Orwell, George - Animal Farm (2)

Animal Farm

It is a satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism by George Orwell. It is about a group of animals who send away the humans from the farm on which they live. They run the farm themselves, but their government degenerates into a brutal tyranny of its own. The book was based on the ones from the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Stalin.

Synopsis

It starts when the farm’s old boar, Old Major, calls together all the animals and tells them that he has had a dream in which men go from the farm and animals are free to live in peace and harmony. Three days later, Old Major dies and two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, assume the command and turn his dream into reality. One night, one night, the animals rebel and take control of the farm. Seven commandments of the new philosophy of farm are written on the wall to be read by all the animals. The most important is “all animals are equal”. All animals work for the benefit of the community. Snowball teaches the other animals to read and write. However, two pigs begins a powerful struggle for the leadership of the farm. In Snowball’s absence, Napoleon declares himself the absolute leader of the farm and makes instant changes. Napoleon begins to abuse his powers even more and he begins to live like human and reserving privileges for themselves. Pigs modified some commandments. Many years pass; seven commandments are reduced to a single phrase: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. The animals realize that they cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.
Characters
Old Major is based upon both Lenin and Marx and he is the inspiration of revolution. Old Major represents the power of speech and how it can and was used to evoke and inspire people.
Napoleonin the leader of Animal farm. Based on Stalin, he builds up his power using false propaganda. He takes the role of a dictator over the farm and gradually changes the commandments to allow himself privileges. At the end, he started to behave similarly to the humans against whom they originally revolted.
Snowball is a rival of Napoleon. Inspired by Trotsky, he is an intellectual who works for the good of the farm and suggests plans to help the animals to achieve their vision of an egalitarian utopia.
Squealerserves as Napoleon’s public speaker. He distorts and abuses the language to extol Napoleon’s actions.
BOXER The male of the two horses on the farm. With his determination to be a good public servant and his penchant for hard work, Boxer becomes Napoleon’s greatest supporter. He works tirelessly for the cause of Animal Farm. After Boxer is injured while defending the farm in the Battle of the Windmill, Napoleon sends him to be slaughtered for profit. The pigs use the money from the slaughter to buy themselves a case of whisky. Boxer represents the peasant or working class. Frederick- represents Hitler Pilkington- represents Britain and U.S.
Mr. Jones The owner of Manor Farm. He represents the kind of corrupt and fatally flawed government that results in discontent and revolution among the populace.
Dogs are Napoleon’s secret police
Sheep represent the masses, manipulated to support Stalin.
Though Animal Farm, Orwell resembles the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin, he paints a horrible picture of the political society of the 20th century, he attack it with humour. Orwell attacked the society that was created in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, which, according to him, marked the end of the very concept of human freedom. Animal Farm is constructed on a circular basis to illustrate the futility of the revolution.