Old Majors Speech
Old Majors speech takes place at the beginning of the book, just before his tragic death.
The main purpose of his speech is to unite the animals together in a rebellion against the humans.
As the animals round up in the barn, we see the camera rise up a tall stack of hay to show on top the graceful Old Major in a bright light standing proud. This shows us that Old Major is seen as a leader- the main figure for people to look up to-
Old Major begins his speech by addressing the present animals as ‘Comrades’*
a term that he uses frequently throughout his speech to keep the animals feeling involved and together as one. Orwell’s use of this word is interesting seeing as the story is supposedly set in England. Maybe the use of this word is there to symbolise the communist presence at the time the book was written.
During the portrayal of OM’s speech in the video we constantly get the image of the animals looking up at OM on top of the haystack, again to refer to the idea of him being ‘superior’ to them
The animals listen intently to Old Major, this is because they see him as the wise one, he has lived longer than them and has experienced a great deal more, which is why they take in his views and opinions about the humans and how to ‘beat’ them.
In a way Old Major is getting the animals to react and carry out his dreams the way he wants, but in another and greater way, he is looking out for them and ensuring a safe and longer future.
OM puts his ideas across by disguising them as a dream he ‘experienced’ the night before, he tells the animals “ You have already heard about the strange dream I had last night, but I will come to the dream later”
The reference to his dream makes me give thought to the famous speech given by Dr Martin Luthor King on the 28th August 1963, “ I have a dream”
Like Martin Luthor King, George Orwell, and also within the story, Old Major are Orators* Martin Luther King’s speech was there to influence the racial views to come to an end and for people to accept one another.
This speech does not just start off the book it is also there to set out the whole purpose of the story- Tyranny, to overcome the ruling of the humans and Mr Jones. In his speech Old Major gives the animals seven rules to overcome the dominating humans and set the road to a life without them, they are:
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol in excess.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
7. All animals are equal.
(Comrades*-fellow members of a union
(Orators*-people who try to influence beliefs and views by using imaginative and emotional suggestions)
When these rules are give out, what the tired troublesome animals don’t know is that Old Major is creating an ideal world for himself, but to the animals the speech seems inspiring and thoughtful. This is shown in the video with the animals singing the words to Old Majors song five times in succession, before Old major is killed.
These rules are not long lived as throughout the book we see them broken and abolished one by one, the rules are changed to the complete opposite, which is ordered by Napoleon who takes charge of the animals after Old Majors tragic death.
Until we see the speech taken from the text and portrayed onto the screen, we cannot see the full effect and inspiration that Old Majors words have on the farm animals.
Old Major is definitely seen here as in charge, or at least greater than the rest. ‘superior*’
Language
In Old major’s speech, Orwell uses many literary mechanisms to entice the audience to listen/read on to see the full extent of the views and ideas that are put forward by Old major himself.
As I stated in a previous paragraph, Old Major is an orator; he influences the animal’s thoughts to gain their trust, to form a rebellion.
He does this in many ways:
- Rhetorical questions: ‘…spring from the tyranny of human beings?’
‘…What then must we do?’
- Emotive Language: miserable, cruel, horror, laborious, slaughtered, dignity.
Old Major uses words like this to highlight the situation all the animals are in and they show that he knows what they are going through.
George Orwell used these words to create feeling in the story and to make it more interesting.
- List Of Three: ‘ Miserable, laborious and short’
- Repetition: Throughout his speech Old Major refers to the animals as ‘comrades’ and also repeats a vital word in the speech ‘man’
- Facts: The humans take the hens eggs
The humans take the cows milk
The humans sell animals as if it is in their interest
Old major states these facts directly to whom it may concern within the animals making each of them feel that they have been picked out and involved.
- Based on personnel experience: Old Majors speech is mainly based on his own experiences, he uses these to show that he has felt things and seen things different from the rest and he can reassure them by doing this, he also uses this chance to show the animals the worst in the humans, giving them more reason to rebel
E.g. ‘For myself I do not grumble…’
‘…As I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done.’
- Involvement of audience: Old Major does this to make the animals feel picked out and involved
E.g. The use of the word, ‘our’, ‘you’, ‘your’
(Also see Facts)
- Dramatic oratory: “ Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever”
If I were to simplify the main issue in this speech it would be: “Man is the only enemy we have”
Old Majors speech can be summarised in three sentences: “All men are enemies. All animals are comrades. All animals are equal”
- Ending Strongly: In this case the strong ending is with a song “ Beasts of England”
Old Major tells the animals that he has known this song since he was small, OM starts singing the song to the animals after his speech is over, and if by ‘magic’ all the animals join in singing perfectly, as if to unite as one -coming together. They all sing in harmony and tune as if they had known the song for as long as Old Major had.
Many of the sentences in the song represent the happenings in the story.
E.g. “Tyrant man shall be o’erthrown”
Referring to Mr Jones, who with his alcohol and debt problems, forgets to feed the animals. The animals here are saying that they will beat him and get rid of him, then they will be fed as much as they like, and when they like
“All must toil for freedoms sake”
‘All’ (simile) means the animals, this means that freedom will not come without them having to work for it, in order to be free they must take action.
