Animal Farm
How does George Orwell reflect the Russian Revolution in Animal Farm? Towards the end of the First World War in 1917 the defeated Russian nation was forced to surrender to the mighty German army. This lead to the abdication of the Russian Monarchy and the installation of a liberal provisional government. Within nine month however, the provisional government was overthrown by a new system of government which had previously not been seen, Communism, which lead to the establishment of the Soviet Union. In 1945 George Orwell released his well respected satirical allegory of the communist government which was a parody of the soviet revolution in 1917. The book highlights the downfall of communism which eventually developed into a totalitarian dictatorship. In the book Snowball is a fictional character, a pig that is commonly believed to represent Leon Trotsky. The two characters display striking similarities, both appear to have the best interests of their nations at heart. Snowball is concerned with the improvement of conditions on the farm, such as the building of the windmill and the improvement of the animal's social welfare, which is apparent at the battle of the cowshed. This battle represents the civil war in Russia between the Tsarist forces and the Bolsheviks where the old regime tried to retake power. During the battle of the cowshed Snowball is in the thick of
Focusing on THREE key incidents, explore the extent to which language is an effective method of control in "Animal Farm".
IGCSE English Literature Coursework - Animal Farm 4. "The pen is mightier than the sword" Focusing on THREE key incidents, explore the extent to which language is an effective method of control in "Animal Farm". Animal Farm is a fable, and all fables have meanings. This fable, "Animal Farm" has a very strong meaning and that is that the pen is mightier than the sword, which means that language can alter many things that violence can't. In Animal Farm, we can see violence but we also see a small character who could "turn black into white" by his language. He changes everything that happens in the farm only in language, and all the other animals believe him. His name is Squealer and he was one of the cleverest pigs in the farm. We first see him in the novel when George Orwell describes the pigs. "All other male pigs on the farm were porkers. The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with very round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white."(p.9) Here with only his first description we can see that Squealer was a very good talker, and he was good at arguing things. In the story, Napoleon gets advantage of
The Use of Language in Animal FarmAnimal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory in which animals are personified to represent the struggles
The Use of Language in Animal Farm Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory in which animals are personified to represent the struggles and conflicts of the Russian Revolution. The main point emphasizes in the novel is that language is a powerful tool, which can be used to manipulate and control people in order to bring about change, whether big or small. In the story the pigs govern everything that happens, whether it is something as miner as eating a meal, or something as major and important as fighting a strategic battle. Napoleon, the foreman, or leader of the pigs is the most powerful of them all. Napoleon and his "side kick", Squealer, abused the powers of language to manipulate the animals of the farm into thinking that the farm was a beautiful society flourishing with life and freedom, when in fact, it was quite the opposite. An example of how language is used is given at the beginning of the story when Major tells all the animals his predictions for the future, and explains that which must occur, in order to have freedom. They all hear what he is saying, and seemingly agree with it. However, when he dies, the other pigs, Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer, are able to take control, and twist his words around to make the farm the way they want it, so that, the other animals can not argue against them without going against the idea of the revolution. They have no
Explore and evaluate the ways in which Orwell presents and structures Old Majors
EXPLORE AND EVALUATE THE WAYS IN WHICH ORWELL PRESENTS AND STRUCTURES OLD MAJORS' SPEECH, AND CONSIDER THE EFFECT ON THE AUDIENCE. There are many different aspects of Old Majors' speech that are presented and structured by Orwell to create an intended effect on the audience of animals which were listening, as well as the readers of 'Animal Farm'. In his speech, Old Major raises the concern that "[animals] are not allowed to reach their natural span" by humans, and thus jumping on the bandwagon to generalise his cause with the concerns of the listeners, the other animals, who would be extremely worried about their life span due to their "laborious" lifestyle; even though Old Major describes himself as one of the "lucky ones" to have lived for "over twelve years". By doing this Orwell presents Old Major as a great leader, who empathises with, and knows the problems of the general population, even if they are not his. However the fact that Old Major is called "Willingdon Beauty" by Orwell, and boasts of his superior lifestyle also presents him as a character who thinks of himself as a cut above the rest; and therefore Orwell plants the seeds of the flaw in the idea of equality between the animals straight away. It can therefore be evaluated that Orwell presents old Major as a good leader through the 'empathy' of old Major, but shows flaws in his idea, for the readers,
How does Orwell use the fable form to explore ideas about power in Animal Farm?
How does Orwell use the fable form to explore ideas about power in Animal Farm? Remember to write about the society in which the stories are set. Orwell wrote this play to illustrate the Russian revolution. He used the animals to symbolise the main characters in the Russian Revolution. The moral of this fable is that power can corrupt anyone if they are not careful. Animal Farm is used to represent Russia in the time when Stalin was ruling Russia. Orwell represents the populations of Russia through the animals. Boxer is used to represent the community of Russia that did just as Stalin liked and didn't question his word. When the dogs attacked him he held them down with his hoof with ease. "Boxer looked at Napoleon to know whether he should crush the dog to death or let it go." He doesn't understand that the dogs were sent to attack him by Napoleon. This shows just how imprudent Boxer is. He is not as clever as Napoleon at all. If Boxer had a brain as good as a pig he would have been a great leader of the farm. Snowball is meant to symbolise Leon Trotsky and how he tries to do good for the country. Snowball has many attributes. He is a very helpful character and tried to help all the animals on the farm." He formed the Egg production Committee... the clean Tails League..., the wild Comrades' Re-education Committee" This shows that Snowball is dedicated to spreading the
Shooting an Elephant - Orwell's insecurities prompted the murder of a defenseless animal.
