“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
Animal Farm is a fairy story written by George Orwell. According to the author, the book reflects multiple events during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The author, Orwell, being a democratic socialist, was not in favor of the Soviet Union and its policies. He thought he could not turn a blind eye to the cruelties and hypocrisies of the Soviet Communist Party, which had overturned the monarchy system of the tzars only to replace it with the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Hence, he decided to write this novel to express his criticism towards the revolution.
This novel starts off with Old Major who gathers all the animals on Manor Farm together to tell them his dream of which all animals live within equality with no human beings to control them. All the animals seem to be strongly inspired by this idea. Very soon, in the lead of the pigs, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land and ruling the farm by themselves. However, as years pass by, the pigs exploit the other animals shamelessly by breaking the original commandments and seem to forget what Old Major’s dream really was. Eventually the common animals can no longer tell which are the pigs and which are the human beings. (Sparknotes. Inc, 2013)
The plot of Animal Farm is basically an allegory of the Russian Revolution, where the different animals represent different roles in the revolution. Throughout the novel, Orwell tends to use a very simple language and present it as a fairy story to make his criticisms less obvious. However it is very easy to figure out the hidden meaning and real identity of the characters if the reader has a basic understanding on the political background of the WWII. As the novel progresses, Orwell wishes the readers to discover the hypocrisy of the pigs (Russian Revolutionist) through their shameless actions and the original idea of equality (communism) soon starts to emerge into a leadership of one pig (dictatorship). Eventually, they just pretty much become who they rebel against in the first place. The novel clearly describes how a society's ideologies can be changed and manipulated by individuals in positions of power. Through the failure of the original capitalist system and the communist revolution, Orwell also wants readers who do not normally consider about democracy government to think about it as he believes a society works the best in this system.
1. Sparknotes. Inc. (2013). Animal Farm. Retrieved March 24th,2013, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/section10.rhtml
Animal Farm is a fairy story written by George Orwell. According to the author, the book reflects multiple events during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The author, Orwell, being a democratic socialist, was not in favor of the Soviet Union and its policies. He thought he could not turn a blind eye to the cruelties and hypocrisies of the Soviet Communist Party, which had overturned the monarchy system of the tzars only to replace it with the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Hence, he decided to write this novel to express his criticism towards the revolution.
This novel starts off with Old Major who gathers all the animals on Manor Farm together to tell them his dream of which all animals live within equality with no human beings to control them. All the animals seem to be strongly inspired by this idea. Very soon, in the lead of the pigs, the animals manage to defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land and ruling the farm by themselves. However, as years pass by, the pigs exploit the other animals shamelessly by breaking the original commandments and seem to forget what Old Major’s dream really was. Eventually the common animals can no longer tell which are the pigs and which are the human beings. (Sparknotes. Inc, 2013)
The plot of Animal Farm is basically an allegory of the Russian Revolution, where the different animals represent different roles in the revolution. Throughout the novel, Orwell tends to use a very simple language and present it as a fairy story to make his criticisms less obvious. However it is very easy to figure out the hidden meaning and real identity of the characters if the reader has a basic understanding on the political background of the WWII. As the novel progresses, Orwell wishes the readers to discover the hypocrisy of the pigs (Russian Revolutionist) through their shameless actions and the original idea of equality (communism) soon starts to emerge into a leadership of one pig (dictatorship). Eventually, they just pretty much become who they rebel against in the first place. The novel clearly describes how a society's ideologies can be changed and manipulated by individuals in positions of power. Through the failure of the original capitalist system and the communist revolution, Orwell also wants readers who do not normally consider about democracy government to think about it as he believes a society works the best in this system.
1. Sparknotes. Inc. (2013). Animal Farm. Retrieved March 24th,2013, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/section10.rhtml