Napoleon abolished all the old traditions to keep his existence safe.
He modified the seven commandments. He stopped the Sunday meeting. He changed everything that reminded the animals of Snowball.
He asks the animals not to sing the song “Beast of England” He changes the flag in which hoop and born are replaced by plain green colours throughout. He converts the ‘animal farm’ to a Manor farm.
Thus animal farm is telling saline of the stabilised period of Russian history.
Animal Farm is also a warning of what seems to Orwell the inevitable fate of mankind given certain conditions and the ultimate objectives of power-seeking and demagogues of any country.
Orwell was of the view that individual development made general development.
Neither had desired that the poor should become rich nor he thought that the rich should give up their prosperity. He expected harmony between the rich and the poor.
He wanted to change the mentality of the common man. He laid emphasis on the virtue of men. That money was not grater than virtue.
Orwell found that the modern world was “moving towards an age of totalitarianism dictatorship”.
He says power the exploitation of the rules is possible only where common people are unaware of their rights.
Old Major the boar provides political philosophy to the animals the inspires them with the song Beast of England.
The irony makes the novel effective. The ironic structure has two main centres one is the manipulation of the attitude towards Snowball. The other is the change of the seven commandments.
Pigs did not work they were told that pigs belonged to the ruling class.
Fredrick destroyed the windmill. The animals took revenge. They defeated him.
Napoleon and the pigs took the credit for the victory.
In the course of time, animals who had participated in the revolution passed away. The young generation did not know the facts of the revolution. They knew nothing about Snowball and the boxer.
Napoleon declared that he was going to establish a better relationship with human beings.
The animals were surprised to see the pigs walking on two legs with Mr. Jones.
Napoleon was having a whip in his hand. The other pigs also were having whips now.
Orwell presents the historical facts in animal farms. He gives no solution to the readers.
Russian Revolution of 1917 is the main theme of animal farms. The novelist gives a healthy comment, “some animals are equal but some as more equal than others”.
Orwell attacked Stalin, according to him equality could not be got through communism.
The author has defected seeing the death of the ideals of revolution. There was no interest in the common man. People were interested in making money.
All the events in the novel symbolize the tyranny of Stalin. Orwell observes every minute detail.
Both world wars were conflicts between the exploiters and exploited. Hitter attempted the exploitation of the common man.
For the novelist the remedy to all these problems was socialism.
The French Revolution came out with the slogan, liberty equality & fraternity. But this could not be achieved by the government they forget the ideals after they came to power.
Boxer awaited the moment of equality. Snowball fought against Jones for a society free from hunger and torture.
The novelist attempts to give the message of a free and just society. At the end of the novel, there is a pessimistic note.
The communistic doctrine could not be accepted as economic equality.
He said, ‘I do not believe that a man with 50,000 pounds per year and another with fifteen shilling per week would cooperate with each other. That their relationship would be like robbing the other. And there is no reason that the man will turn into a new leaf.
Animal Farm is a telling satire of the Stalinist period in Russian history. It is also a warning of what seems to Orwell, an inevitable fate of mankind. This is when certain condition and the ultimate objective of power seeks or demagogues of any country.
No publishes wanted to publish animal farm. This was harsh criticism of Soviet policies. In May 1945 Secker and Warburg decided to publish it.
This was a daring work to laugh at Soviet policies. Orwell refers to the world war, how in 1939, Germany invaded Poland which resulted in the second world war.
Hitler and Mussolini, the dictators of Germany and Italy invaded all the countries of Europe.
Thus we see at the beginning of the novel, old Major tells the animals how they are exploited in the hands of men. Jones, the farmer ill-treated the animals.
The seven commandment is allegorical to the thoughts of Kral Marx the preferred men to be equal.
Comrade was the word used by Karl Marx. Comrade meant equality. All the incidents of the novel are historical events of the Russian Revolution.
The overthrow of Nicholas II resembled the Battle of Cowshed.
The novelist says that revolutions are inspired by novel ideas and hopes. But power corrupts power.
