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Irony In Animal Farm By George Orwell

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Vladimir Lenin once emphasized that ” all members of the Russian Communist Party who are in the slightest degree suspicious or unreliable ... should be got rid of”. By these words Lenin banned the Russian Communist Party and introduced the one-party state, whereby Stalin easily managed to get rid of his rivals for the power of the Soviet Union.
Despite having the Soviet Union as Britain’s ally George Orwell succeeds in criticising the Soviet regime in his book Animal Farm through a heavy use of irony and by a language charged with symbolism.

But how can you avoid getting your book caught by the strict censorship during the Second World War, when you criticize your ally? To Orwell the answer is pigs.

The fifth chapter of George Orwell’s book …show more content…

Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure! On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility.
And as we see the animals swallow the bait. For instance on of the intelligent animals Boxer, who represent the hardworking class, says: “If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right”.
George Orwell’s attitude to the totalitarianism based on a terror regime is established through Boxer. Due to the fact that Boxer has an unsuspecting nature he seems as an easy target to Napoleons propaganda. Therefore Orwell established a bond between the reader and Boxer because you feel sorry for him, whereupon you as a reader are against Napoleon’s propaganda through Squealer, which means you would be against Stalin’s regime.
Orwell is well aware of his establishment of the emotional bond to bond, whereby his attitude to Stalin and his regime shines …show more content…

Napoleon’s greed can for instance be seen in the fact that he takes the extra milk from the cows, and he uses Mr Jones’ bed and eats Mr Jones’ food, which none of the other animals were allowed to. Throughout these egoistic actions Napoleon’s personality comes to light, which ironically is against his own ideology of equality among all animals. Napoleon’s and the pigs’ egoistic development is illustrated in the change on the seventh commandment, when “All animals are equal.” turns into “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” . This development once again emphasize the importance of an educated working class, which could have ceased the farm’s development given that the animals would have see through Napoleon’s propaganda.

George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is an ironic, yet critical of the Soviet society and the totalitarianism that Stalin is a symbol of. By the use of irony and symbolism Orwell attacks the exploiting actions that occured in the aftermath of Lenin’s death, as well as he attacks the use of propaganda and the use of terror in order to take control of the working class. Furthermore Orwell make a point of the importance of an educated working class, whereby you would prevent terror regimes, propaganda and totalitarianism.
Animal farm can therefore be seen as an attack on the Soviet one-party state

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