Animal Farm, a political allegory, which is written by George Orwell talks about a group of animals who administrates the farm without any human beings. It reflects the failure of Russian Communism and the Russian revolution. The character Benjamin in Animal Farm is closely representative George Orwell. The reason that they are similar is that both of them were well-educated and aloof to society. They didn’t trust the new government after the revolution and kept suspicious opinions of it. They had courage and pointed out the evils of totalitarianism directly when the government wanted to hide the truth.
Benjamin and George Orwell were both intelligent and aloof to society. In Animal Farm, pigs found a reading and writing class. Most of the
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They didn’t trust the new government after the revolution and kept suspicious opinions of it. In animal farm, Benjamin did not think that the rebellion could improve their situations, which is quite different from other’s animals view that “Comrade Napoleon is always right”. When all the animals argued about the windmill, Benjamin was the only animal who did not side with either faction. He refused to believe either that food would become more plentiful or that the windmill would save work. When George Orwell was 18 years old, he went to Burma and worked as a British police officer. He, as a British, enjoyed these prerogatives to observe the trial, flogging and imprisonment. The experience of this stage gave him a calm and impersonal observation about the brutal side of human nature. He reflected on the totalitarian and because of that, he left the colonial police troop. They both kept suspicious opinion and questions to the new government. It is because they have already experienced a lot from their old country. Their experience made them felt confused about some of their new government’s policy. Otherwise, they still had justice and
Napoleon, who is dictator by now, proceeds to manipulate the farm animals with his deceitful propaganda. However, his scheming acts become noticeably repetitive. Making some of the animals question his authority. The majority of the animals were blindly following Napoleon’s regime, only a few who realized that it was not what he was claiming it to be. Benjamin, an old, wise, and stubborn donkey was not affected by the rebellion. He is also intelligent, being the only animal other than the pigs that can fluently read. Benjamin represent the humans that hold the idea that life is hard, and that efforts for change are useless. Benjamin can too represent Orwell himself. Both Orwell and Benjamin saw the negatives of a government when the rest were
Orwell shows the difference in those with absolute control and those without the ability to express themselves by describing how “the pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge, it was natural that they should assume the leadership”(35). By including this quote within the making of the new farm, Orwell expresses how the pigs took advantage of their authorial positions so they could force the others to work, while they dominated Animal Farm with their own rules. The pigs’ power allowed them to have freedom to do anything they wanted, but caused the other animals to be restricted further in their lives, work, and individual rights. This resulted in the exploitation of the other animals, forcing them to have lose any hopes of having an equal society. Still, the other animals did not protest, and instead believed the pigs should be in power because of their intelligence. Their actions lead to the oppressive, dictatorial society shown as Animal Farm progresses. Soon, the inequity between the pigs and other animals develops to a point where “all rations were reduced, except those of the pigs and the dogs. A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism”
The novel ‘Animal Farm’ created by George Orwell heavily expresses the ideals of a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment and the exercise of authority. The exponential ignorance of the farm animals towards the actions and ideas of the pigs (Napoleon, Squealer and Snowball) prove the incentive that it is easier to conform to the ideals/ways of the ‘New England’, than to rebel, as well as through the exposure to propaganda and the distortion of reality. This therefore leaving them docile, numb, and oppressed.
However, these characters’ physical situation as pigs who become indistinguishable when compared to humans have just as much symbolic meaning as their historical place in the allegory. Benton Jay Komins in his article “Western Culture and the Ambiguous Legacies of the Pig” explores the anthropomorphization of the ruling pigs of Animal Farm, and its reflection on Orwell’s opinions of socialist revolution and fascism. The form of pigs for the dictators of Animal Farm reflect specifically in western culture and perception of their relationships to human beings, media portrayal, and ultimately as a tool to define what is “civilized and [sic] uncivilized” (1). In specific relation to Orwell, Komins cites the general demonization of the carnivorous pig in Animal Farm to reflect our own human capacities. Instead of comparing pigs to humans, Orwell compares humans to the nature of pigs, blurring the lines between the two, allowing the reader to locate “our own exploitative capacities within the beast's meanings” (6). According to Komin, the animal allegory exists primarily as a devise to drive home his political messages of hierarchy and
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a perfect example of how ignorance and lack of education can be used for control. Control which can lead to political and social oppression. The experiences of the various characters present how the pigs use this idea to oppress the animals of Animal Farm.
Orwell uses stereotyped animals to create the desired image of his characters. For example, pigs are used to represent the authority figures such as Snowball and Napoleon, and also the Communist Party Loyalists. Pigs have connotations with being disgusting and repulsive, and the term ‘pig’ is often used to describe a person who is heartily disliked.
