Animal farm

Reading on George Orwell’s
Animal Farm
A Fairy Story

Research Paper
Judith Rivero Martín
1º D

INDEX

1. Introduction 3
2. Argumentation 4
3. Animal Farm characters vs. Russian Revolution 7
4. Conclusion 9
Sources 10

1. INTRODUCTION.
George Orwell, or Eric Blair, came from a prosperous family and a richbackground but preferred to see the world and make his own way of life. He worked in a restaurant in Paris and was a tramp in London, before settling down in Britain to write. He said himself that 'Animal Farm' was the only novel that he "really sweated over." It does have many of the characteristics of a bedtime story but there are several substantial reasons which shows it is not.
In Hitler’sbook, Mein Kampf he writes, “All propaganda has to be popular and
has to adapt to the perception of the least intelligent of those whom it intends to direct
itself.” No one proves this more than George Orwell in Animal Farm. This
book is actually a rebellion against the Russian Revolution. The book’s plot, characters, and setting are nearly identical to that of the ones in the Russian Revolution,and through them, Orwell shows how tyrants can fool people and believe anything; attacking modern totalitarian governments around the globe.
The animals in the story who act as the main characters may seem like regular animals to a child, but upon closer examination and historical reference, these are actually
representatives for Communist leaders, such as Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, andothers.
Critic Bernard Grofman puts it best, “No reader can fully enjoy the book without
knowing, for example, that the pig Snowball represents Trotsky and the pig Napoleon
represents Stalin”. This book was not just a fictional story; it has different purpose as a complete and utter attack on totalitarianism.

2. ARGUMENTATION.

The main purpose of satire is to attack, and intenselycriticise the target subject. This is brilliantly carried out in the classic piece of satire, Animal Farm. The main targets of this political satire are the society that was created in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and the leaders involved in it. George Orwell successfully condemns these objectives through satirical techniques such as irony, fable, and allegory. In other words,Animal Farm is not only a charming fable (A Fairy Story, as Orwell playfully subtitles it) and a bitter political satire; it is also an allegory.
The main target of this allegory is Stalin, represented by Napoleon the pig. He represents the human frailties of any revolution. Orwell believed that although socialism is a good ideal, it could never be successfully adopted due to uncontrollable sins ofhuman nature. For example, although Napoleon seems at first to be a good leader, he is eventually overcome by greed and soon becomes power-drunk. Of course, Stalin did too in Russia, leaving the original equality of socialism behind, giving him all the power and living in luxury while the common populace suffered. Orwell explains: “Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer withoutmaking the animals themselves any richer - except of course for the pigs and the dogs.” The continual topic of satire is to point out the human weakness of the human condition, and this is one of Orwell’s central themes in Animal Farm. He is not criticizing necessarily the system that is corrupt or faulty; he is criticizing the individuals in the power. Old Major, with all his good intentions, tookno note of the crucial fact: whereas his ideals were sound and moral, corrupt individuals found ways and opportunities to exploit those ideals to suit their own purposes. Therefore, Orwell successfully points out the frailties of his satirical targets by using the satirical technique of the allegory.
Another main satirical technique used to condemn these objectives is the use of fable, or...