An Analysis of Old Major's Speech: Animal Farm

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An analysis of Old Major’s Speech to the Animals of Manor Farm

                 Having served the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, George Orwell received direct experience with the lower-class of society. After joining the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War he grew critical of the communists, and later he fought the communists in Spain, himself. This was the reason he wrote Animal Farm: to illustrate the dangers that communism, implemented in a harsh way, often led to. In this way, it could be classified as satire, i.e. on the corruption of the Russian revolution, not on communism itself. He wrote it as an anthropomorphic allegory, that is to say that the story of the Russian Revolution was written with the characters being animals rather than humans, and that it was not telling the story literally, rather it was figurative. In my opinion, this was done to engage the reader more fully and to bypass any stereotypes the reader may have about any one of the real-life characters. Out of these characters, Old Major of the Animal Farm represents Karl Marx who can be considered “the father of communist ideology” and of whom “Marxism” was named after. In the same way, Old Major was the “father of animalism” and he was the first one to articulate its ideas.

                      Old Major’s name could be described as an aptonym; both the name he was exhibited with i.e. Willingdon Beauty and the name the animals knew him by i.e. Old Major. The Author uses the stereotype of “old, experienced and wise, hence highly regarded and respected”. His names represent these ideas: “Old” signifies age; “Major” signifies that he is respected due to his age; “Willingdon” may signify his leadership quality and “Beauty” signifies another reason he was highly regarded and respected. Due to his age, him being wise and his immense experience, both of which made him unique, the animals would naturally give him authority.

                    He was a “prize middle white boar” i.e. unique in his appearance, but he was balanced with having “a wise and benevolent appearance”. This balance is the reason he engendered such respect that the animals would lose an hour of sleep to listen to his speech. Although his elderliness is being emphasised by him being “12 years old”, the author goes on to say that “he was still a majestic looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes were never cut”. The fact that his tushes were never cut yet there was still a majestic look on him, indicates that he was unique and his appearance was true, not artificial.

                    During Old Major’s speech, he was not only a person of honour, but he is placed in a position of honour. He places himself on “a raised platform, under a lantern”, in a place of importance for the animals i.e. the barn, above the other animals, singling himself above the others and giving himself the authority he needed. In addition to this, he was there before any other animal, giving them the impression of promptness and strengthening their awareness of the graveness of the topic he was about to speak about. He took all these measures in order that he would have as much authority in the eyes of the other animals, as it would take so that it would make it impossible for the others to oppose him during the speech.

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                    It was night time: the animals were exhausted from their work and this was intensified by the fact that they were missing sleep. The threats of Mr Jones had disappeared and it was the ideal time for the animals to reflect on the reasons for their misery. Old Major had chosen the best time. The fact that they were tired may have made it even more likely for them to submit to Old Major’s view on their lives and his solutions to their problems. It would be natural for them ...

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