Jordan Fife 1 English 1 David Zehr 03-01-03 Shooting an Elephant: Orwell's Insecurities Prompted the Murder of a Defenseless Animal The short story "Shooting an Elephant", by George Orwell, is a narration that subtly discusses Orwell's motives for killing an escaped elephant. As a sub-division officer for imperialist Britain in 1936, Orwell attempts to keep the favor of the native townspeople where he is stationed and to avoid humiliation. The townspeople of Burma neither favored nor respected Orwell until an event occurred that would allow a character opinion to be made. The event was a disruptance where he had to shoot an elephant for the alleged safety of the public. Orwell is not motivated to kill the elephant for the safety of the public, but by his fear of his own insecurities that plague him. Orwell is uniquely susceptible to peer pressure and pressed forward to action through humility. Upon initial assessment of the situation that would test the strength of Orwell's character he concludes "at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. I thought then and I think now that his attack of "must" was already passing off; in which case he would merely wander harmlessly about until
Animal Farm - Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
In 1887, Lord Acton told his friend in a letter, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." In 1945, George Orwell published the short novel Animal Farm, which was as allegory to Soviet totalitarianism, in which he made his views about several topics clear. Many of the characters in the book are corrupted by power, particularly the pigs, as they begin to manipulate their position of leadership to exploit the other animals, showing that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Firstly, it can be seen how power corrupts the pigs in Animal Farm simply by their actions, which include the changing of the commandments and their manipulation of the other animals. The actions of the character Napoleon are a particular case in this argument. In the fifth chapter of the book, Napoleon ousts Snowball from the farm during one of the regular debates with the aid of his trained dogs. Napoleon, not being satisfied with the amount of power that he currently had, decided to expel Snowball from Animal Farm with the support of his trained dogs. He did this in blatant disregard to the second of the Seven Commandments of Animalism. "Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. (Chapter 2)" The law is written so that every animal is considered a friend. However, Napoleon chose to treat Snowball as an enemy because Snowball's
Does the rest of the story show the fulfilment of the ideals and aims expressed in Old Major's Speech?
Does the rest of the story show the fulfilment of the ideals and Aim expressed in his speech? Give a full commentary on what takes place. Personally I do not agree that Old Major's ideals and aims were achieved by the other Pigs and animals. The pigs are shown to take control from the very beginning making up rules and then changing them to suit themselves even before the speech the pigs have taken the front seats in the meeting. The ideals and aims are peace, unity, equality, fraternity, fairness and justice. These are the concepts behind the animal commandments (Listed previously in this essay). The pigs have already learnt reading, writing and language to get ahead of the other animals allowing them to change the rules without confrontation. Language is fundamental to the pigs gaining power. The exclusion of the pigs from day to day work on the farm marks the beginnings of power for the pigs. This is no longer going to carry along with Old Major's ideals of a classless society. The pigs resemble management in a place of work, which again violates Old Major's rules "remember that also in fighting against man we must not come to resemble him." There is not perfect unity between the animals because of the pigs telling the other animals what to do and when to do it. This does not unite them it drives them apart because deep down they know that they have a leader. The
Fox hunting should be banned. Do you agree?
Fox hunting should be banned. Do you agree? I have studied Fox hunting, and I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. I have heard interviews with hunt supporters in which they say that fox hunting does a huge job for farmers in keeping fox numbers down. I cannot believe that this is true, and having researched it on the internet I have found that at least 2 scientific studies have concluded that statistically the numbers of foxes killed by hunts is insignificant. I appreciate that killing the fox and keeping numbers down is not the only reason that hunts take place, but it is often used as an excuse for the purpose of fox hunting; hence hunt supporters appear to contradict themselves in their response to individual questions on why they hunt and group responses to political criticism or pressure from animal rights groups. In my research on fox hunting I have discovered that a fox hunt of some sort takes place in a number of European countries, America, Canada, Russia and elsewhere. I found these statements on the Masters of Foxhounds Association of America (MFAA) website ( http://www.mfha.com ) : "In Britain the goal is to kill the fox. Because there is no rabies in the British Isles, populations of fox are extremely high and fox are considered vermin." "Farmers with sheep farms want the animal numbers controlled. In America this is not normally the case. A successful
How does Major seek to persuade the animals in chapter one of Animal Farm?
'How does old Major seek to persuade the animals in Chapter 1 of Animal Farm?' There are many ways in which Orwell uses rhetoric in order to persuade the audience (the farm animals). Old Major wants to create an animal utopia, and in order to do this, encourages rebellion within the farm. Techniques such as pathos and rhetorical questions are used effectively with a wide variety of other techniques e.g. antithesis, anaphora and ethos being used, though perhaps not as widely or as well as the two devices mentioned previously (pathos and rhetorical questions). The other main persuasive method was via structure, which was also used successfully. Pathos and emotive vocabulary is used extensively in the speech. For example,'...our lives are miserable, laborious and short...' this phrase is very good because he (Old Major) refers to himself as one of his audience which makes them listen to him. This is also an example of emotive vocabulary because Orwell could have written 'our lives are sad, tiring and short' but he didn't he used his vocabulary to make the reader really think about what he was saying. The broken repetition of the word 'man' also adds to the emotive atmosphere, and as old Major becomes more and more heated throughout the speech he begins to repeat the word more and more whi8ch, by the end, perhaps even evokes the word as a 'bad word' a word that should not be
