Orwell cleverly satirises the corruption and greed of Stalin’s supposed ‘classless’ society of the 20th century through allegorical characterisation of seemingly facile, farm animals. Signifying the beginning of the revolution, “Animalism”, Old Major advocates the initial utopian ideals paralleling that of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Propagating the notion of a classless society. He calls the animals to a meeting where adopting a sincere and uplifting tone proclaims that “Man is the only real enemy” of the animals and if they were to “remove man from the scene… the root cause of hunger and overwork” would vanish. He outlines the founding idealistic principles of Animalism, “ Let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle.
The animals that most clearly show the destructive sinfulness, with all its selfishness, exploitation and betrayal, are the pigs. The pigs, led by Napoleon, show throughout the book that they want to run Animal Farm for their own benefit. Once the animals had rid the farm of the humans, the pigs saw the opportunity to seize power. From the start of the animal’s rule over the farm, the pigs established
The sheep, which are so stupid that they only know the phrase “Four legs good, Two legs bad,” are a caricature of the people of Russia. Orwell was telling them that they were blindly accepting this idea, when it was going to make them miserable. Of course, he did not think they were as dumb as the sheep, but the exaggeration helped the author get his point across. All of the characters in Animal Farm represent people or ideas, making the book an allegory. Napoleon is a caricature of Joseph Stalin.
The general themes of oppression, suffering, and injustice have broad applications for those that watch the film. In the beginning of the movie, the oldest, wisest, pig on the farm, Old Major, is giving a speech to the animals encouraging them that they must overthrow the farmer, Mr. Jones, who rules the farm as a monarch. He s a cruel, alcoholic owner that is irresponsible to his animals (lets them starve), sometimes beats them, and yet sometimes is kind. In his speech, Old Major reveals his feelings about Mr. Jones implying that he is man that consumes but does not produce or give back to those that occupy the farm. A monarchy is political system in which supreme authority is given to an individual ruler who functions as the decision maker for all in the society.
The enforcement of terror and force through the use of the dogs dramatically frightens the other animals. With the dogs as their enforcements, Napoleon and the pigs are able to convince the other animals that they are always right. When Squealer is sent to explain why Napoleon, now that Snowball was gone, claims the windmill as his own, “...the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they [the other animals] accepted his explanation without further questions” (p.39). By seizing power by force, Napoleon annuls the other animals’ right to choose
Many people abuse power and instead use it for personal benefits. Similarly in the novel Orwell uses his characters, specifically Napoleon and his fellow pigs. Napoleon is the leader of the farm which greatly increases his power and authority to gain control and rule others in an injust way, ultimately creating destruction to the animals society. Through symbolism of the windmill it illustrates how power is gain by money for commercial us against their enemy. This also alludes to the historical destruction created between Russia and the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule.
“Snowball and Napoleon butted the door open with their shoulders and the animals entered in single file…Snowball and Napoleon called them together.” The words “entered” and “single file” shows and tells the reader that Snowball and Napoleon were in charge. The word “butted” tells the reader that it was abrupt and sudden. It also tells you that there was no signal and the fact that they “butted” in tells the reader that they are at a higher status than all the other animals. Because Orwell has described Napoleon as “fierce” it tells the reader that he is ruthless in competition. Orwell successfully makes the reader think and let them know how Napoleon “plays his cards” and how all the animals have so much respect for Napoleon even though he doesn’t speak as much as Snowball.
He uses guilt and fear to instigate the anxiousness of jones’ tyranny coming back into power over the animals’ mind sets. We also discover that Squealer is deceitful, since he manipulates the truth from past events (Such as the Snowball incident in the Battle of the Cowshed upon where Snowball lead the farm to victory, however Squealer later twisted the truth, therefore misleading the animals into thinking that what they saw was mistaken for Squealer’s words), and misleads them into believing that they are as alike as the pigs with higher authority by telling them that they are all equal. However, because they 'might make the wrong decisions', they must trust Napoleon, or alternatively have Jones back in charge at the barn, which is very
Techniques used are “Here Squealer’s demeanour suddenly changed. He fell silent for a moment and his little eyes shifted from side to side before he proceeded” (Page 83) The abuse of language the control the working class and Manipulation of the uneducated Boxer and Clover represent the working class who believes whatever they are told and easily fall for propaganda. Techniques used are bathos, oxymoron, dramatic irony and repetition “Changing of 10 Commandments” “Comrade Napoleon is always right” (Page 41) “I will work harder!” (Page 41) “Our leader, comrade Napoleon” (Page 62) Pride No matter how bad the farm gets, and no matter how much their rations are cut, the animals always have pride in the farm and fall for what they are told. This adds to the thesis statement because it gets the reader to question the behaviour of the Russian Empire at the time and portrays how people are being easily convinced into having pride in something that is obviously terrible. Techniques used are repetition, allusion and hyperbole “Jones would come back!
Orwell’s fictional farm finds itself following almost parallel to communistic Russia. Orwell demonstrates the theme of an unaware, uneducated working class and its danger when accompanied by corrupt opportunists seeking power within his animalistic dystopia. Once the animals secured their control of the farm, many thought little of what it meant for the future, but of the few that did, they were able to sneak their way into power. The pigs quickly appointed themselves leaders and none of the other animals knew any better than to question their haste. The oligarchy of pigs abused their fellow farm animal’s trust from the very beginning.