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Symbolism in Animal Farm Essay

Decent Essays

Animal Farm has been described as ¨a satire on the Russian revolution¨, as a result, many symbolisms can be found in this book.
However, Orwell also associates ¨certain real characters with the characters of the book.¨ This is proved by Snowball and Napoleon, characters which represent Leon Trotsky and Stalin, respectively.

However, this are not the only symbolisms. Throughout the novel, we find out that Napoleon is always surrounded and supported by the pigs.
Pigs which might represent the communist party, Stalin's friends as well perhaps, as the Duma ( or Russian parliament).

Moreover, as we have seen, the pigs have a different lifestyle from the other animals.They live ¨in luxury and enjoy the benefits of the society they …show more content…

This might be because it was this event which "signaled the beginning of communism in red China". What is more, Boxer, together with Clover are used to represent the proletariat in the Russian society. We find out that it is indeed the proletariat, the class which mainly supports Stalin (Napoleon). This might be because they are unable to distinguish the difference between their lives under the Tsar
(Mr.Jones) and their lives under Stalin.

Old Benjamin, is also considered one of "Orwell's most elusive and intriguing characters on Animal Farm." The rebellion seems not to have affected him. He still does his own work, nerver becoming too excited or dissapointed about anything. This is completely understood as he explains that "Donkeys live a long time" and that none of them, " has ever seen a dead donkey."

Benjamin then represents the older generation. That generation which
"no longer look to their leaders for help" and that critisizes the new rebellion. It seems that this character is the only one able to look through and the only one which knows that "the revolt is only a temporary change." Benjamin is in fact, the only one able to remember his whole life, even after the other animals have completely forgotten their past lives. Orwell even writes:

"Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that

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