The song is there to bring a point of togetherness and to build up a great feeling between the animals, so to let them down abruptly with the sudden death of Old Major.
The speech is filled with different ways to persuade, influence, direct and inform both the reader and the characters within the story.
In the video, Old Majors voice is strong and loud, which is a good way to highlight these things and also a good way to make them stick in the audiences mind.
As all the animals are singing the song Old major looks proud and has a look of ‘perfect’ happiness on his face, because the animals are singing a song which is based on his dreams and his ideal world.
When the death of Old Major comes about, the animals paint the rules on the shed doors, this shows that they agreed with what he had said and that they were going to try there best to carry out his ideas and hopes to provide a better future for themselves.
(Superior*- Higher rank/quality, Couragesly indifferent)
Structure
Compared to each other the book and the video have different structures. The book in text is continual, and from the beginning proceeds in chronological order portraying the events in the right order as they happened, whereas the video does not, as we watch the beginning of the film version we are shown an image of the farm at the end of the story when the rebellion has ended and the animals have succeeded in their plans and fulfilled Old Majors dreams. From then on we are shown how the animals got to the point where they are now, which is the end of the story, this is not chronological order.
During the adaptation from book to the film, the story of animal (and in particular its structure) has changed in many ways. In the video we are given a narrator to guide us through the story, the narrator is a sheepdog named Jessie who is also a character within the story. Jessie sets out the happenings and explains to the viewer (where necessary) how the animals reacted to different things. In the book we do not have such a feature as a narrator so we, as the readers, have to determine ourselves an image of what we are reading to make the story real.
Also during the story things that the characters say about others reflect on people’s attitudes and the way they are portrayed from that moment on:
For Example: At the beginning Mr Jones calls Mr Pilkington a lazy pig, which he thinks is an insult, throughout the story we see many insults like this. The only thing is we see the pigs in the farm to get smarter than the humans, so this makes the comments to Mr Pilkington turning out to be compliments.
Most of the events in the story turn out to affect another part or symbolise a meaning that is going to affect the farm.
Also at the end of Old majors speech when the animals sing the ‘Beasts of England’ we see Mr Jones waking up and grabbing his shotgun, we know that this action was an effect of the animals making too much noise, and also we know that nothing good can come out of a shotgun being grabbed, of course the result is old majors death, which is not portrayed in the book, his death affects the upcoming events and the things which will happen to change the ruling of the farm
Presentation
Animal farm was firstly only available in book form, but over fifty years later it had been transformed into a film version using (for the first time in any feature film) 3-D animatronics and live animals together.
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In the film many special effects are used to create the whole feeling of a real live farm and also in some aspects a fantasy world (animals talking) among the special effects are:
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3-D Animatronics: Animal farm was the first feature film to use animatronics and live animals together. These were used to make the animals move when it was necessary, such as making their mouths move to give the effect that they are actually talking to each other. Also at one point to make it look as though a pig was climbing up a ladder! The animatronics are also good to make the viewer believe the animals actually react to thing Old Major says in his speech, like nodding their heads, shaking their heads and looking up at him on top of the haystack.
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Music: Various pieces of music are used in the film version of Animal Farm at different points, such as at the death of Old major, sad music is played to show how heartbroken the animals are.
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Sound Effects (SFX): SFX play a big part, their job is to give sounds to the movements, such as when the animals move about we hear their hooves or feet hitting the ground. As the music does, the sound effects create an atmosphere within the film, and around the characters, also the SFX can inform the viewer of what is going on even if there is no dialogue.
Although the book was very successful and popular, the film version was able to do many things that the book could not. One example of this is Old major’s death. In the book it is depicted that OM died peacefully in his sleep, but in the film his death is caused by a shot being fired into the side of the barn by Mr Jones’s shotgun.
I think Old Majors death is portrayed well in the film because it give us a better idea of how the animals respected and admired OM, his thoughts and his hopes for the farm. We also see how shocked, hurt and disheartened the animals are when they lose their ‘leader’, from then on we are given excellent images of how the animals are lead by Napoleon to forget Old Major and what he wanted for the animals.
Most things between the book and the film have not changed, such as the characters and their attitudes, but some features indeed change. The book version is one that is quite remarkable but does not depict the images very well for the reader, we ourselves must make up the images as we see them fit the script, however the film version shows us strong images that intrigues us and wants us to carry on watching, we do not need to make up the images because they are given to us.
I think the video has a deeper affect on people emotionally because the events (such as OM death) are changed dramatically to affect the viewer, the book however may affect the reader mentally, because it may make them intrigued to figure out who Orwell was writing about and what the events and characters symbolised.
My Conclusion
Animal Farm is clearly a remarkable story in both text and video form, I cannot conclude which version is better, both have different qualities in different areas. Also both versions portray the story in different ways as to aim at a target audience.
In my opinion I think the book would rather appeal to a more mature audience, and I feel the film would appeal to a much younger audience showing them a ‘fantasy world’ where animals can talk.
Geroge Orwells purpose and motivation for Animal Farm is clearly layed out to anyone analysing this book. The film version enhances the story to make the analysing easier and more real to the analyst. The film version, I thought, was a great adaptation of the book and it was helpful to have two versions to compare and contrast, it made my report easier.
George Orwell – 1903 to 1950