“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.” That was when the animals knew the pig’s use of propaganda was so effective. Before the animals discovered the corruptness of the pigs, the animals of Manor Farm in England, irritated with the ways of life and how they are being treated, decided to start a revolution. The smartest of the animals, the pigs, took control of the farm while the other animals worked. Through the deception of the pigs, they changed the rules of the farm to better accommodate themselves. George Orwell’s historical literature work, Animal Farm, is a political allegory to the Russian Revolution. Orwell tries to convey
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is, first and foremost, a political satire warning against the pursuit of utopian desires through unjust and oppressive means. Operating under the pretense of an animal fable, Orwell disparages the use of political power to poach personal freedom. He effectively alerts his readers to the dangerous price that can accompany the so-called “pursuit of progress”. And he illuminates how governments acting under the guise of increasing independence often do just the opposite: increase oppression and sacrifice sovereignty. While the cautionary theme Orwell provides proves widely applicable, in reality his novel focuses on one tale of totalitarian abuse: Soviet Russia. The parallels between the society Orwell presents in his Animal Farm and the Soviet Union – from the Russian revolution to Stalin’s supremacy – are seemingly endless. Manor Farm represents Tsarist Russia, Animalism compares to Stalinism, and Animal Farm, with the pig Napoleon at its helm, clearly symbolizes Communist Russia and Joseph Stalin. But Orwell does more than simply align fiction with fact. He fundamentally attacks Soviet Russia at its core. And in so doing he reveals how the Communist Party simply replaced a bad system with a worse one, overthrowing an imperial autocracy for a totalitarian dictatorship. This essay will demonstrate that Orwell’s Animal Farm is
Elie Wiesel in Night and Snowball from Animal Farm are very similar characters because they were victimized by tyrants and used as scapegoats, but they are also unique and individual characters because Elie knew he was being taken advantage of and Snowball did not. Animal Farm is written by George Orwell, and it is about a farm of animals that take over the farm. Napoleon, a large pig, slowly takes away food and supplies from the other animals until he starts walking on two feet and becomes a “human.” Because of him Snowball is expelled from the farm and acts as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong on the farm. Night is an autobiography written by Elie Wiesel, and in it Elie tells the story of he was taken from his home and put into a concentration camp under the control of Adolf Hitler.
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell is an allegorical novel published on England in 1945. According to the author, this book reflects historical events leading up and during the Stalin era before World War II. It is the story of a revolution which goes wrong, based on the Russian revolution and Stalin’s use of power, the overall message is that man’s desire for power makes a classless society impossible. In the book, each animal represents a public figure or a type of person in real life. With this we can begin to develop the questions below in order to have a more complete idea of the meaning of the novel.
Orwell and Bradbury both did a tremendous job in developing the characters and the overall setting to help the reader understand the important message of the story. In Animal Farm, the animals may be animals, but in another reality of the story, they represent humans and ideas in a society. The animals can lie, manipulate, and train other animals to their own advantage as humans do. The consequences of lying, manipulating, and taking advantage of others, are destructive.
“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.
George Orwell includes a strong message in his novel Animal Farm that is easily recognizable. Orwell’s Animal Farm focuses on two primary problems that were not only prominent in his WWII society, but also posed as reoccurring issues in all societies past and present. Orwell’s novel delivers a strong political message about class structure and oppression from the patriarchal society through an allegory of a farm that closely resembles the Soviet Union.
In Animal Farm by George Orwell, he uses the animals to represent everyone in our society today. In this novel, satire is the use of animal characters as a representation to show the Russian Revolution. The humans, portrayed by animals, are being ridiculed and it shows the breakdown of political ideology, and the misuse of power. Each of the characters portray an individual in society that expresses how humans can act similarly to animals. We can be perceived as animals because we can be separated by classes, or by our appearances. We often become what we don’t want to be, as in the novel the animals make rules to not become humans. We soon find out that the pigs are standing and becoming just like humans. The pigs hold all the power, and everything is fitted around them.
Animal farm by George Orwell introduces real life problems using animals on a farm. The narrator focuses on leaders. This novel talks about a group of animals that overrule a farm owned by a man named Mr .Jones, but the animals face many corrupt rules, freedom rights, enemies, and arguments between one another. The farm becomes overruled by a pig named Napoleon, and the animals are afraid to go against him. Napoleon soon acts like Mr.Jones and the animals freedom is getting taken away from their hands. The novel's main message was to believe those are seeking the truth- doubt those who find it. The novel relates to the theme because between all of the animals, their was many that were not being true to each other and the main character of the story was trying to lure the animals in a plan once he found out he could takeover the farm, just like how it was in the beginning when Mr. Jones owned the farm.