One thing that is extremely entertaining about the novel is the extreme naivety of the other animals; they talk about how “Mr Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we would starve to death” , the other animals – which in general represent the people – don’t really understand the concept of a revolution and what is entertaining about the whole story is how they will listen to the future leaders and just take what they say as to be right, like drones.
In chapter 3 all the animals start to work, and this is very promising, their first ever harvest brings in more than what “Manor Farm” which is now named to “Animal Farm” has ever in the past. The animal Boxer which as soon as was described I immediately thought he represents the working class of Russia, becomes a great role model for everyone else in Animal Farm. Boxer cannot read as well as the pigs and other animals and what again is entertaining about him is he trust the system, no matter what, he believes what the people in power are doing are doing the right thing.
Also the pigs who are considered the smartest of all the animals start a literacy program to get every animal under some degree of literacy. What I believe is entertaining about this is that all the animals are learning to read, and again this is a human characteristic and there is some sense of irony that they are trying to not like the humans and still are trying to be like them in a way.
In this chapter you can now start to see the way in which the Revolution will drift away from the common animals’ ideals, which had no classes and “All animals are equal” kind of thinking. The pigs take a planning role in the work of animal farm, they exclude themselves from working on the farm. Squealer tells the common animals that “If we did not plan everything, then Mr Jones would come back”, which I find very entertaining in the fact that already at the start of the utopia that they have created you can see that the smarter animals in the farm have taken a role in which they are already elevated a little, and they are using a “propaganda machine” in the form of squealer to make sure they have that little privilege.
The tone of Orwell’s animal perspective is as always through out the novel, noncommittal and unremarkable, but with a statement like this “Napoleon kept the puppies in such seclusion that the rest of the farm soon forgot their existence” already alerts you to watch out for Napoleon as his suspicious behaviour will climax in future chapters.
In Chapter 4 the other farmers that surround Animal Farm, on their farms their have been a subtle behaviour changes like tearing down fences which in the future could lead to a revolution and because of this, start to get worried, and decide with Mr Jones to try to take over Animal Farm. Snowball who is an intellectual has been studying a book of Tactics and he and Boxer lead the charge, while at the same time Mollie the mare runs into the barn in terror. They battle of Cowshed has been one and the animals decide that Snowball and Boxer should be given medals for their bravery.
What again is entertaining is the personification of the animals, where they are being honoured for a human emotion/reaction and at the same time these animals are just meant to be animals. What the animals don’t know is that by bestowing a medal onto Snowball they are bringing the Snowball / Napoleon feud to a climax, this makes the reader want to read on.
Again Orwell has used an allegory to good use in the way that he has presented the other farms. The other farms represent other countries that have different ideological beliefs such as the UK, America. This at the time where the Revolution was had many sympathisers and people who believed in “Animalism” which in actual fact is really communism.
In chapter 5 the story now takes a new direction, and while all this tension has been building up, the reader has known about and has been waiting on. The two characters, Napoleon and Snowball represent two divisions of a post-revolutionary government. Snowball is a more likable character and he symbolises a more intellectual, visionary and idealistic government whereas napoleon represents a more economically minded and authoritarian way of leadership. The conflict between the two is not just in the story about the power of one of the pigs but is actually a conflict of the two ideologies and which one will come through.
Earlier on in the essay where I talked about how Orwell makes the reader more suspicious of what Napoleon is up to, here is where the suspicions are realised. While Snowball is making a speech, Napoleon sets the dogs, that he seized and raised them, onto attack Snowball. Although Snowball escapes some of the animals get a strong sense that Napoleon has turned a farm resource against the rest of the animals.
After Napoleon has been making more and more disturbing proclamations, Boxer again responds by this time having the catchphrase “Napoleon is always right”, this again is entertaining in the way that the masses – which are represented by Boxer – still have total devotion to the political figure they originally supported, despite the fact that Napoleons reign has descended into tyranny.
In chapter 6, the animals are now working like slaves to complete the harvest and to build a windmill. What is entertaining is the irony in that Napoleon announces that the animals will not perform “voluntary” work on Sundays, and though the work is called voluntary, those animals who do not participate will have their food rations cut in half, none of the animals stand up and try to argue with Napoleon because they are either too scared of him and his dogs - which I believe to represent a secret police – or they have full confidence in him
Squealer is ordered by Napoleon to start to blame anything and everything that goes wrong on Animal Farm on Snowball. Squealer convinces the rest of the animals that Snowball was never in the revolution, and was fooling them all along to discredit him. And again all the other animals just take it as fact, and also although they are on worse rations than they were with Mr Jones, and overall were better under Mr Jones they believe that they are better because they are free, but what is made entertaining about this is the irony that they think they are free but they are not.
Moments like Boxers removal to the horse butcher are when Animal Farm’s ironic view becomes most crucial. The animals slowly grasp that Boxer is being sold for glue, but Squealer is easily able to pacify them with a sloppy lie. The reader, however, is not so easily tricked, and this discrepancy between what the animals and the narrating voice believe to be true and what the reader know creates a bitter sense of irony.
In the last chapter the whole story climaxes with the animals looking into the farmhouse and finding the pigs playing cards and drinking alcohol with humans
This is the scene that the animals finally see the parallels between the pigs and the humans, which is both chilling and also poignant. The animals are honestly not as smart as the pigs, so it is with earnest and gulliable faith that they have withstood the destruction of their revolutionart ideals and the advent of the toltalitarian regime. That is what makes this novel so entertaining aswell as providing a political argument. How the pigs took advantage of the other animals lesser intelligence and made themselves comfortable and in the end ruled the farm under an iron fist of fear and propaganda.