From your reading of the book, what would you say are the things that most disgust Orwell regarding human behavior? Back up your view by referring in some detail to passages where you found Orwell's writing most powerful.

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Reina Hashash

English homework

From your reading of the book, what would you say are the things that most disgust Orwell regarding human behavior? Back up your view by referring in some detail to passages where you found Orwell’s writing most powerful.

From reading “Animal Farm”, I was led to believe that Orwell’s main purpose and focus of the novel were his political ideas, reflected through this animal fable. He seems to indicate that human nature inevitably ends up in the abuse and corruption of political ideals. So the novel is actually more political, rather than personal, as he doesn’t really look into psychology, he looks at the actions of political groups to show his ideologies, rather than feelings. He also shows, through his use of irony and narrative style what his attitude is to the human flaws which seem to gradually betray the principles of the revolution.

Orwell uses many linguistic techniques and effects in his writing to convey his thoughts on the aspects of human behavior. One of the very important techniques used by him is irony, along with some aspects of humour. An example of good use of this technique is a passage in chapter seven:

“The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion over the eggs now came forwards and stated that Snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleon’s orders. They too, were slaughtered. Then a goose came forward…””…then a sheep confessed…””…and two other sheep confessed…They were all slain on the spot.”

Here, Orwell evokes a sense of irony with the long chain of confessions. The sentences become very long as more and more animals confess. There is repetition in the use of dashes and the word ‘and’ to show the number of animals confessing without thinking. He uses short emphatic sentences to say they are killed, which illustrates the lack of care Napoleon has towards them. Orwell also uses brutal words like “slaughtered”, and creates a pattern of these words to create a more vivid sense of cruelty. More over, Orwell uses a rapid narrative, and shows no reactions. He only describes what happens, and uses short phrases like “pile up like corpses” when describing the significant parts. This is also an example of the use of a simile, which is used to enhance the atmosphere of violence in this particular scene, and helps the reader feel what he is feeling. Over all, this scene develops the attitude Orwell has towards the idea of cruelty and violence.

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One of the main features which regards to this is the idea of abuse of power to maintain authority. Orwell writes in a lot of detail about how the pigs, who are the potential leaders of the animals, begin to take advantage of their position, and exploit the other animals:

“With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should pursue the leadership”

Orwell shows the pigs’ abuse of power by also using irony and uses a sarcastic tone to show that the pigs were in fact quite egocentric and selfish. Here, the reader begins to realize ...

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