All this has been clearly portrayed in animal farm. We find how Napoleon mixes with the men, just as Stalin and Churchill stand during world war II.
We see the decline of the ideals and the rise of tyranny by power.
Squeator serves Napoleon just as Dr Goebbels serves Hitler.
It is said that if a lie is repeated many times, it becomes the truth equator top convinced the animals that pigs are superior to them.
Squeator was like the modern propaganda and politics courtier par excellence.
The animals except the pigs and dogs were a victim of propaganda.
But Benjamin knew the facts of propaganda.
He knew the facts that hunger, hardship disappointment is the unchanging law of animal life.
Animal Farm is a fable on one hand and a satire on the dictatorship of Stalin.
The story is symbolic in character as a fabric. It anuses the children.
Through Boxer, the novelist attempts to convey that lives of common people are meant for suffering.
Many governments come and go, but the condition of the general people remains the same.
Whenever any untoward happening occurs, it affects the common man. Boxer is sent to the butcher's house when he is wounded in the accident.
The common people are seldom paid seldom.
Orwell did not show any interest in style and techniques in the writing of fiction.
He regarded language as the medium to clarify through. He said, “ good prose is like a window pane.”
He said difficult words produce obscurity.
Orwell was conscious of his purpose of making his language the medium of his political thoughts.
He avoided using metaphors and similes. His simple style gave way to clear expression.
He was a political writer, so he fused political themes into literature.
He said, “If you simplify your English you are freed from the worst faults of orthodoxy.
According to Orwell modern English is full of bad habits, which can be eliminated only if the writer is desirous of taking the necessary trouble.
Orwell was of the opinion that a language should be both pure and subtle, flexible and simple.
The conciseness of form and simplicity of language in the animal farm makes the reader comfortable in reading it.
The language of the animal farm is appropriate to the story.
For Orwell prose needed to be functional and effective. His style is so plain that his message is quite clear.
The style and purpose are closely knitted in animal farm.
His style has become an inspiration to prose writers.
Orwell's humour and his pessimism, his tenderness and his anger, his idealism and his scepticism are very remarkable.
Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried with full consciousness of what I was doing to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into a whose said George Orwell about his book Animal Farm.
Orwell was of the opinion that England was trying to blind the Russian faults of the Russian communist regime.
Orwell wanted to expose the soviet and present the faults in revolutionary socialism.
He considered totalitarianism the enemy.
He was depressed when Russia became Britain's ally.
He wanted to remind his countrymen that Russia was their enemy.
The theme of animal farms is based on Russian history from 1917.
Napoleon has been named after Napoleon Bonaparte, the great leader of post-revolutionary France.
Orwell's Animals Farm presents a moral lesson that equality in the economic field is an urgent need.
An animal farm known as a manor farm symbolizes Russia and the soviet union under communist poetry rule.
But more generally, animal farm stands for any human society, be it capitalist, socialist, fascist or communist.
Technology symbolizes the windmill in Animal Farm.
Mollie represents the petit bourgeoisie that fled from Russia a few after the Russian Revolution.
Orwell uses the dogs to symbolize how government use military force to intimidate society.
Stalin used brutal military force into his people.
Moses represents the Russian orthodox church during the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Prior to the revolution, the church had a close relationship with the Russian monarchy just as Moses has a close relationship with Mr.Jones.
Boxer represents the peasants of Russia they were exploited by Tsar Nicholas II. He ruled from 1894, He was expelled in 1917.
Napoleon is a huge Berkshire bear that secretly trained the dogs to attack Snowball.
Mr. Fredrick symbolizes Adolf Hitler the head of the Nazi regime in Germany.
Orwell presents the Soviet secret police as the dogs of Napoleon.
He reveals the establishment of the windmill and the effect of the seven commandments in a beautiful way.
Animal Farm criticizes the shortcoming of all revolutions.
Orwell himself said about the book that it is “intended as a satire and dictatorship in general.
There the novelist refers to the French Revolution Spanish civil war and the Bolshevik Rebellion of 1917.
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