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Animal Farm

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Animal Farm: A Fairy Story is a satirical novella (which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm they live on. They run the farm themselves, only to have it degenerate into a brutal tyranny of its own. It was written during World War II and published in 1945, although it was not widely successful until the late 1950s.

Contents

Plot introduction

Animal Farm is a thinly veiled critique and satire of Soviet totalitarianism. Many events in the book are based on events from the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Orwell, though a leftist — he was for many years a member of the Independent Labour Party — was a critic of Stalin and suspicious of Moscow-directed communism after his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.

Plot summary

When the farm's prize-winning pig, Old Major, calls a meeting of all the animals of Manor Farm, he tells them that he has had a dream in which mankind is gone, and animals are free to live in peace and harmony. His ideals can be compared to anarchocommunism. He compares the humans to parasites, and then proceeds to teach the animals a revolutionary song, "Beasts of England". The other animals begin to hope and dream for the revolution of such a day. 

When Old Major dies, a mere three days later, two pigs -- Snowball (who teaches the animals to read), and Napoleon (educating dogs)-- assume command, and turn his dream into a full-fledged philosophy. One night, the starved animals suddenly revolt and drive the farmer Mr. Jones, his wife, and his pet raven off the farm and take control. The farm is renamed "Animal Farm" as the animals work towards a future utopia. The Seven Commandments of the new philosophy of Animalism are written on the wall of a barn for all to read, the seventh and most important of which is that "all animals are equal". All animals work, but the workhorse Boxer does more than his fair share and adopts a maxim of his own — "I will work harder."


Animal Farm is off to a great start. Snowball teaches the other animals to read and write (though few animals besides the pigs learn to read well), food is plentiful due to a good harvest, and the entire Farm is organized and running smoothly. Even when Mr. Jones tries his last-ditch effort to retake control of the farm, the animals easily defeat him at what they later call the "Battle of the Cowshed". Soon, however, things begin to unravel as Napoleon and Snowball begin an epic power struggle over the farm. When Snowball announces his idea for a windmill, Napoleon quickly opposes it. A meeting is held, and when Snowball makes his passionate and articulate speech in favour of the windmill, Napoleon only makes a brief retort and then makes a strange noise to call in nine attack dogs. They burst in and chase Snowball off of the farm. In his absence, Napoleon declares himself the leader of the farm and makes instant changes. He announces that meetings will no longer be held as before, and a committee of pigs alone will decide what happens with the farm.


Napoleon changes his mind about the windmill, claiming (through Squealer, Napoleon's mouth-piece) that Snowball stole the idea from him, and the animals begin to work. After a violent storm, the animals wake to find the fruit of their months of labour utterly annihilated. Though neighbouring farmers scoff at the thin walls, Napoleon and Squealer convince everyone that Snowball destroyed it. Napoleon begins to purge the farm, killing many animals he accuses of consorting with Snowball. In the meantime, Boxer takes a second mantra, "Napoleon is always right." 


Napoleon begins to abuse his powers even more and life on the farm becomes harder and harder for the rest of the animals. The pigs impose more and more controls on them while reserving privileges for themselves. History is rewritten to villainise Snowball and glorify Napoleon even further. Each step of this development is justified by the pig, Squealer, who on several occasions alters the Seven Commandments on the barn in the dead of night ("No animal shall drink alcohol" becomes "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess", for example). The song "Beasts of England" is banned as inappropriate now that the dream of Animal Farm has been realised, and is replaced by an anthem glorifying Napoleon who begins to live more and more like a human. The animals, though cold, starving, and overworked, remain convinced that they are still better off than when they were ruled by a man named Jones.


Mr. Frederick, one of the two neighbouring farmers, swindles Napoleon by paying with forged banknotes, and then attacks the farm and uses blasting powder to blow up the recently restored windmill. Though the animals of Animal Farm eventually win the battle, they do so at a great cost, as many of the animals, including Boxer, are wounded. However, Boxer continues to work harder and harder, until he finally collapses while working on the windmill. Napoleon sends for a van to come and take Boxer to the veterinarian, but as Boxer is loaded up and the van drives away, the animals read what is written on the side of the van: "Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler." Squealer quickly reports that the van with the old writing has been purchased by the hospital, and later that Boxer has died in the hospital, in spite of the best medical care. 


Many years pass, and the pigs learn to walk upright, carry whips, and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon holds a dinner party for the pigs, and the humans of the area (in the adjacent Foxwood Farm run by Mr. Pilkington), who congratulate Napoleon on having the most hard working animals in the country on the least feed. Napoleon announces his alliance with the humans against the labouring classes of both "worlds".


The animals discover this when they overhear Napoleon's conversations and finally realize that a change has come over the ruling pigs. During a poker match, an argument breaks out between Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington when they both play an Ace of Spades, and the animals realise how they cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.


The pigs walked on two feet and they adopted many of Mr. Jones' customs and principles. The pigs have violated every one of the rules set out in the beginning. This is when we come to the theme of this book: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



Characters in \"Animal Farm\"

The events and characters in Animal Farm are all carefully drawn to represent the history of the Soviet Union; Orwell makes this explicit in the case of Napoleon, whom he directly connects to Stalin in a letter of 17 March 1945 to the publisher. 



..when the windmill is blown up, I wrote 'all the animals including Napoleon flung themselves on their faces'.  I would like to alter it to 'all the animals except Napoleon'.  If that has been printed it's not worth bothering about, but I just thought the alteration would be fair to JS [Joseph Stalin], as he did stay in Moscow during the German advance.



The other characters have their analogies in the real world, but care should be taken with these comparisons as they do not always match history exactly and often simply represent generalised concepts.



