Animal Farm is a satire of totalitarian governments in their many guises. But Orwell composed
the book for a more specific purpose: to serve as a cautionary tale about Stalinism. It was for this
reason that he faced such difficulty in getting the book published; by the time Animal Farm was
ready to meet its readers, the Allies were cooperating with the Soviet Union. The allegorical
characters of the novel represent specific historical figures and different factions of Imperial
Russian and Soviet society. These include Karl Marx (Major), Vladimir Lenin (Major), Leon
Trotsky (Snowball), Joseph Stalin (Napoleon), Adolf Hitler (Frederick), the Allies (Pilkington),
the peasants (Boxer), the elite (Mollie), and the church (Moses). The resemblance of some of the novel’s events to events in Soviet history is indubitable. For
example, Snowball’s and Napoleon’s power struggle is a direct allegory of Trotsky’s and
Stalin’s. Frederick’s trade agreement with Napoleon, and his subsequent breaking of the
agreement, represents the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact that preceded World War II. The
following Battle of the Windmill represents World War II itself.
Despite his fairy-tale clarity in satirizing some historical events, Orwell is less specific about
others. For example, the executions in Chapter VII conflate the Red Terror with the Great Purge.
The executions themselves bear resemblance to both events, although their details connect them
more to the Moscow Trials than to the Red Terror. Squealer’s subsequent announcement that the
executions have ended the Rebellion connects them to the period of the Red Terror, however.
Orwell leaves some ambiguity in the identities of the Rebellion and the Battle of the Cowshed.
These ambiguities help the reader focus on the overall satire of Stalinism and the broader
warning about the evils of totalitarian government.
Orwell held the pessimistic belief that totalitarianism was inevitable, even in the West.
According to Russell Baker, who wrote the preface to Animal Farm’s 1996 Signet Classics
version, Orwell’s pessimism stemmed from his having grown up in an age of dictatorship.
Witnessing Hitler’s and Stalin’s movements from afar, as well as fighting totalitarianism in the
Spanish Civil War, Orwell came to believe in the rise of a new species of autocrat, worse even
than the tyrants of old. This cynicism is reflected in both of his highly successful novels, Animal
Farm and 1984. Orwell emphasizes the insidiousness of totalitarianism early in the novel, when
the pigs take the fresh milk and apples. The pigs justify their actions on the basis of their
superiority; they are smart and need more nutrition than the other animals to fuel their
brainpower. There is no scientific basis for the pigs’ claim—in fact, if anyone needs more food to
fuel their labor, it is the manual laborers—but they can count on the animals’ being too ignorant
to realize that. In this way, Orwell makes the point that totalitarianism need not be blatant in
order to be operating. It can hide under the guise of the “greater good” as it did in the Soviet
Union before the totalitarianism became obvious.
Orwell uses a cyclical structure in Animal Farm, which helps advance the idea of
totalitarianism’s predictability. The novel begins with Jones as autocratic tyrant and ends with
Napoleon not only in Jones’s position, but in his clothes as well. Over the course of the novel,
Napoleon essentially becomes Jones just as Stalin becomes an autocrat after pretending to
espouse equality and freedom. Orwell cements this idea in the book’s final scene, where he
writes, “Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what
had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from
man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”
(139 ) . The circularity of Orwell’s story prevents the reader from imagining a better future for
Animal Farm . After all, even if another Rebellion were to take place, its leaders would eventually
come to emulate Napoleon.
According to Baker, technology turned out to be the force freeing people from Orwell’s age of
dictators. But “technology” can be just another banner under which to rally the people. While
Orwell does portray technology as a source of progress in Animal Farm, he points out that it is
useless unless it is in the people’s hands. Most notably, even when the windmill is finished it is
used for milling corn instead of its original purpose of supplying the animals with electricity in
their stalls.
From the very beginning of the novel, we become aware of education’s role in stratifying Animal
Farm’s population. Following Major’s death, the pigs are the ones that take on the task of
organizing and mobilizing the other animals because they are “generally recognized as being the
cleverest of the animals” (35). At first, the pigs are loyal to their fellow animals and to the
revolutionary cause. They translate Major’s vision of the future faithfully into the Seven
Commandments of Animalism. However, it is not long before the pigs’ intelligence and
education turn from tools of enlightenment to implements of oppression. The moment the pigs
are faced with something material that they want—the fresh milk—they abandon their morals
and use their superior intellect and knowledge to deceive the other animals.
The pigs also limit the other animals’ opportunities to gain intelligence and education early on.
They teach themselves to read and write from a children’s book but destroy it before the other
animals can have the same chance. Indeed, most of the animals never learn more than a few
letters of the alphabet. Once the pigs cement their status as the educated elite, they use their
mental advantage to mauipulate the other animals. For example, knowing that the other animals
cannot read the Seven Commandments, they revise them whenever they like. The pigs also use
their literacy to learn trades from manuals, giving them an opportunity for economic
specialization and advancement. Content in the role of the intelligentsia, the pigs forgo manual
labor in favor of bookkeeping and organizing. This shows that the pigs have not only the
advantage of opportunity, but also the opportunity to reject whatever opportunities they like. The
pigs’ intelligence and education allow them to bring the other animals into submission through
the use of propaganda and revisionism. At the book’s end, we witness Napoleon’s preparations to
educate a new generation of pigs and indoctrinate them into the code of oppression.
