“Animal Farm” is about revolutions for better life. It is based around a farm, which is Russia, and the man who owns it Mr Jones who was supposed to symbolise Tsar Nicholas 2nd. A pig in the farm (Old Major) basically told the rest of the animals that they were not being treated properly, since they had been treated badly for so long that they now thought that it was normal. Old Major was is representing an ideologist before the time of the Russian revolution called Karl Marx. He gave the idea of a revolution, but it happened once he had died. Animals of that farm had some great ideas but through selfishness of the leaders it was all wasted. One of the leaders was Snowball a pig (in this story the pigs were considered as highly ranked and educated people) who soon was expelled from the farm. His ideas conflicted with his evil partner Napoleon who was a boar that represented Stalin a famous dictator. He believed in violence and he wanted the most control and power, but with Snowball there, this was difficult. So Napoleon expelled Snowball, who soon died. Napoleon soon became power mad, he had a helper named Squealer who he had total control over. Squealer represented the media. Napoleon made the other animals like slaves; he eventually began killing animals like he was a dictator. Animals then had an even worse life than they had before. The pigs became like dictators they ruled over the other animals. Mr Jones and Napoleon represented dictatorship and Old Major and Snowball represented communism. Mr Jones had a pet bird called Mollie, which represented materialistic people. Squealer represented the media and propaganda, which brainwashed the animals, into making them think what they wanted them to think. Any clever animals that figured out that they were being played as idiots were killed instantly. One character called Boxer was a horse and he represented hard and honest workers. Boxer was a little more intelligent than the rest of the animals, but he had this faith upon Napoleon the dictator, who had been brainwashed, into his mind. Napoleon couldn’t make up his mind weather to kill him or not, as sometimes he would look up to Napoleon and other times he would also disagree with him. Eventually boxer was killed. Animal Farm can also be viewed as a satire, it makes fun out of those in the real Russian Revolution. It might be a serious story but could also be laughed at. I quote “Moses who was Mr Jones’s special pet, was a spy and a tale-bearer, but he was also a clever talker.” This quote shows how from a serious line it becomes a little humorous. The sheep were taught the phrase ”four legs good, two legs bad” this was to help them remember that the humans were their enemies.
“The Stolen Bacillus” is a mad story about a bacteriologist who has someone over talking to him about science. The bacteriologist hates anarchists and is saying how dangerous the chemical that he was working on was. The visitor was an anarchist but he didn’t know. Then the visitor ran away taking the chemical thinking it was cholera and drank it thinking that it would spread as a horrible virus. The chemical actually made people turn blue it could not harm anyone or even spread. The Bacteriologist knowing this still chased the anarchist. The story has many other jokes in it like that one. The story must have been written a long time ago as in the story there is no cars they still have horse and carriages. The style of life gives quite an old impression. The authors views of society are not very clear, as at the time of the story there wasn’t a lot of technology and science, and religion was against this sought of things. However this bacteriologist was still not taking this issue very seriously. The author can think of society as a fool, as he shows how the anarchist tries to abuse the power of the chemical, although in this case there wasn’t any sought of power it was thought to be dangerous. This story can also be viewed as a satire as it makes fun of a variety of people. The story makes fun of anarchists and how they are blinded by power and don’t realise how easy it is to fool them. This quote shows how the author thinks of anarchists and society as fools, “These anarchists-rascals,” said he, “are fools, blind fools”. It also makes fun of science fiction, as it highlights the potential dangers of science. However it caricatures scientists and anarchists. The ending of the story is light hearted. The story has its serious side; as well it doesn’t mock all aspects of that society. It highlights increasingly importance of science in the 20th century. As religion begins to fade its beliefs around the world, people begin to believe in scientific facts. This can be supported by the fact that there are no dictators in the world today, and that political democracy have increased.
George Orwell in his novel was trying to show that how having control over media one could control other people’s thoughts. He also shows that any power will always be abused due to the never changing human nature. Through this he shows that communism is an idea that will only work in theory not in actual practise. H.G. Wells in his short story showed how people under estimate the power of science. He also showed how scientific knowledge in the wrong hands could have some devastating results. The main meaning of the story is similar to the one of “Animal Farm”, power given to people will always be abused and not used for the right intentions. In this case it was about a deadly disease that could have been spread by an anarchist, who thought he could have power by killing people. The story shows the ignorance of the public and how the greed for power is the human weakness. I feel that “Animal Farm” is more effective at expressing the author’s views of society at the time, because it is a lot longer and that way it can give a more detailed story. It is also a lot clearer to understand as in “the Stolen Bacillus” religious beliefs and science had many conflicts in that time and H.G. Wells hasn’t taken them into account in his story. Adding to my point “Animal Farm” is based on a true story; therefor it is a lot more realistic as it has actually happened.
