Orwell effectively conveys the rise of communism in Russia throughout the book Animal Farm by the accurate elucidation of the context in the Soviet Union from 1917-1945. Orwell’s attitude and political view towards Russia is evident in his representation of the farm animals on Communist Party leaders: Napoleon and Snowball, for example, are figurations of Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, respectively. He expresses the anthropomorphic characters of farm animals, and major events in Animal Farm such as the Rebellion and the construction of the windmill, reminiscent of the Russian Revolution and the “Five-Year Plans”. Orwell also uses many techniques to describe the crucial points in Animal Farm by metaphoric language and allegorical means
The novel Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is an allegorical novel meant to tell the events prior to, during, and after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917. Orwell wrote the novel as a cautionary tale to warn people of the dangers of having a totalitarian government such as the one Soviet Russia had. Orwell also portrays many themes such as the role of religion, tyranny, patriotism, and obedience. George Orwell’s personal experience has greatly impacted the novel. In late 1936, George Orwell and his wife, Eileen, moved to Spain to join the revolution against fascism and work in The Workers Party of Marxist Unification. Orwell’s experience in the Spanish Civil War gave him a first hand look at the events and effects of a communist revolution on a society. Many of the characters and events in the novel are symbolic for historical events and characters in Russia. The Animal Farm represents Soviet Russia after the revolution, and characters such as Mr. Jones, Snowball, and Napoleon represent important figures of the russian revolution.
While reading Animal Farm one will notice many similarities to the Russian Revolution. From the mirroring of characters like Farmer Jones and Czar Nicholas and events like the implementation of labor camps, you can see where Orwell gained his inspiration from. Throughout Animal Farm George Orwell uses different situations and characters to parallel people and events from the Russian Revolution to help simplify and teach students the possible outcomes of totalitarian style government.
Many of the characters and events of Orwell's novel are parallel those of the Russian Revolution: In short, Manor Farm is a model of Russia, and old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon represent the dominant figures of the Russian Revolution. They were very violent and just wanted to push it off like nothing happened. One of Orwell's goals in writing Animal Farm was to illustrate the Russian Revolution of 1917 as one that resulted in a government more oppressive, totalitarian, and deadly.
In the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, symbolism is used greatly throughout the whole story. Symbolism is shown around every corner in this book. From the way the animals act to the reason why the author wrote his book this way.
Orwell uses the allegory, Animal Farm, to present the story of The Russian Revolution and essentially express his opinions on the matter. By plainly exposing the unjust and corrupt system that is communism, Orwell is ultimately presenting his pessimistic view of human nature.
Orwell uses all of this in Animal Farm. The different characters represent different people in his novel. Major, the old boar, represents Lenin and the Marxist ideals, whereas Napoleon and Snowball are the Stalin and Trotsky of the book. The other groups of non-Communists found their way into Orwell's story by way of Pilkington and Frederick, the human neighbors to Animal Farm, whereas the paranoia that Stalin felt is shown in Napoleon by his use of the adult dogs he had raised from pups (a parallel to Stalin's Secret Police) to kill any rebels after the putting on of animal show trials. This is shown in Animal Farm:
George Orwell's goal in writing the novel Animal Farm was to portray the events surrounding the Russian revolution that took place in 1917. Orwell's tale of Animal Farm is seemingly a story of how a group of farmyard animals plot to overthrow their owner and seize control of the land. The novel seems to be a simple story, however Orwell wrote this book as an allegory, a story that has a clear secondary meaning beneath is literal sense. Everything in Animal Farm is used to represent people and events that took place during the Russian revolution from 1917-1939. Orwell chose to represent Russia's three famous leaders during this time with three pigs. Each three are drastically different and have dissimilar
Theme Analysis The theme of Animal Farm is not difficult to understand. Orwell intended to criticize the communist regime he saw sweeping through Russia and spreading to Europe and even the United States. Though he agreed with many Marxist principles, Orwell was unable to accept the communist interpretation of socialism because he saw many similarities between the communist governments and the previous czarist regimes in old Russia. Communism, he thought, was inherently hypocritical.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
Author George Orwell’s animal farm is an allegory because it propounds a symbolic society of farm animals. Certain farm animals represent specific historical characters in the rise of communism taking place at that time in history, for example, “Napoleon” as Stalin, “Snowball” as Trotsky, and “Old Major” showing as a sort of amalgam for Marx and Lenin in some parts. These characters were not created by Orwell to entertain, but to mold according to preexisting people from history, aiming to teach. Orwell’s original inspiration placed the able, ardent stable of activist animals eternally on the farm: He witnessed a young boy on a cart, somewhat capriciously whipping his hardworking horse. In that moment, Orwell stated, he saw how “men exploit animals in much the same way the rich exploit the proletariat” This stands as the spectrum of Animal Farm.
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
Orwell aims his parodies of totalitarianism at all of its branchs ( communism, fascism, capitalism) and also when George Orwell was asked on an interview to what was the purpose of his book he said “the destruction of the Soviet myth.” What he means here is the mystery surrounding the events at the Soviet Union. Animal Farm owes most of its story to the Russian revolution, which takes place between 1914 and 1917.Animal Farm’s similarities with the Russian Revolution has lead to a majority of people that the purpose of the book is to show the injustice of the Soviet Union under Stallin´s control, however Orwell used Stallin as an exaple to criticize totaliarism as a whole, since Orwell started to see th spread of totalitarian states like Germany and Spain throught the world. One example is that according to Beaird Glover the song ¨Beasts of England”: “Beasts of
People are intrigued by a book through its content. However, when a reader can relate to the book, it reminds them of their own life story. This is exactly what Orwell did when writing Animal Farm. He created the book to open people’s eyes and see what was really going on in front of them. Animal Farm intrigues so many people because though it is a fiction book, it is based on true events that happened in Russia. Animal Farm, a book based on Stalin’s Russia, can be interpreted in several ways: the similar characteristics between Stalin and Napoleon, the animal parallels, and the parallel between Stalin’s Russia (USSR) and the Animal Farm.
believing it is for the good of all his comrades, when it is only the
Karl Marx’s perfect society described in his Communist Manifesto is in direct conflict with the implementation of Soviet Communism, which was scathingly criticized by George Orwell’s book Animal Farm. Karl Marx believed that in order to form a just and equal society, the working class, called the proletariat, would have to overthrow those who owned the means of production, who were known as the bourgeoisie. This was to be known as the Proletariat Revolution where the oppressed laborers in capitalist societies, such as England, would unite under a common cause to overthrow the oppressive bourgeoisie, and establish a communist society. This would be a society where all were equal, each performing to his ability, and each receiving according