Not surprisingly, the result is not at all desirable and the animals find themselves in fact worse of then before. Orwell is clearly drawing parallels between the events on the farm and the events in Russia after the 1918 revolution. He intends it to be a warning to readers that they should not be easily seduced by socialism. He also strives to outline the faults in communism, and how turning a blind eye and allowing another to control you never works out in your favour. He uses many themes to convey his main points to this allegory, such as corruption, abuse of power and social order.
Satire is used to criticise humanity’s creations, creating a mutual understanding between composer and audience. Through the use of literary devices, the flaws and hypocritical stances are identified within each text. This notion is explored in George Orwell’s allegory ‘Animal Farm,’ which is an allegorical representation of the Russian Revolution, illustrating flaws in our society with a mixture of black humour and critical attitude. The flaws of the human condition corrupt the dreams of Old Major. Napoleon and Snowball originally strive to fulfil Old Major’s dreams but due to the self centeredness of Napoleon, among others, the tenets of Animalism are systematically undermined throughout the novel.
The novella Animal Farm written by George Orwell shares this theme of a lust for power. A pig named Napoleon could be described as the Macbeth of this novella, starting off as a successful tactician, and then becoming a ruthless dictator. In the third scene of the first act of Macbeth the protagonist meets the Witches and hears the prophecy which states that he will become “thane of Cawdor” and “king hereafter”. Soon after the meeting, Macbeth is given the role of Thane of Cawdor, since the predecessor was executed for being a traitor; this gives some truth to the Witches prophecy, and makes it much easier to believe. Along with this, Lady Macbeth is also hasty to pursue the prophesised power, and manipulates Macbeth into committing the first deed.
The barn is a symbol because this was the place the pigs painted the seven commandments and then added their revisions, which represents the collective memory of a modern nation. The pigs did this to create Animalism and to ensure that the pigs would continue to rule over all of the animals. The working-class animals would puzzle over the changes but accept them. If the working-class believes history of lies from their oppressors, the will be less likely to question oppressive practices. The windmill is a symbol of the pigs’ manipulation of the other animals for their own gain.
During the timber selling incident, Napoleon first denounced Frederick as an evil man who tortured animals, and told the animals that the other contestant, Mr. Pilkington, was a good man. However, after Frederick offered more money for the timber than Mr. Pilkington, Napoleon told Animal Farm that these claims were lies, and that Mr. Pilkington was evil and Fredrick was good. Napoleon sells the timber to Mr. Frederick, who proves his sneaky nature by giving Napoleon counterfeit bills. Napoleon is enraged, Mr. Frederick attacks Animal Farm, and Mr. Pilkington refuses to help because of what Napoleon had said about him. Even so, Animal Farm comes out victorious, but not before the deaths of many humans and animals.
Woojun Kim English 02/13/12 Similarity of North Korea and Animal Farm The Novel Animal Farm by George Orwell shows animal rebel against human and dominating the farm by one greedy animal. After rebellion, instead of human, pigs rule the animal farm. At first, animal farm is going to flourish, but greedy pigs finally ruined whole farm life. Minority’s greed ruined majority’s dream. When I finished the book, I thought this phenomenon is similar to modern communism country North Korea.
Never does he show an interest in Animal Farm itself, but only the strength of his power over it. Obviously a metaphor for Stalin, Comrade Napoleon represents the human frailties (deficiencies) of any revolution. Orwell believed that although socialism is good as an ideal, it can never be successfully adopted due to uncontrollable sins of human nature. The name ‘Napoleon’ brings to mind the French dictator, and Orwell intended this, maybe to emphasises his true opinion on the true nature of Russian communism as not a dictatorship for working classes, but a simple dictatorship run by a self-interested leader. After the death of Old major, Napoleon and Snowball both become the leaders as they take charge of Animal Farm.
Snowball’s control of Animal Farm is seen as decent, whereas Napoleon’s is corrupt. Snowball actually contributed as a political head with ideas to improve Animal Farm. He “buried himself with organising the other animals into what he called Animal Committees. He was indefatigable at this.” –pg 19. Snowball devoted time and effort for the success of the other animals.
In the novel, Animal Farm, George Orwell rewrote the statement from the Declaration of Independence. Some think and politicians say that we’ve finally gotten past the rich and poor divide. And most will say that segregation of race is completely over, but is it? Equality is a very noble concept, but we all aren’t equal no matter which document says so. The pigs in Animal Farm believed that they were more equal, or better, than all the rest of the animals on the farm.
It is only the ownership of the farm that has changed hands, the situation remains the same for the other animals, if not worse. This demonstrates how the circle continues and also puts emphasis on George’s use of allegory. As the book progresses, the animals (pigs) become from being nothing like humans to being more and more like humans till there is absolutely no difference between them at all. In this section of the book, Old Major has a dream which he presents to the other animals in the farm. His dream presents the idea of utopia where he encourages the animals to rebel against Mr Jones as supposedly by doing so the animals will lead a better life and in