Use Of Satire In Animal Farm By George Orwell

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satire of the Russian Revolution. The animals overthrow the evil dictator Mr. Jones and create a government where all animals are equal. The first year is prosperous, but slowly the animals start to lose their quality of life. The animals start to notice that their lives are getting worse, but the pigs are getting better. However, the quick thinking pigs always find an excuse to appease the other animals. George Orwell wrote Animal Farm to point our the gullibility of the Proletariat. He comments on this political issue through symbolism, allusions, and personification.

Winston starts out the novel with his semi-normal life, hating the Big Brother society and all of their rules. “Winston begins earnestly believing that they cannot get inside you” (Bull 1). Even though there are several telescreens watching him at all times, he still believes that he will not be caught with his thoughtcrimes. Winston demonstrates his internal conflict by picking to save himself instead of the person he loves. When Winston is brought to room 101 he is subjected to his worst possible fear. This includes very large and hungry rats that will eat off his face when the lever is pulled. As O’Brien places the squirming rats in the cage near Winston, he breaks and tells O’Brien to have Julia placed under the same torture he is involved in. His exact words in this situation were, “Do it to Julia. I can’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia. Not me!” (Orwell 300). This exhibits that the rebellion is impossible because he is now emotionally and physically dead (Bull 2). To show the extremeness of the internal conflicts that the party provides, when Julia and Winston meet up after all of this was done, Julia said she also cracked and said she wanted Winston to be tortured instead of herself. “His betrayal of Julia in Room 101 and his ultimate profession of love for Big Brother demonstrates that the rebellion is impossible”

Situational irony occurs when a story’s plot takes a 180 degree turn than what both the intended readers or audiences and the characters predict. Situational irony is also sometimes called as “Irony of Fate”.

In the novel Animal Farm, the writer satirizes certain characters, in an effort to depict society in a humorous way. This essay will focus on the characters of Boxer, Mollie and Napoleon.

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.

Now that the Old Major isn't around, the animals have to plan for the rebellion themselves. “The work of teaching and organizing the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals.” George Orwell employs irony in writing this because there are two young boars who are “preeminent among the pigs,” so all animals are not equal. Among the animals there are some who are better than the others. After the rebellion the pigs lead the animals and tell them what to do and what not to do. After the animals successfully overthrow Mr.Jones, they change the name of the farm from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm.” The name of the farm is significant because it signifies that the farm belongs to the animals.

The quote implies that animals are better creatures than humans. After being assaulted by humans, the animals don’t want any characteristics of humans to be inputted in them. They say, “Four legs good, two legs bad,” to make humans a disgrace to animals. This rule is a part of the seven commandments of animalism. It is said to remind the animals of never stand on two feet because then you are developing human characteristics. Birds in this case are different, because the animals count wings as another pair of legs. The phrase was originally a longer statement. It took up two of the seven commandments. By simplifying the statements, it was easier for the other animals to understand. The knowledge of reading is used as propaganda by classifying the difference between the pigs who could read, and the other animals who couldn’t read.

Winston’s story begins to spiral downwards once he and and Julia are caught by The Party while they are together in his rented room. In a surprising twist, Orwell reveals to the reader that Mr. Charrington, the man who Winston is renting the room from, is a member of the Thought Police and that there has been a telescreen behind a picture frame in the rented room the whole time that has been spying on Julia and Winston. The voice from the telescreen tells both Winston and Julia, “you are dead” (Orwell pg. 221) and orders them to, “remain exactly where (they) are (and to) make no movement until (they) are ordered” (Orwell pg.221). Making no attempt to resist, Julia and Winston are captured and separated. By having them not resist although we believe them to be rebellious, Orwell conveys that Winston’s freedom of thought and subsequently his individuality are slowly starting to chip away. Winston finds himself in a cell inside a cell in the Ministry of Love. Over the course of a few months, Winston is brutally tortured and brainwashed into becoming obedient to The Party once more. Despite the constant torture, despite having, “his body...wrenched out of shape... (and having his) joints… being slowly torn apart” (Orwell pg. 245) Winston manages to hold onto a piece of his freedom of thought and individuality. However, that piece is also lost when he is sent to room 101 to face his biggest fear: rats. Winston has his face put into a mask which has one small door separating him from hungry rats capable of stripping a baby to the bones, “within a quite small time” (Orwell pg. 285) . However, before O’Brien can remove the door in between Winston and the rats, Winston cries out, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her.

