Analysis of "Animal Farm" By - George Orwell -

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

“Animal Farm”

By - George Orwell -

Sitting in front of my computer and reflecting about a historical representation, where I should bring in evidence it’s political underlying, which of course is one and the same with its author’s political views.

I thought about this animated movie that I saw long time ago and later read the book from which originated, during my high school years,” The Animal Farm” of George Orwell, a book that I should say I loved it .

The story of the book is related to a true eveniment that happened in Russia and later would change not only the history of the country but of the entire world, where everyone had a different sentiment about what was happening and expressing it in also in many different ways.

George Orwell decides to write a book where he will express his ideas and opinions by using one of the oldest weapons in the history of literature the language of Aesop; Symbology and Satire.

George Orwell gives a very vivid and accurate account of what happened in Russia after Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate .Being a satire, most of the characters and events have a parallel in Stalinist Russia. Minor characters in the story also symbolize things that are very relevant to the history of Russia.
Mr. Jones is the embodiment of the old government, of the monarchy where the autocrat takes all without giving anything; he is the last of the Czars. Czar Nicholas II lost control because the spark of reformation had been ignited by the publishing of Karl Marx’s book Communist “Manifesto”, which led to the successful February Revolution.

But first let’s see what pushed George Orwell to write with such a force against the communist system, created in Russia and then transformed by Stalin in a dictatorship where the victims was none other than he’s one people.

[George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. The son of a civil servant, he was born in India in 1903. His family having moved to England in 1907, he commenced studies at Eton in 1917, where he contributed to several college magazines.

Orwell served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. Years of poverty followed. ...

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Orwell served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. Years of poverty followed.

In 1936 he fought for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war, and was wounded. He was admitted to a sanatorium in 1938. During World War II, Orwell served in the British Home Guard, and subsequently (from 1941 to 1943) worked for the BBC Eastern Service. He was the literary editor of the Tribune, and contributed to the Observer and the Manchester Evening News. ]

As one can see George Orwell had a very active life that put him through different experiences that left their marks behind, especially during the Spanish Civil war where the people suffered in the same way and nothing good came out of it, maybe this was the motive that pushed him to write and spread his ideas and opinions about the communist (totalitarianism) systems all over the world.

In this biting satire upon dictatorship Orwell presents communism as a system full of lies. He never bothers to point out any of the positive impacts that the revolution made. Although what he was trying to prove was individuals can be corruptible, after reading the book we feels that the system itself is bad (and I totally agree with that).

Carefully reading the story the symbology is so strong and the satire is so intelligent that anyone who knows a bit of world’s history will understand what’s going on and where, or if not will make an idea how really this kind of systems work; and there again we can see how George Orwell by underlying his political ideas into his work
succeeds to propagate them in into the readers mind or just strength them for others that already experienced this brute system on their own backyards.

[ "Animal Farm" is the story of a farm where the animals expelled their master and started ruling themselves. The story takes place in Manor Farm owned by Mr Jones. Inspired by the principle of Animalism proposed by Old Major, animals made a rebellion which resulted in expulsion of Mr Jones and they started their own reign. Pigs who were considered most intelligent took the control. As Old Major passed away, Snowball and Napoleon, the prominent ones took the leadership. In the beginning the system runs smoothly. Eventually, Napoleon, who was thirsty for power expelled Snowball and started his dictatorship. The final betrayal was made when pigs engineer a rapprochement with Mr Jones.
Napoleon represents Stalin and Snowball, Trotsky, the idealist. Even the minor characters like Mosses, Boxer and Clover, Mollie also have their counter parts in Russia. Boxer and Clover represents the uneducated unskilled hardworking labour class who were the easiest to convince. They were the most obedient followers of Napoleon and they never doubted the system. Mollie on the other hand represents the middle class who were never satisfied under the new system. Mosses represent the religion. Mosses was not present for the Old Majors meeting, similarly, religion in Russia was caught asleep by the communism. Further he resembles religion because he proposes the idea of Sugar candy Mountain; a Utopia, were all animals will reach after death, which is Orwell version of Heaven. Squealer, who was always assigned the job of convincing animals represents Stalin’s propaganda machine, the Pravda.

"...in the past years Mr Jones, although a hard master was a capable farmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days..."(“Animal Farm”).

Same was the condition in Russia. Czars were capable earlier and as their rule became intolerable, it leads to rebellion. In Animal Farm, Snowball and Napoleon took leadership after rebellion. In Russia, Trotsky and Stalin fought for power, but Stalin eventually expelled Trotsky in 1929. In the same manner, Snowball and Napoleon constantly disputed; Napoleon was already hungry for power and soon after the Rebellion, had plans of getting rid of his opponent. In the midst of an eloquent speech about the plans for making a windmill by Snowball, Napoleon directed the dogs he had raised to attack Snowball. Thus, he had eliminated his only rival and was free to control the farm. Here the windmills represent the five year plans put forward by Trotsky in Russia. Dogs represent Stalin’s body guards who came to the scene only after Trotsky’s murder in 1940.In the story too dogs first appeared to expel Snowball. ]

And the story goes on telling how the poor animals fall from the paddle in fire, in a system worst that the old one, where who dares to speak up will be executed by Napoleon’s dogs same as the Russian nation with Stalin and it’s secret services, which became a “fashion” all over the communist World

It is a dark ending, but it is brutally true. The idea of Socialism, (or Animalism in the book), is good as ideal (not system). Nor Human or animal nature will not allow the leaders, who are always necessary, to be fair.

Orwell did an excellent job of presenting the history of Stalinist Russia with the fairy idea of speaking and thinking animals hitting the system where it hurted most in the people conscience with a powerful “weapon” the pure truth.