Animal Farm by George Orwell....
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…
About Author
George Orwell “Eric Blair” was born in 1903. He served as a British policeman with the “Indian Imperial Police” in Burma. Once he had been shot with a sniper in the throat and barely managed to survive in the Spanish Civil War. He explained escaping the communist in Spain taught him, “how easily totalitarian Propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries.” These experiences helped him to form his ideas about socialism.
Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear. ----> George Orwell.
Introduction
Animal Farm is a novella written by George Orwell. He had a lot of difficulty getting it published due to his criticism of the politics; but finally, it was published in England on 17th August, 1945. Orwell has satirized the Soviet totalitarianism directed by Joseph Stalin. The novel shows how the concept of a class’s society remains just a dream and how individuals in positions of social and political corrupt the society’s ideologies.
Characters
Here are the main characters of the novella Animal Farm:
Napoleon
A boar who leads the rebellion against Mr. Jones. After the rebellion’s success, he begins to control all aspects of the farm.
Boxer
A dedicated but dimwitted horse who aids in the building of the windmill.
Mr. Jones
An irresponsible owner of the farm. He beats his animals with a whip and sometimes shows a random kindness.
Jessie
The farm’s sheepdog, she keeps tabs on the pigs and the first to suspect that something is wrong at the Animal Farm.
Snowball
A boar who becomes one of the rebellion’s most valuable leaders.
Moses
A tame ravens; and sometimes, pet of Jones who tells the animals stories about a paradise.
Old Major
An old boar whose speech rouses the animals into rebelling. He teaches the animals the song “Beast of England.”
Others
Pilkington, Muriel, Mollie, Benjamin, The Sheep, The Dogs etc.
Squealer
A big mouth pig that becomes Napoleon’s mouthpiece.
Theme of the Animal Farm
Themes are the elemental and sometimes universal ideas explored during a literary composition.
Animal Farm satirized the facility of the dictator Stalin. In the novella, the overthrow of the human oppressor Mr. Jones quickly gives thanks to the consolidation of power among the pigs.
Opening Scene
The novel opens with Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, calling the animals on the farm for a gathering , where he compares the citizenry to parasites and inspires the animals to require hold of the farm. He teaches them a revolutionary song, “Beasts of England.”
Summary
After the death of Old Major, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon take centre stage and therefore the animals drive out the drunken and irresponsible Mr. Jones from the farm, remembering it Animal Farm. The pigs, Snowball, Napoleon and Squealer adapt Old Major’s ideas into an actual philosophy, which they formally name Animalism. The original commandments were:
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy;
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings may be a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
Snowball tries to show the animals reading and writings; food is plentiful and initially the farm runs smoothly. The pigs take upon themselves the responsibility to steer other animals and put aside special food items – milk and apples – for themselves. The degeneration of the Animal Farm begins with this apparently simple and harmless act. When Mr. Jones tries recapturing the farm, the animals defeats him within the Battle of The Cowshed. All the animals – Boxer, Benjamin, Muriel, Clover, Snowball etc – fight valiantly.
Soon, rivalry between Snowball and Napoleon erupts over the difficulty of fixing a windmill within the farm. Napoleon lets loose his privately trained dogs after Snowball and that they drive him out of the farm. In the absence of Snowball, Napoleon assumes uncontrolled power and runs the farm at his will. Weekly meetings are stopped; the ration of animals’ decreases day by day; they're asked to figure long hours if they need to stay citizenry out of the farm.
Whenever something untoward incident happens Snowball is blamed for it. He is called to be a traitor and lots of animals on the farm are killed for supporting Snowball with none evidence to prove it Beast of England is banned and a replacement song praising Napoleon comes into effect.
Napoleon and Squealer; the mouth piece of Napoleon, enjoys all the vices of mankind (drinking alcohol, sleeping in beds, trading etc.) Squealer changes the seven commandments to suit their purposes. When any animal tries to question it, he blames their poor memory.
Years pass and therefore the pigs learn to steer on two legs, carry whips and wear clothes. In the last chapter of the novel, they're shown to be having a banquet with citizenry and therefore the animals, looking from the window, realizing that the faces of pigs appear as if the faces of citizenry .
Animal Farm – Allegory
Any sort of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning is named an allegory.
Animal Farm is strongly allegorical, but it presents a really nice balance between levels of meaning. You can be upset when boxer is removed by the horse slaughterer without being too conscious of what he stands for, but at an equivalent time each of the animals serves as a symbol.
Conclusion
George Orwell criticized all sorts of government that he considered hypocritical. Although the characters within the Animal Farm were animals, the novel conveys that we humans aren't better when it involves exploit each other with the facility of words:
As we starred through the window it had been no doubt now. The animals outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it had been impossible to mention which was which!