Animal Farm
In the book Animal Farm, George Orwell ties the animals and their situations to the battles of The Soviet Union and their government. During the course of the book it shows many different satires that were used by the Soviet Union. As Orwell wrote the book he pointed out five different ways he tied the animals to the Soviet Union and their government.
The novel presents the struggle of Snowball and Napoleon for power. This ties into the Soviet Union by representing the struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Orwell also wants readers to see the trade agreement between Fredricks and Napoleon, and when this trade agreement is broken it represents the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact that leads to World War II. The breaking of the trade agreement also leads to the windmill battle in the book, and this battle over the windmill represents World War II. Witch in this time period in Russia, the Communist party ceased power and mistreated workers. There was also the speech Squealer gave that represented the end of the rebellion in the period of the Red Terror. This brings you back to how Orwell presents power in this novel.
In this novel there was a lot of intelligence. When saying intelligence, its meat by being smart and educated. This is mostly seen in the pigs out of all the animals. The pigs take Majors dream and persuade the seven commandments. But the pigs also use their intelligence when they want the fresh milk, they stop living by their morals that they tell everyone to live by and use their knowledge to get what they want. The pigs also were limiting the other animals intelligence by teaching themselves how to read and write out of a childrens book and then destroyed it before the others had a chance to even try to learn.
Orwell saw propaganda first hand in World War II and decided to interpret it into this book. The one way of propaganda that Orwell wanted to stick out the most was the seven commandments. He also uses Squealer to represent as the totalitarian governments propaganda; this means he could make anyone believe whatever he says. This fact is clear in Squealers interactions with Clover and Muriel. Each time Clover suspects that the Seven Commandments have been changed, Squealer manages to convince her that she is wrong. The one way of propaganda that Orwell wanted to stick out the most was the seven commandments.
Orwell introduces the idea of violence. Violence is one of the main reasons the animals want to free themselves from Mr. Jones. Not only does Mr. Jones whip and could slaughter them at any time but he also overworks them and steels their products. Terror and violence comes also in threats and propaganda. Each time the animals dare to question an aspect of Napoleons regime, Squealer threatens them with Joness return. Capital punishment for criminals is a commonly debated issue. Killing suspected criminals, as Napoleon does, is another issue. The executions perhaps best symbolize the Moscow Trials, which would show trials that Stalin arranged to instill fear in the Soviet people. This is showing how Napoleon is starting to just kill animals on the farm for thinking they are doing wrong then in the book it says that once he started to kill animals for what he thinks happened the other animals start to confess of what they did. The animals started to confess of going to the bathroom in the drinking water and steeling food, things that were not bad nut were against Napoleons rules, so he killed them too.
Orwell also introduces the idea of exploitation. Exploitation is witch the animals unite. The animals do not understand that Mr. Jones is exploiting them and thats when Old Major explains to the animals that they are enslaved and that man is to blame for this. Orwell suggests that exploitation is, in fact, bound to happen when one class of society has an advantage over another. The opposite of exploitation, according to Major, is the state of being rich and free. Majors ideas about animal rights symbolize the importanceand scarcityof human rights in an oppressive regime. Gaining freedom does not necessarily lead people also to become rich, but it is better to be poor and free than poor and exploited. This is saying that it is better to not have a so called master and be happy then to have a master and live day to day wondering who is going to get slaughtered next. In the book there is an example of exploitation when Boxer believes in Napoleon and trusts him, then Napoleon turns on Boxer and has him slaughtered. Throughout the novel, Orwell shows us how the lack of human rights results in total helplessness. The lack of human rights mad the pigs get what they wanted by using their intelligence and how out of control Napoleon was and how he started to kill everyone.
From this novel and tying it to the Soviet Union and everyday Human Rights Orwell was revealing the weaknesses of greed of power, abuse of power, exploitation and ignorance. This made me understand what was completely going on and how out of control our country could get if we had a dictatorship. In the end I realize someone might be very intelligent or have power or even use propaganda to persuade people does not make what you are doing in a dictatorship right. All Old Major wanted was for everyone to live happy and not live under the power of one person (Mr. Jones) but to live together and come together as one big group and make decisions together.
Cited work:
Orwell, George Animal Farm New York; 1956
Animal Farm Themes copyright 1999-2011 GradeSaver LLC, http://www.gradesaver.com/animal-farm/study-guide/major-themes/
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