In 1984, Winston struggles to live in a world where he is forced to comply with the government, also known as “Big Brother.” In the country of Oceania, where Winston lives, citizens are forced to attend daily “Two Minute Hates,” are only allowed to marry to reproduce, and are constantly watched by the government by “telescreens.” One instance where Winston was forced to outwardly conform was when he cracked after several tortuous attempts by O’Brien to turn Winston against Julia, his forbidden lover, and to convince him to love Big Brother. O’Brien was able to do so by placing a cage of rats, Winston’s greatest fear, in front of Winston’s

Apart of the manipulation and fear the “government finally broke down Winston by threatened he with face eating rats Winston had a great fear of rates so that made to a punishment worse than it really was”(247). “Julia told Winston about the love affair when she was sixteen who later committed suicide to avoid arrest and a good job to him said Julia” (109). The combination of fear and pain caused Winston to betray his love for Julia. Orwell is trying to show that the human body is to choose our instinct for survival over greater

Manipulation, wealth, power, and status. It’s what drives the human race. Sometimes, it is our innocence that makes us fall vulnerable to these desires. These characteristics push us to a point where we begin to deceive others. We begin to listen to lies or even tell them.

The Russian Revolution was led by a few leaders of the common people, promising better work conditions and a Communist government with equality for all. However, when the Communist party was established, so much power was given to the government, that, it quickly went corrupt and abused peoples’ rights far worse than the previous government. In George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm, the pigs promise the animals better lives than their current lives under Jones’s rule. However, mirroring the Russian Revolution, the pigs went corrupt almost immediately afterwards, changing previously declared rules, and killing other animals without reason. In the end, the pigs ended up as bad as man. In Animal Farm, George Orwell utilizes situational irony, displaying the pigs as corrupt leaders, to support Lord Acton’s quote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The satire book " Animal Farm" by George Orwell, includes a character named Napoleon. Napoleon is a pig that becomes a dictator and controls the farm with fear and force. Napoleon's goal is to control the other farm animals and elevate the pigs to a superior level. In an attempt to demonstrate his authority over the other farm animals, Napoleon wore a special shoe, a golden shoe with thick heals. Napoleon thought the special shoe showed the other animals that he was better that everyone else.

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” In George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm, farm animals drive out their farmer and live in an environment where all animals are equal. However, the pigs, the smartest animals on the farm, end up taking over the farm and controlling all the animals. They trick the animals into believing they are doing everything for the benefit of the farm, when in reality they are doing it for themselves. The famous quote mentioned in this novel not only explains a scene in the book; it also shows the Orwell’s true purpose for writing the story: his hatred towards communism and Stalin’s rule. An author shows his or her purpose through the text’s hidden meanings, the structure of the text, the sequence of events, and the diction of the text.

The rebellion was to escape from people and their cruel ways, but can they escape the death-grip of their own kind? The animals of animal farms are mistreated and have no rights. Mr and Mrs. Jones were the owners of Manor Farm, the human oppressors, and authoritarians of the animals. The animals rebel against the Jones and take over the farm. They create a utopian society for themselves, but the utopia quickly turns into a dystopia when the pigs take control of the farm. In many ways, Animal Farm is a complete allegorical / fable –like retelling of the founding of the Soviet Union, complete with a rebellion and eventual installation of a dictator. Like the ideological battle that was raged in Russia between the classes, the one that is played out in this novel have many of the same themes, including an initial push to strengthen the working class, a strong beginning movement of nationalism and unity, a series of successful efforts to topple the ruling authority (Mr. Jones), all followed by a complete totalitarian takeover by a dictator who is a hypocrite and goes back on many of the promises he made at the height of the revolutionary action.