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Symbolism and Literary Techniques in George Orwell's "Animal Farm"

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegoric fairy tale type novel that uses irony, satire, and allegory to portray the true identity of media censored Communist Russia. Because of the relationship between America and Communist Russia during WWII, Animal Farm was not originally received with warmth because it was thought of as harmful propaganda. But then, during the Cold War, when US-USSR relations soured, George Orwell’s novel was finally read. George Orwell, the pseudonym of Eric Blair, conceived the basis of Animal Farm during his tenure at Eden, a prestigious English boarding school. It was here where Blair founded his belief in Socialism, a centralized government that controls all economic procedures and enterprises. Socialism is…show more content…
The most blatant use of irony that occurs in Animal Farm is the manipulation of the Commandments, symbolizing the Communist Manifesto, by the pigs to cater to their own whims. An extremely good example of this type of manipulation is the Commandment “No animal may sleep in a bed.” Once the pigs start liking the comfort of beds, they have Squealer change the Commandment in the middle of the night to “No animal may sleep in a bed with sheets.”At this time, the animals notice that the Commandment has been changed, and start asking questions. Their uneasiness is quickly quelled by the manipulative Squealer, allowing the pigs to keep unquestionable control, without a doubt of uneasiness, on the farm. Another prominent example of the irony used in the book is at the final pages of the novel in the line, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This single line is the most important in the book, because in the few words it is written in, it completely epitomizes the era of Communist Russia. It highlights the corrupt and unjust hypocrisy of a nation built on morals that are completely ignored and manipulated for those in power. Another facet of Animal Farm that it is built upon is allegory. Allegory is a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically
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