Essay about George Orwell's Attack of Social Institutions in Animal Farm

Animal Farm, by George Orwell was published in 1945, a crucial time in history because of Stalin’s takeover of the Soviet Union and his exploitation of the centralized communist government. This was in direct contradiction to the expected results of the Russian Revolution. Orwell felt that revolutions fail because the end result is a change of tyrants and not of government. Orwell exemplifies this failure through the goals of the revolution and their failure to meet them, the malfunction of Napoleon and Snowball’s rule together, and Napoleon’s disastrous reign.

Societies are built on a hierarchy. There is a leader, an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class. This representation of human society is built by our natural need for a leader no matter how tyrannical. George Orwell firmly exposes and attacks this flaw of human nature in his allegorical novel, Animal Farm. In Animal Farm Orwell displays situations mirroring that of the Russian Revolution, and how it failed to produce the utopia that was promised out of the revolution. George Orwell, before writing the novel, was disillusioned by the Communist revolution, a revolution that promised to provide all its people with a government that owned everything, but in turn was owned by the people. Orwell quickly concluded that all revolutions will fail, as the Russian Revolution did, because those who attain power are then corrupted by it. In this view of revolutionary efforts Orwell presents his views on human nature as a whole, that humans are unable to maintain an utopia, unable to abstain for consuming power, and that humans will subjugate and oppress one another if given the power to do so.

     This novel takes place at a farm, which its name is Manor Farm, who’s owned by Mr. Jones. He a drunk that never really took care of his animals. There was a Boar that lived on the farm his name was Old Major. He is twelve years old, had lately grown rather stout, majestic- looking pig, tushes never been cut, and wise and benevolent appearance. He sets up a meeting to discuss an important matter that happened to him the night before.

As a political writer and socialist of the time, Orwell turns the tragedy of the Russian people, whose dreams of a communist utopia were crushed by the Stalin regime, into a message to society. These people of the Russian Revolution were treated just as poorly, if not worse, than before the revolution because of political innocence and an authoritarian government. With his novel, Animal Farm, serving as allegory for the Russian revolution, Orwell warns that any society that gives the leader absolute power is fated to become corrupt and oppressive because of the inevitability of a leader manipulating his power for personal gain. Even revolutions that have the best intentions will ultimately fail if the leaders are not held accountable.

One of Orwell’s most influential political novels is Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a book about a group about mistreated and abused animals who overthrow their neglectful owner and form a new society. Although their society is formed around the idea of equality, it still resulted in chaos. Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a response to communism in the Russian Revolution. Communism is extremely similar to the way things worked on Animal Farm… communism always started off with positive intentions, but ended in chaos. In the novel, Orwell does a good job of showing the reader that the animals are not undergoing the best conditions, Towards the end of the book, Orwell says, “Starvation seemed to star them in the face.” Orwell’s novel is filled with symbolism and irony which helps us infer the specific events and people he references in the book. Orwell achieved his purpose in the book Animal Farm by shifting the hopeful tone to one of despair.

“The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume leadership.” (27; ch.3). In George Orwell’s literary fictional work “Animal Farm” he constitutes a story containing animals to tell of the enlargement of Soviet communism, the entire book is based on the Russian Revolution. Orwell uses the characterization of Joseph Stalin and his power to create Napoleon who chiefs the farm after the rebellion. As he uses an additional character Snowball to signify Leon Trotsky and how he challenges Stalin. In the novel Animal Farm Orwell utilizes his thought of the Russian Revolution to convey the understanding of corruption within socialist ideas by developing

In the novel, George Orwell illustrates what happens when those in power become so power hungry that they no longer advocate for the society they are meant to lead but rather for themselves. The parallels in Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution are evident from the start when Farmer Jones is chased out of the farm just like Czar Nicholas II is overthrown from power. Those involved in the coup believe that what they are doing is the right thing and it will better the lives of everyone, therefore, they conspire to overthrow their leader. They soon realize that there is no such thing a classless society and they have only traded one tyrant leader for another.

Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell, was one of the most well rounded

The writing of George Orwell (The Animal Farm) reflects numerous events that occurred during Stalin’s rule. The novel is an allegory for the Russian revolution where the characters reflect different leaders, Mr. Jones and the humans represent the capitalists of the West and the ‘pigs’ represent the leaders of the Russian Revolution (Aven, 2013). The novel portrays the Russian Revolution of 1917 as a revolution that resulted in a government more oppressed and totalitarian than the one it overthrew (Aven, 2013). The Characters and events in the novel parallel the events of the Russian Revolution. The mass sell-off of Russian states assets follow the collapse of the Soviet Union due to income inequality (Aven, 2013). The creation of a new class of men known as the Russian oligarchs whose wealth and power could not save or doom politicians (Aven, 2013). The novel reveals that even the good can fall prey to ambition, selfishness and hypocrisy, as well the abuse of power that any society with leaders that have absolute power is ultimately doomed to failure due to the inevitability of leaders manipulating power for their own personal benefit (Aven, 2013). Creating a fear of man into the people so that they would become even more determined to work hard, Orwell attacks Stalin for betraying the revolution to suit his own needs.

Karl Marx, writer of Communist Manifesto along with Friedrich Engels, is represented as an old, wise pig in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Because Orwell is a democratic socialist and does not accept the ideologies of Marxism, he reveals the reality of communism and reflects his opinions through sardonic situations that occur among animals. The state of communism that Marx and Friedrich Engels describe is where the state is abolished, people live in a society where members work together in agreement and no one is exploited, and every member shares the rewards of hard work. The envisions of Marx greatly contrasted with the plot of Animal Farm. Old Major, a pig, had a dream that mirrored Marx and his dream of communism. This “dream” was ironic because it suggests that communism was only a dream and would never be obtained. The Soviet Union’s policies were seen as steps to reach communism, rather than the end result of communism, in which all animals of the farm endured. The characters in Animal Farm had to pass through this in between stage before becoming a complete communist society, and in reality they remained in this stage and believed they were close to their goal.

Within the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, Orwell demonstrates the political and social oppression during the 1940’s through the animal’s conducted mannerisms. In response to the debate of the industrialization farm windmill, Napoleon interrupts Snowball’s statement by dictating, “The windmill is nonsense and he advised no one to vote for it.” (Orwell 52). Napoleon is overcome with overconfidence on a psychological standpoint as he rudely interrupts Snowball’s discussion towards the building of the windmill. Although from a political standpoint it is quite justified to oppose one’s viewpoints on certain subjects, it is another area to become riddled with selfish desire led by ignorance and interrupted the other mid-presentation drawing

The main aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, and ‘Animal Farm’ is generally considered to be a Marxist novel, as all its characters share a similar ambition at the beginning. ‘Animal Farm’ represents an example of the oppressed masses rising up to form their own classless society, whilst offering a subtle critique on Stalin’s Soviet Russia, and communism in general. Orwell is, ironically, revolutionary in his work, as contextually in 1945, communism was a ‘taboo’ subject, punishable in post-war America by arrest and even death. It is clear from the political references in ‘Animal Farm’, that Orwell considered Russia, and consequently communism as a

The main purpose of satire is to attack, and intensely criticise the target subject. This is superbly carried out in the classic piece of satire, Animal Farm. The main targets at the brunt of this political satire are the society that was created in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and the leaders involved in it. George Orwell successfully condemns these targets through satirical techniques such as irony, fable, and allegory. The immediate object of attack in Orwell's political satire is the society that was created in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The events narrated in Animal Farm obviously and continuously refer to events in another story, the history of the Russian Revolution. In other words, Animal

The dignity of the poor workers oppressed by capitalism would be restored, and all people would live as equals in communism. This book, Animal Farm by George Orwell is an amusing story of allegory of the early history of the Soviet Union. Orwell wanted to make political writing into an art and to harmonize political concerns with artistry. As he became inspired by the Russian Revolution he wanted to show how some governments would do almost anything it took to succeed the rest. The book itself has acquainted many by providing a basis to describe the problems of communism as it was once tried in Russia during the 20th

'Animal Farm' is a lament for the fate of revolutions and the hopes contained in them. Orwell believed that the basis for society was human decency and common sense, a basis that conflicted with the ideals for society that were prevalent at the time. Orwell harbored the belief that the governments were