The Pigs

However, Old Major does not only represent Karl Marx in the allegory, but  he also resembles the power of speech and how it can and was used to evoke and inspire thousands, if not millions of people. Old Major also represents the generation who were not content with the old regime and, therefore inspired the younger generations to rebel against the regime under which they were living.



The Humans

Old Major is hugely represented through his power of speech and his power to plant a seed of rebellion into the minds of the other animals on the farm. Old Major is also a key implement to the novel as it is he from whom the idea for the complete revolt begins and, subsequently grows and is adopted by later characters in the novel. 


Old Major, in the allegory of the story, also represents the power of speech had in both communist Russia and the world today as, in the book, it is clear to be seen that the whole concept of animalism clearly grows from his ideas, passions and hopes.



The other Animals

Boxer also resembles the working person in communist russia with his continuous, work-harder attitude and his unwavering faith in the regime under which they were living- animalism in the novel which represents communism in the allegory. Furthermore, Boxer provides an indirect source of power for Napoleon the Pig later on in the story when he is able to sell Boxer to purchase whiskey and then continue to use the memory of Boxer to motivate the remaining animals on the farm.



Allusions and references to actual history, geography and current science

Boxer, in the allegory of the novel, directly relates to the working class who laboured under strenuous and exceedingly difficult conditions throughout the communist regime with the hope that their work would result in a more prosperous life further on in their future. Boxer represents this clearly at points when he utters such quotes as, "I will work harder," in response to any sort of difficulty.


In the context of the stors, this also allows Boxer to become a tool of propaganda to be used by Napoleon and his regime later on once Boxer has been murdered to pay for a crate of whisky for the pigs.



Significance

The book is an allegory about the events following the revolution in the Soviet Union, and in particular the rise of Stalinism and the betrayal of the revolution which basically replaced dictatorship they had under a Monarchy for a dictatorship under communism. 


Orwell wrote the book following his experiences during the Spanish Civil War which are described in another of his books, Homage to Catalonia.  He intended it to be a strong condemnation of what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals, in which he believed and continued to believe after he saw a revolution betrayed, as in Spain.  For the preface of a Ukrainian edition he prepared in 1947, Orwell describes what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm.[Preface to the Ukrainian Edition of Animal Farm]



..I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge cart-horse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.



This Ukrainian edition was an early propaganda use of the book.  It was printed to be distributed among the Soviet citizens of Ukraine who were just some of the many millions of displaced persons throughout Europe at the end of the Second World War.  The American occupation forces did not appreciate these illegal presses, printing propaganda, and confiscated 1,500 copies of Animal Farm, handing them to the Soviet authorities.  The politics in the book also affected Britain, with Orwell reporting that Ernest Bevin was "terrified" Letter to Herbert Read, 18 August, 1945. that it may cause embarrassment if published before the 1945 general election.


In recent years the book has been used to compare new movements that overthrow heads of a corrupt and undemocratic government or organization, only to become corrupt and oppressive themselves over time as they succumb to the trappings of power and begin using violent and dictatorial methods to keep it. Such analogies have been used for many former African colonies such as Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo, whose succeeding African-born rulers were thought to be as corrupt or worse than the European colonists they supplanted.


The book also clearly ponders whether a focus of power and a concentration of power onto one singular person is healthy for a society. Furthermore, the beauty of the book allows the ending to be slightly ambiguous which means that the reader must decide his or her own mind as to what they think. 


In addition, the book makes the reader ponder whether rebellion will eventually resort to a sort of dictatorship anyway and that particular power in society is merely part of human nature. This is clearly shown in the way that the pigs, through their own power, lack of equality and their domination, resort to the old regime of layers of power and a constant concentration of power at the top; this is exactly the same sytem that was expressed by George Orwell at the beginning of the book. Furthermore, the last line of the book accentuates this thought by the animals not being able to tell the difference between man and pig who represent both the old and new regime.



British censorship and suppressed preface

During World War Two it became apparent to Orwell that anti-Russian literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch — including his regular publisher Gollancz. One publisher he sought to sell his book to rejected it on the grounds of government advice — although the assumed civil servant who gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy.  p. 337 Writing to Leonard Moore, a partner in the literary agency of Christy & Moore, publisher "Jonathan Cape explained that the decision had been taken on the advice of a senior official in the Ministry of Information. Such flagrant anti-Soviet bias was unacceptable: and the choice of pigs as the dominant class was thought to be especially offenisive. The `important official' was, or so it may reasonably be assumed, a man named Peter Smollett, later unmasked as a Soviet agent."


Orwell originally prepared a preface which complains about British government suppression of his book, self-imposed British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally.  "The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. ... [Things are] kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact." Somewhat ironically, the preface itself was censored and is not published with most copies of the book.   
The beauty of George Orwell's (Eric Blair's) masterpiece has to be its diversity and structure to such a level that the book can be read by young children, and those looking for a light read, on surface level and, at the same time, a group of upper-school students or university students can also read the novel.


The allegory which is applied to the book allows it to be read on a variety of different levels and, whilst it can be read simply for the joy and intruige of reading it, it can also be admired for being extremely diverse and blunt in an extremely subtle way.



Film versions




the poster of Animal farm(1954)

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the poster of Animal farm(1954)









the poster of Animal farm(1999)

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the poster of Animal farm(1999)










Cultural references



 Animal Farm  [ v]·[ d]·[ e] 


By George Orwell




 Main Characters
 Old Major | Napoleon | Snowball | Squealer


 Secondary
Characters
 Frederick | Pilkington | Jones | Boxer


 Battles
 Battle of the Cowshed | Battle of the Windmill


 Songs
 Beasts of England | Comrade Napoleon


 Miscellaneous
 Animalism | Seven Commandments





References






External links



























































 




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