In his self-proclaimed ‘fairy-story’, Orwell uses his allegorical farm to symbolize the communist system. Though the original intention of overthrowing Mr. Jones (who represents the Czars), is not inherently evil in itself, Napoleon’s subsequent adoption of nearly all of Mr. Jones’ principles and harsh mistreatment of the animals proves to the reader that indeed communism is not equality, but just another form of inequality. The pigs and dogs take most of the power for themselves, thinking that they are the best administrators of government. Eventually the power corrupts them, and they turn on their fellow animals, eliminating competitors through propaganda and bloodshed. This is of course a reference to Stalin, who murdered many of his own people in order to maintain his dictatorship of Russia. Readers can easily see that Orwell’s language is very straightforward to understand.
Orwell has portrayed the main theme in ‘Animal Farm’ by using clear and uncluttered words. However, Orwell has also contained many symbols and implications in his story, such as the skull of Old Major, Napoleon’s Portrait, neighbouring farmowners, the windmill and the changing of the flag and the name of the farm. This may confuse the readers a little bit, but these are directly related to the history. Orwell was able to overwhelm this confusion and communicate with the readers.
Even though his story contained a lot of symbolism and implications, Orwell was able to display the contradiction of the communist government very well. Since he wanted readers to understand the text rather than to be confused by it, he intended to use simple and easy words rather than complex and difficult words. This is clear in ‘The Seven Commandments’, which form the tenets of ‘Animalism’ (Communism):
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.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill another animal.
7. All animals are created equal.
Other than ‘The Seven Commandments’ there are several other simple and easy words used in ‘Animal Farm’ that symbolizes many complicated matters. For example, the absolute principle of ‘Animalism’, ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ changing into ‘Four legs good but two legs better’ in the end or ‘All animals are equal’ changing into ‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others’ are not very hard to understand. It is very easy to oversee the true meaning of them, which is the contradiction of the communist government (in this case the pigs).
However, the actual fact is very complicated compared to what Orwell wrote. The communist government was far more complicated than the pigs’ operation. They were much more advanced than the pigs in ‘Animal Farm’. They were able to change their rules quite secretly and unnoticed, they were very skilled at forging and fabricating history and they were experts at brainwashing people. Whereas, in ‘Animal Farm’, the pigs are quite clumsy at doing these things. For example, in the story, the animals expose Squealer changing ‘The Seven Commandments’ with a paintbrush. This shows how awkward the pigs are at doing things the communist government did. It is very easy for the readers to see what the pigs are planning and doing. This is because Orwell has simplified the events and the words in ‘Animal Farm’ that showed what the communist government actually did to its own people.
Orwell’s aim to make people see through the systems and rhetoric to the truth that he was writing in ‘Animal Farm’, would not have been successful without his brilliant character selection. As he proclaimed it a fairy story, Orwell intended to make ‘Animal Farm’ simple by using animals rather than human beings as its main characters. The reason he selected animals to be the main characters rather than human beings is because human beings have multi-aspects of characteristics but animals have only one aspect of characteristics, which is quite simple to represent a certain character. For example, donkeys are usually considered stubborn and taciturn, pigs are considered lazy and greedy and horses are considered hard working and strong but foolish. Orwell interpreted this idea into ‘Animal Farm’ and could accomplish his aim.
George Orwell was the person who thought good prose is like a window pane, meaning writers should write in clear, uncluttered prose so that people could see through to the truth they are writing. This was his principal belief in writing and from this he became famous. ‘Animal Farm’ is the book that shows this very clearly. Even though it contains many symbols and implications, it is very easy to understand the true meaning. It does not matter if the reader does not know about the Russian Revolution and the communist regime in Russia. The reader can still see the main point of the story, which is a hypocritical governor using his power against his own people. This was what George Orwell aimed to do and he has truly achieved this in ‘Animal Farm’.