Animal Farm. Well, I think I couldn’t elaborate more. I mean, what’s more to say? It’s from Orwell, and that in itself is like a tag of a work of virtuosity.
I got the book as a back-to-school gift I think two years ago. I must admit I’d wanted 1984 more than Animal Farm, but that does not go to say that the book was a disappointment. The contrary, actually. I adore the work perhaps because that time I was so engrossed with social studies.
Animal Farm was first published in 1945. It was only very recent that I’ve known (thanks to a good book-worm-friend) that George Orwell is a pseudonym of Born Eric Arthur Blair, who even in his early years had demonstrated an apparent animosity toward convention and authority (well, that perhaps explains the inclination). It was during the war years that Orwell had thought of coming up with Animal Farm.
Here’s what I got about the book. Hope this finds useful.
Conceived and written as satire, Animal Farm is generally acknowledged as presenting many of Orwell’s views on humanity and politics. The novel relates the overthrow of a farmer’s tyrannical rule by the animals in his barnyard and the animals’ aborted efforts to establish an ‘egalitarian’ society. Clearly alluding to political events in Russia from the Revolution to World War II, Animal Farm primarily attacks the extremes of Stalinism, yet goes beyond to dissect the anatomy of revolution and the lure of power. The ponderous political implications of the novel, however, are deftly interwoven into a fantastic tale of animals that talk, walk on their hind legs, write laws, spout propaganda, and commit crimes, all in the name of equality. Once the animals attain their freedom and begin to organize the farmyard, it becomes obvious that their behavior parodies human political and social hierarchies.
Setting
The novel takes place on Manor Farm, which is renamed Animal Farm after the animals expel Mr. Jones, the farmer, from its grounds. It is a typical barnyard, except that the animals have assumed the farmer’s tasks. Their aspirations are high; they write seven commandments on the wall of the barn, including ‘All animals are created equal,’ and ‘Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy,’ and thus stake their claim. They build a windmill—an object of much contention—that is rebuilt several times after being destroyed by a storm and then by a band of farmers with dynamite. Originally, the animals pledge to preserve the manor house as a museum, but as the power structure becomes more unbalanced, the pigs move into the house, which becomes their domain. The farmhouse symbolizes the new totalitarian rule of the pigs and is indeed indicative of the ‘revised’ commandment: ‘All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others.’ Orwell, by restricting all the action to the farmyard, creates a microcosm of society.
Themes and Characters
Modeled on a relatively simple premise, the novel begins as the animals of Manor Farm unite against farmer Jones to overthrow his tyrannical rule. Understandably ecstatic over their sudden and rather unexpected good fortune, the animals create a new order for the future based on equality and equity. The paint is hardly dry on their barnyard manifesto, however, when the hated forces and attitudes that triggered their revolt begin to reemerge, eventually to destroy their dream of emancipation. Orwell undoubtedly passes judgment on the fate of revolution by comparing ideological promises with their practical application.
In essence, Orwell does not condemn revolution but agonizes over the betrayal of its ideals. Possessing superior knowledge, the pigs assume leadership of the farm, taking a first step to replace the tyranny of the past with a new and more terrifying threat for the future. The pigs learn to control the means of communication and literally create their own truth to dispense to the inhabitants of the farm; this is perhaps the most pessimistic aspect of the novel. In the end, pigs are indistinguishable from farmers and the ideals of the revolution seem distant in the face of terror, manipulation, and despair.
Appearing in a dream, the birth of revolution was the inspiration of old Major, a pig renowned for his wisdom and benevolence. But as the dream becomes reality, the responsibility of the revolution falls on the two most ‘preeminent’ pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. Thinly disguised, these represent the principals behind the emergence of Soviet Russia—Major and Snowball are Lenin and Trotsky, and Napoleon is Stalin.
Although a clear distinction is made at the beginning of the novel between Jones, as the representative human, and the community of animals inhabiting the farm, the focus quickly shifts to the animals once Jones is overthrown and specifically to the rivalry that develops between Snowball and Napoleon.
The novel follows the ruthless Napoleon in his quest for individual power. Driving Snowball into exile, Napoleon imposes his oppressive authority on the animals through his manipulation of language, as demonstrated by Squealer, the voice of the revolution who is capable of turning ‘black into white,’ and the menacing presence of a private army of fierce watchdogs capable of enforcing adherence to his regime.
The failure of the revolution is largely the result of self-defeatism, cynicism, and the inability of the animals either to recognize or resist the oppression imposed on them by Napoleon. Even the basic goodness of the animals, as characterized by the horse Boxer, the symbol of strength, self-sacrifice, and trust, cannot overcome the demise of idealism into blind allegiance and delusion.
Literary Qualities
An extremely disciplined writer, Orwell consistently used language to enhance the development of plot while providing insight into thematic concerns. This is especially true in Animal Farm, an imaginative examination of the interaction of language and political method. Written in a pure, subtle, and simplistic style, Animal Farm evokes descriptive imagery and stunning clarity of purpose. Although the novel begins with a relatively light tone, it gradually evolves into a menacing and debilitating void. Coming full circle, the novel ends with a tremendous sense of futility and loss as even the memory of the revolution fades into quiet and passive oblivion.
Orwell conceived of Animal Farm as an allegorical beast fable, drawing on a literary convention attributed to Aesop and dating from the seventh century bc. Popular in almost every literary period, the beast fable is most often designed to satirize human folly as well as to provide moral instruction. An avid reader, Orwell was undoubtedly influenced by the work of the seventeenth-century French writer La Fontaine and in his own century by Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book and Just So Stories.
Orwell clearly descends from an impressive lineage of English satirists, particularly those of the eighteenth century including Dryden, Swift, and Pope. Animal Farm is consistently and appropriately compared to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels as having the capacity to simultaneously delight while pointing an accusing finger at the limitations of human kindness and decency. In the twentieth century, satire is generally utilized in the fictional narrative as it is in Animal Farm to criticize with the ultimate goal of improvement. In this capacity, Orwell joins company with such diverse writers as Evelyn Waugh, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, and Aldous Huxley. Integrating political and artistic purpose, Orwell’s beast fable proved a radical departure from his previous work but an extremely successful literary vehicle and quite possible his most distinguished creative achievement.
Social Sensitivity
During the mid-1930s, Orwell like many of his literary contemporaries, became increasingly more perceptive of the social and political concerns of the age. Clearly a turning point for Orwell, this period would ultimately define his artistic purpose and direction as a writer and simultaneously crystallize his prophetic vision of the future. Unquestionably a literary extension of Orwell’s political development, Animal Farm is most often identified as a satire on totalitarian communism and the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Orwell recognized the ability of emerging political regimes to replace poverty with a form of security based on social and economic servitude. Committed to the preservation of intellectual liberty, Orwell further realized the inherent danger of sacrificing this ideal to governmental control. Orwell’s primary concern by the close of the decade was to discover the proper medium through which to communicate his message.
Source:
Contributed by: Steven Serafin, Hunter College, City University of New York
Source: Beacham’s Guide to Literature for Young Adults. Copyright by Gale Group, Inc.
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