Allegory And Totalitarianism In Animal Farm, By George Orwell

In the novel “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, the animals take over the farm and develop their own independent society. Just as it happened during the Russian Revolution of 1917. George Orwell underlies the tension between the oppressed and the exploiting classes between the condescending ideals and harsh realities of socialism.

‘Animal Farm’ is a novella by George Orwell, which serves as a political allegory of the Soviet Union and satirises the tyranny under Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship. It tells the story of a farm on which the animals drive out their human master, Mr Jones, who has grown accustomed to neglecting them in his drunken stupors, reflecting how Tsar Nicholas II ignored the squalor the proletariat were living in whilst the bourgeoisie enjoyed better fortunes. With Jones ousted, the animals seem to enjoy a life of equality but as issues arise, the pigs, who claim themselves to be the most intelligent of the animals, put themselves in charge and a power struggle arises between the two most headstrong pigs, Napoleon, a “fierce-looking Berkshire boar”, and Snowball, ‘a more vivacious pig’. Orwell presents a social hierarchy and a divide between the pigs and the other animals from an early point with it growing more prominent as the story progresses using a variety of language and structural techniques.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satirical allegory through which he presents his cynical view of human nature. He uses the animal fable effectively to expose the issues of injustice, exploitation and inequality in human society.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, first and foremost, a political satire warning against the pursuit of utopian desires through unjust and oppressive means. Operating under the pretense of an animal fable, Orwell disparages the use of political power to poach personal freedom. He effectively alerts his readers to the dangerous price that can accompany the so-called “pursuit of progress”. And he illuminates how governments acting under the guise of increasing independence often do just the opposite: increase oppression and sacrifice sovereignty. While the cautionary theme Orwell provides proves widely applicable, in reality his novel focuses on one tale of totalitarian abuse: Soviet Russia. The parallels between the society Orwell presents in his Animal Farm and the Soviet Union – from the Russian revolution to Stalin’s supremacy – are seemingly endless. Manor Farm represents Tsarist Russia, Animalism compares to Stalinism, and Animal Farm, with the pig Napoleon at its helm, clearly symbolizes Communist Russia and Joseph Stalin. But Orwell does more than simply align fiction with fact. He fundamentally attacks Soviet Russia at its core. And in so doing he reveals how the Communist Party simply replaced a bad system with a worse one, overthrowing an imperial autocracy for a totalitarian dictatorship. This essay will demonstrate that Orwell’s Animal Farm is

People respond to control and power differently for various reasons, however, one of the main reasons is based on their personality; their confidence and intelligence. In, Animal Farm by George Orwell, confidence and intelligence is a big factor for why certain animals obtained power and control and why other ones did not. People with confidence and intelligence are likely to gain most of the control and power. People with little intelligence, but lots of confidence are more likely to have some power or work underneath the leader. People with intelligence, but no confidence seem to have no power at all and shy away from it. Both intelligence and confidence are needed for someone to take total power. Therefore, the amount of confidence and intelligence a person has will decide how they respond to control and power.

Napoleon slowly starts to change this, by first blaming everything that doesn't go right on Snowball and making squealer lie about Mr. Jones coming back if the animals does not do as Napoleon wants, and then by starting to change the laws slowly. He started by changing small things to them so that every rule has an exception. The animals who can't read or write are blinded of Squealers propaganda as he fill’s their pride. They all think that at last they are able to take care of themselves and that the old days was much worse. Day by day and as year goes by the animals gets more and more brainwashed. Soon Napoleon is seen by the reader as something evil as he sets terror by killing other animals and taking the hens eggs. Napoleon becomes the one and only dictator for the farm while all the pigs start to behave more like the humans that the ones hated so much. The pigs start to sleep in beds, making alcohol, selling and trading with their neighbouring farmers but no animals complained because they were too afraid and believed that the pigs ware doing it for their

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm the reader is taken to Mr. Jones Manor Farm where the animals begin a rebellion. Among the rebellion two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, declare themselves as the new leader. Over the course of the story Napoleon manipulates animals into making him the sole leader. With all the power given to only him, he begins controlling every accept of the animals lives and forces them to follow his rules. Eventually they are back where they were in the beginning with Mr. Jones cruel punishment, now coming from the pigs. Animal Farm demonstrates that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely all through the novel by the pigs changing each of the commandments made by the animals in the begining of the

Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell and the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.

