How Does George Orwell Use Satire In Animal Farm

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satire of the Russian Revolution. The animals overthrow the evil dictator Mr. Jones and create a government where all animals are equal. The first year is prosperous, but slowly the animals start to lose their quality of life. The animals start to notice that their lives are getting worse, but the pigs are getting better. However, the quick thinking pigs always find an excuse to appease the other animals. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to point our the gullibility of the Proletariat. He comments on this political issue through symbolism, allusions, and personification.

Situational irony occurs when a story’s plot takes a 180 degree turn than what both the intended readers or audiences and the characters predict. Situational irony is also sometimes called as “Irony of Fate”.

In the novel Animal Farm, the writer satirizes certain characters, in an effort to depict society in a humorous way. This essay will focus on the characters of Boxer, Mollie and Napoleon.

In 1945, George Orwell publishes the novel and political satire, Animal Farm. Animal Farm had many controversial themes that which made the novel banned in countries such as the Soviet Union. Although these themes stirred up a mass amount of controversy in some countries, Animal Farm became one of George Orwell’s most successful novels. The novel reflects the events in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. Throughout the novel, themes such as corruption, a naive working class, and the use of propaganda negatively affect Animal Farm.

Now that the Old Major isn't around, the animals have to plan for the rebellion themselves. “The work of teaching and organizing the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals.” George Orwell employs irony in writing this because there are two young boars who are “preeminent among the pigs,” so all animals are not equal. Among the animals there are some who are better than the others. After the rebellion the pigs lead the animals and tell them what to do and what not to do. After the animals successfully overthrow Mr.Jones, they change the name of the farm from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm.” The name of the farm is significant because it signifies that the farm belongs to the animals.

The quote implies that animals are better creatures than humans. After being assaulted by humans, the animals don’t want any characteristics of humans to be inputted in them. They say, “Four legs good, two legs bad,” to make humans a disgrace to animals. This rule is a part of the seven commandments of animalism. It is said to remind the animals of never stand on two feet because then you are developing human characteristics. Birds in this case are different, because the animals count wings as another pair of legs. The phrase was originally a longer statement. It took up two of the seven commandments. By simplifying the statements, it was easier for the other animals to understand. The knowledge of reading is used as propaganda by classifying the difference between the pigs who could read, and the other animals who couldn’t read.

 Propaganda is one of the many ways people, or in this case animals use as a strategy to manipulate their ways of ideas into society. George Orwell use of it is presented frequently in

George Orwell was the author of Animal Farm, Orwell was able to write a satire on the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm started off with the animals living an anguished life under the ownership of Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones treated the animals with no respect, he took everything the animals had produced, and when Mr. Jones sees that the animal were incapable to work he would slaughter them. The animals on the farm revolted against Mr. Jones and kick him out of the farm. After the revolution the animals went a couple seasons under Snowball and Napoleon leadership, but Napoleon viciously chasing out Snowball.

The Russian Revolution was led by a few leaders of the common people, promising better work conditions and a Communist government with equality for all. However, when the Communist party was established, so much power was given to the government, that, it quickly went corrupt and abused peoples’ rights far worse than the previous government. In George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, the pigs promise the animals better lives than their current lives under Jones’s rule. However, mirroring the Russian Revolution, the pigs went corrupt almost immediately afterwards, changing previously declared rules, and killing other animals without reason. In the end, the pigs ended up as bad as man. In Animal Farm, George Orwell utilizes situational irony, displaying the pigs as corrupt leaders, to support Lord Acton’s quote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Orwell made use of animals instead of humans to draw attention to the absurdness of the Revolution and his belief that things would not change. During the card game “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which” (139). Orwell also used satire to ridicule the belief that Russia’s plan of a utopia where everything is shared was flawed from the beginning. Already it did not work because the pigs were not sharing equally “Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health” (52). This was untrue because the pigs did not need them, they actually just liked how they tasted. Orwell was attempting to use satire to encourage people to stand up for their beliefs. Old Major attempts to inspire with “Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty” (28). In Animal Farm Orwell made wonderful use of satire to mock a real event in

Animal Farm is written by George Orwell. Orwell uses rhetoric and propaganda throughout the book. Animal Farm falls under the genre dystopian fiction because propaganda is used to control the citizens of a society and restrict information, independent thought, and freedom. Orwell uses philosophical control; meaning the society is run by a philosophical ideology often enforced through a dictatorship. The philosophical ideology is a perfect farm in the sense that everyone is equal and no one is in control like Jones, even though the farm becomes worse and worse, Napoleon still acts like it is perfect and tells the animals it is.

These animals are meant to display the perfect utopia, however fail in doing so, and the credibility of this can go to Napoleon and Snowball. These are the two pigs who go against each other in order to become the ruler of Animal Farm. Napoleon overpowers Snowball and soon, Animal Farm is under his control. Throughout the course of “Animal Farm,” Orwell uses irony, to mock the communist ruling of the animals in Animal Farm as they overthrow the humans because of their vices, and ironically end up adopting the vices of the human ruling as their own.

In George Orwell’s satire of the Russian Revolution, Animal Farm, he creates a microcosm of Russia to be able to depict the events that occurred during the Russian Revolution of 1917 in an uncomplicated manner. Orwell utilizes the literary device, personification or anthropomorphism, to represent certain important figures involved in the spread of Soviet communism. For example, Napoleon is the equivalent of Stalin, Old Major is Lenin, and Snowball can be Trotsky. In addition, Orwell also uses symbolism to correspond certain aspects. For instance, the different barns represent countries involved in the Russian Revolution.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory based on problems resulting from the Russian Revolution. In Animal Farm, George Orwell uses tone, characterization, and stylistic elements to show that people in power use manipulation to stay in power.

The rebellion was to escape from people and their cruel ways, but can they escape the death-grip of their own kind? The animals of animal farms are mistreated and have no rights. Mr and Mrs. Jones were the owners of Manor Farm, the human oppressors, and authoritarians of the animals. The animals rebel against the Jones and take over the farm. They create a utopian society for themselves, but the utopia quickly turns into a dystopia when the pigs take control of the farm. In many ways, Animal Farm is a complete allegorical / fable –like retelling of the founding of the Soviet Union, complete with a rebellion and eventual installation of a dictator. Like the ideological battle that was raged in Russia between the classes, the one that is played out in this novel have many of the same themes, including an initial push to strengthen the working class, a strong beginning movement of nationalism and unity, a series of successful efforts to topple the ruling authority (Mr. Jones), all followed by a complete totalitarian takeover by a dictator who is a hypocrite and goes back on many of the promises he made at the height of the revolutionary action.