Animal Farm, Orwell criticizes the ways that dictators use violence and terror to frighten
their populaces into submission. Violence is one of the yokes from which the animals wish to
free themselves when they prepare for the Rebellion. Not only does Jones overwork the
animals and steal the products of their labor, but he can whip or slaughter them at his
discretion. Once the pigs gain control of the animals, they, like Jones, discover how useful
violence and terror can be. They use this knowledge to their full advantage. The foremost
example of violence and terror in the novel is the pattern of public executions. The
executions can be said to represent both the Red Terror and the Great Purge, but they stand
more broadly for the abuse of power. For example, they are also similar to the Taliban’s
public executions in Kabul’s soccer stadium in modern Afghanistan.
Capital punishment for criminals is a hotly debated issue. Killing suspected criminals, as
Napoleon does, is quite another issue. The executions perhaps best symbolize the Moscow
Trials, which were show trials that Stalin arranged to instill fear in the Soviet people. To
witnesses at the time, the accused traitors’ confessions seemed to be given freely. In fact,
they were coerced. Napoleon likely coerces confessions from many of the animals that he
executes. Orwell’s use of the allegory genre serves him well in the execution scene.
Execution with weapons is a violent and horrifying act, but many people have become
desensitized to it. Orwell’s allegorical executioners, the dogs that kill cruelly, portray the
bloody and inescapably animalistic side of execution.
Terror comes also in threats and propaganda. Each time the animals dare to question an
aspect of Napoleon’s regime, Squealer threatens them with Jones’s return. This is doubly
threatening to the animals because it would mean another battle that, if lost, would result in
a return to their former lifestyle of submission. Jones’s return is such a serious threat that it
quashes the animals’ curiosity without fail. The other major example of fear tactics in the
novel is the threat of Snowball and his collaborators. Napoleon is able to vilify Snowball in
the latter’s absence and to make the animals believe that his return, like Jones’s, is
imminent. Snowball is a worse threat than Jones, because Jones is at least safely out of
Animal Farm. Snowball is “proved” to be not only lurking along Animal Farm’s borders but
infiltrating the farm. Napoleon’s public investigation of Snowball’s whereabouts cements the
animals’ fear of Snowball’s influence. In modern language, Snowball is pegged as the
terrorist responsible for the infringements on the rights and liberties instigated by the pigs.
In the beginning of Animal Farm, the idea of freedom rouses the animals as if from a long
slumber. Immediately following Major’s death, the animals begin preparing themselves for
the Rebellion; just the idea of revolution is enough to motivate them, since they do not
expect it to happen in their lifetimes. By the book’s end, the animals have become as
apathetic as Benjamin always was. Despite the many hardships and injustices they face, the
animals’ pride as well as Napoleon’s propaganda keep them invested in the “greater good”
and the illusion of freedom. If Benjamin is the harbinger of apathy, Boxer is its antithesis.
Strong not only in body but also in spirit, Boxer will make any sacrifice for the benefit of
Animal Farm. With Boxer’s eventual betrayal by the leaders he served so unconditionally,
Orwell lays bare another type of apathy—theirs. Far from truly considering Boxer a loyal
comrade, the pigs treat him as apathetically as they would a mere object. Symbolically, they
even make a profit by having him turned into literal objects—glue and bone meal.
Boxer’s enthusiasm does not give him an advantage, but the other animals’ eventual apathy
gives them a defense mechanism against the painful reality of their lives. It is no
coincidence that Animal Farm’s most apathetic and cynical animal, Benjamin, is one of those
that survives the longest. Benjamin’s emotional detachment from situations, whether they
are good or bad, keeps him from being disappointed. In his apathy and cynicism, Benjamin
represents the stereotypical “gloomy” Russian and also the perennially pessimistic Orwell
himself.
( Animal Farm Characters ) …
· Benjamin : The donkey
· Bluebell, Jessie, and Pincher : The dogs.
· Boxer : The male of the two horses on the farm .
· The Cat : The only cat on Manor Farm .
· Clover : The female of the two horses on the farm.
· Frederick : The owner of Pinchfield .
· Jones : The owner of Manor Farm and a drunkard .
· Minimus & Pinkeye : A pigs .
· Mollie : The white mare that draws Mr. Jones’s trap.
· Moses : Mr. Jones’s raven “ He is a spy “ .
· Muriel : The white goat .
· Napoleon : One of the leaders among the pigs .
· Pilkington : The owner of Foxwood .
· Snowball : One of the leaders among the pigs.
· Squealer: The best known of the porker pigs .
· Whymper : A solicitor in Willingdon .
References …
Ø Bott, George (1968) [1958]. Selected Writings. London, Melbourne, Toronto, Singapore, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, , Auckland, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books.
Ø Davison, Peter , Haresson jornal –Nevada USA (2000Oct.13).
Ø Retrieved 25 July 2007.