In the political satire Animal Farm by George Orwell, it presents a story of farm animals in a society parallel to the communist rule in the Soviet Union. The farm is ruled by pigs that are regarded as the cleverest animals and the two leaders are Snowball and Napoleon. They approach politics differently, with Snowball being the idealist and Napoleon being the Machiavellian. Later in the story, Napoleon sought for power for himself and chased Snowball off of the farm. Under his rule, the farm became in state poorer than what it originally was before with the humans. Napoleon’s tactics to control the farm are ruthless; he used his position in power, fear, and propaganda to maintain his authority over the animals.

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, he writes, “ All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Regardless of whether one is born of royalty or poverty, everyone is born human. There is no different from President Obama or Kim Jung Un. Their title and ethnicity may differ from each other, but at the end of the day, they are both still human. No superpower is bestowed upon birth, or at least it is not common knowledge, only a baby is born at birth. One day that baby will grow up and decide to either pursue their dreams or limit itself and its potential due to societal standards. Societal influence has engrossed the masses to the point that people are more susceptible to suppressing their own ideas and thoughts in order to

"Of the golden future time.. Soon or late the day is coming, Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown, and the fruitful fields of England shall be trod by beast alone. Rings shall vanish from our noses, and the harness from our back, bit and spur shall rust forever, cruel whips no more shall crack." This song gave the animals hope that one day life on the farm would be better. Animal Farm is a mockery of a free society and the needs for change. When the pendulum of power swings drastically in either direction "absolute power tends to corrupt." The animals traded the rule of Mr. Jones for the pigs whom they believed would treat them more fairly, but once the pigs gained total control they lost sight of their goal to make life on the farm better for everyone.

In the novel, Animal Farm, the animals of the Manor Farm work hard to get rid of the one enemy, Man, whom old Major informed them about before he died. The speech old Major had given that night gave the animals deep thought about what was yet to come. They came to believe that anything that goes upon two legs is an enemy, but whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. (pg.11) In fact, they made it part of their seven commandments. They kept these seven commandments in the barn where they held secret meetings once the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones, went to sleep each night. The secret meetings were held by the new “leaders”, Napoleon and Snowball, who have very different views on how the farm should be run.

There are many important characters in George Orwell’s Animal Farm but the pig Squealer surpasses all of them in importance because Squealer is essentially the equivalent of a news reporter in the Animal Farm. Squealer spreads propaganda among the inhabitants of Animal Farm, whether it is the truth or a lie, but it benefits Napoleon afterwards since Squealer utilizes propaganda techniques in order to make the animals believe it. Most of the animals that are not pigs or dogs aren’t very intelligent and are the least literate. Animal Farm would then have an ostensibly good reputation in the outside world if the outside world believed it was becoming prosperous. However, it would have a bad reputation among the animals that are not the pigs or dogs on the farm since Napoleon and his dogs committed many grotesque acts within the farm that was unbeknownst to the outside world. These various horrible acts include killing animals because they appeared to be traitors and told they committed the animals did not commit at all in the Animal Farm’s version of the Great Purge. Squealer had foreshadowed the event by stating that there are traitors in the Animal Farm and are standing among the group with Squealer. The animals believed everything Squealer retorted to them although it was a lie and the mass killings occurred anyways.

The book Animal Farm, written by George Orwell is a story about animals living on a farm called Manor Farm. The animals were treated poorly throughout generations by their caretaker. However that was soon to change when a fairly old pig named Old Mayor describes to the animals about a dream he had the previous night. The dream was about how the animals can fix the problem of being treated wrongly by rebelling against their caretaker.

A totalitarian state is a reason for revolution and conflict. The world sometimes works under a dominant leader but when it does not, it makes a society change in an instant. In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the themes and life lessons in a totalitarian state makes the novel a must read high school classic. The themes in this novel show how a totalitarian state can transform a society from working together to becoming the opposite of what they planned to become and what they sought out not to become.