‘Somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all (P.38)’
This is a point, which shows that the animals possess human qualities, which proves that Orwell’s description of his novel, is true.
‘Animal Farm’ uses animals which children find more interesting, and again, attracts a larger audience. The way in which the animals are interesting has a rather complicated meaning, but simply, each type of animal possesses different qualities. The pigs, are intelligent, and as I said before use this quality to assist in their own needs, which is seemingly greedy. Another quote to support this point, is their alterations of the Seven Commandments-
‘No animal shall sleep in a bed, with sheets. (P.45)’
This goes against what Old Major had taught them at the beginning of the book, and totally destroys the whole meaning of Old Majors dream, which he was relying on the animals to fulfil. Next we see that the horses posses loyalty amongst their fellow animal friends, Boxer in particular, whose motto throughout the book was
‘I will work harder. (P.49)’
We also see Moses, a seemingly sinister character, telling the animals that they will pass onto somewhere better in their after life, most probably
‘SugarCandy Mountain. (P.78)’
Finally, the sheep form an impression on the readers mind as quite stupid animals, and as the reader would think, just wonder the farm aimlessly bleating
‘Four legs good, two legs bad. (P.22)’
Another way in which we can justify Orwell’s subtitle of
‘A fairy story (subtitle)’
Are the basic elements that it contains, as all fairy tales do. In order for a novel to be defined as a fairy tale, it has to contain the following basic elements: -a special beginning, royal/majestic characters, evil characters, an essence of magic and a special ending.
If we analyse these points we can see that the book does have a special beginning with Old Major telling the animals that if they
‘Only get rid of man, the produce of our labour would be our own. (P.5)’
This is an optimistic start, and although Old Major does die, we see that
‘Old major died peacefully in his sleep. (P.9)’
This gives the reader a sense of peacefulness and it is also quite optimistic that Old Major’s song was learnt immediately by all the animals and that
‘The song threw the animals into the wildest excitement. (P.8)’
We can see that although Major is dead, he is there in spirit with them.
Royal characters is also a main aspect of a fairy story, and this element is well and truly there in the text. At the beginning, Old Majors presence shows the reader that he is a royal and distinguishable animal amongst the animals. We see that he is quite an admirable character as well at the beginning of the book, when Mr Jones returns with his men to drive the animals out of control of the farm. It is the end of the ‘war’, as Snowball calls it, and Boxer’s eyes
‘Are filled with tears (p.28)’
Because he had not intention of
‘Taking life, not even human life (p.28).’
This is quite admirable, that an animal will not even want to take human life, even though man is the enemy.
Evil characters are not evident throughout the book, but we can see that the pigs misuse their intelligence and end up turning evil, decreeing that animals should be slaughtered. They even send Boxer to be slaughtered, for money that they will receive and use to their benefits. Magic is not evident throughout the course of this book, and the ending is certainly not special which leads onto the second part of this analysis; I would now like to present some arguments with some valid points about why Orwell was wrong in placing his novel within the genre of a fairy story, and the following points, make Orwell’s description of his book, quite ironic.
Although the novel does actually read like a fairy story, and Orwell subtitles it as just that, it is also a satire containing a message about world politics and especially the former Soviet Union in particular. Since the Bolshevik revolutions of the early 1900s, the former Soviet Union had captured the attention of the world with its socialist experiment. Stalin’s form of government had some supporters in Britain and the United States, but Orwell was against this system. In a satire, the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it. Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as the legend of Soviet socialism.
This is why Orwell wrote the book so that all ages could understand it. In fact, after some research, I found out that Orwell personally had to go to every bookstore, requesting for his book to be removed from the children’s section. However, ‘Animal Farm’ also tells us a second story-that of the real-life Revolution. Many critics have matched in great detail the story’s characters to historical persons. The mains examples are the linking in the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball to the historical arguments between Stalin and Trotsky for control of the Soviet Union. I also did some research and discovered that critics believe that Old Major represents Karl Marx, who died before realizing his dream.
Other comparisons include Moses as the Russian Orthodox church, Boxer and Clover as workers, the sheep as the general public, Squealer as Stalin’s government news agency, the dogs as Stalin’s military police, and Farmer Jones as Czar Nicholas II. The farm’s neighbours, Pilkington and Frederick, are said to represent Great Britain and Germany, while Mollie suggests the Old Russian aristocracy, which resists change.
These previous paragraphs are very strong suggestions that this novel is completely the opposite of a fairy tale, but rather a way in which Orwell was expressing his feelings about the Russian Revolution. Orwell turned the domestic animals on the farm into immediately recognizable, memorable and sometimes lovable characters. I think that ‘Animal Farm’ is more than a fairy story; it is an explanation of thought and truth.
However, critics often consider ‘Animal Farm’ to be an allegory of the Russian Revolution. In the early 1900s, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II faced an increasingly unhappy population. Freed from feudal serfdom in 1861, many Russian peasants were struggling to survive under a cruel government. By 1917, amidst the tremendous suffering of World War I, a revolution began. In two major battles, the Czar’s government was overthrown and replaced by the Bolshevik leadership of Vladmir Lenin. When Lenin died in 1924, his former colleagues Leon Trotsky, hero of the early Revolution, and Joseph Stalin, head of the Communist Party, struggled for power. Stalin won the battle, and he deported Trotsky into permanent exile.
So we have established a structured argument as to why Orwell was wrong in titling his book ‘a fairy story,’ because there is evidently some historical significance behind every animal’s personality and character.
The main argument as to why ‘Animal Farm,’ should not fall into the category of a fairy story, is that fairy tales tend to close on a happy note, whereas here the
‘Creatures outside looked from pig to man, man to pig…which. (P95/last page)’
Which is a rather sad note to conclude the book on. These final words of the novel contrast totally with Old Major’s original dream which was that the animals should stick together and
‘Remove man from the scene (P.4)’
It is evident from this last note, that quite sadly, the animals have not fulfilled Old Major’s dream, leaving the book to close quite sadly, so this suggests an argument against Orwell’s subtitle of ‘a fairy story.’ It is also a valid argument that slaughter of the innocent is a main element of this story, and does not usually occur in fairy stories. On page 56, we see that even a sheep who
‘Confessed to having urinated in the drinking pool…was slain on the spot.’
A fairy story usually portrays a wholesome message and has an optimistic ending. However, this book reveals evil becoming triumphant over the good, and the book also concludes with a pessimistic ending, leaving Orwell's description of his own book rather ironic. In order to be classified safely within the genre of the fairy story, the book would have to possess a morally optimistic conclusion, which is definitely missing from Animal Farm. Referring back to the original question, I can confidently answer that, on the one hand, George Orwell was correct in classifying his book as a fairy story, in the way that animals posses human qualities, but on the other hand, he was wrong. This is because we can see from the last few points of my analysis, that this novel can be placed within the genre of an allegory of the Russian Revolution, or it can even be placed within the genre of satire, which politically attacks communism, in the form of humour.
