... George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satiric allegory of the Russian Revolution, and shows how power tends to corrupt the characters in possession of it. The two prominent pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, are shown to slowly accept the temptations of power and succumb to its effects. After Snowball’s expulsion, Napoleon takes control of the farm. But what if Snowball became the unquestionable leader and Napoleon was written off the board. Would Snowball become a better leader and conduct activities on the farm to ensure everyone was equal? It is clear the Snowball would not pose as morally legitimate political alternative as there are many instances that he was complicit with the pigs’ corrupted behaviour. To what extent is the weakness and foolishness responsible for the abuses of power committed by Napoleon and his followers? George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satiric allegory of the Russian Revolution, and extensively shows the naivety of a simple working class and manipulated by propaganda. The foolishness of the simple animals demonstrates how they are unable to question the corrupt rule of the pigs and thus condemns them to suffer the full extent of the pigs’ oppression. It creates a loophole for Napoleon and his followers to abuse their power and manipulate it to suit their own benefits After Napoleon gains unquestionable control of the farm, he starts to abuse his power and change the Seven Commandments to shadow his corrupt behaviour. George Orwell’s Animal Farm...
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...could have found the right arguments.” This quote, taken from Animal Farm, an allegory written by George Orwell, shows that if people aren’t educated then they can’t fight back against their government. This is the case in Animal Farm, where a pig by the name of Napoleon, took rule of Animal Farm, after overthrowing the previous leader, a human, and eliminating his only other competition, a pig called Snowball. The pigs in Animal Farm were the only animals that could learn english so the rest of the farm animals could not question the corrupt government that the pigs set up. Looking at this structure of the story and many other aspects of writing, I believe that the purpose of George Orwell's writing...
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...George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm is about miserable animals on a farm who rebel against their evil owner, Jones, and the pigs gain power, but only to be back where they were and worse. On the surface, Orwell wrote Animal Farm in response to show how others abuse power to the individuals who cannot rebel however, under the surface he refers back to the Russian Revolutionary War. The author’s use of anthropomorphism and common diction lead us to believe he intended the novel to be read by the “everyday man” or lay person. Orwell wrote the text in order to show how, when someone has power, it can be absolute corrupted absolutely. The author uses a detached narrative point of view as they unfold in the story; the text is in third person limited. While he uses several stylistic devices in Animal Farm to achieve his purpose, although the two that impacts his purpose is symbolism and irony. Ultimately, the tone in the narrative shifts from one of hope to one of despair as Orwell leaves his tragic tale of the animals rebellion....
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...George Orwell’s, first highly successful novel, Animal Farm, was published on the heels of World War II. Orwell wrote the book during the war as a cautionary fable in order to expose the seriousness of the dangers posed by Stalinism and totalitarian government. In Orwell’s novel he portrays many World War II leaders through the animals on the farm (GradeSaver 1). In the beginning of the book the readers find out that Mr. Jones, the farm owner is a drunk and does not remember to care for the animals. Then the readers find out that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had a strange dream that the animals take over the farm a live without humans. Napoleon, a large rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, is one of the few animals that Orwell uses to portray the leaders from World War II (Animal Farm 35). Throughout the chapters of the novel, Napoleon slowly gains control over the farm by letting Snowball organize things, by helping with little things, and by finally chasing Snowball off the farm. Napoleon slowly takes control over the farm by sitting back at letting Snowball organize things after old Major dies. Shortly after old Major died the animals chased Mr. Jones off the farm. They then burned anything and everything that led them back to Mr. Jones. The next day, after all the animals had woke up, they held a meeting. Snowball says, “Comrades, today we begin the hay harvest. Now comrades, to the hay field!” (Animal Farm 42-43). This is an example of Napoleon letting...
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...boy, George Orwell had always loved writing and literature. He began writing poems before most kids today can even spell their name. This love lead him to receive scholarships and become an authorauthur. It did not all come easy for him though, and he had many obstacles in his way, including some life threatening ones. By looking at Animal Farm, one can see that George Orwell included the themes of the corruption of sSocialist ideas and the danger of a naive working class because he was very opposed to the cCommunistic ways of the Soviet Union. George Orwell, who was born Eric ArthurAuthur Blair, was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, India. He was the son of, Richard WalmesleyWalmasley Blair, a British civil servant officer, and...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSIC EDITION OF GEORGE ORWELL’S ANIMAL FARM By HAZEL K. DAVIS, Federal Hocking High School, Stewart, OH S E R I E S W. GEIGER ELLIS, ED.D., E D I T O R S : UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, EMERITUS and ARTHEA J. S. REED, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, RETIRED A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm 2 INTRODUCTION Animal Farm is an excellent selection for junior and senior high students to study. Although on one level the novel is an allegory of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the story is just as applicable to the latest rebellion against dictators around the world. Young people should be able to recognize similarities between the animal leaders and politicians today. The novel also demonstrates how language can be used to control minds. Since teenagers are the target not only of the educational system itself but also of advertising, the music industry, etc., they should be interested in exploring how language can control thought and behavior. Animal Farm is short and contains few words that will hamper the reader’s understanding. The incidents in the novel allow for much interactive learning, providing opportunities for students to dramatize certain portions, to expand on speeches, and to work out alternative endings. The novel can be taught collaboratively with the history department as an allegory of the Russian Revolution, allowing students to draw parallels...
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...have those rights, and in the novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the animals struggle under a dictatorship where rights are limited. The following three paragraphs will include, how the novel Animal Farm written by George Orwell portrays a farm in which there is a need for natural and human rights, the reality of North Korea, where conditions are poor and human rights are minimal, and how George Orwell was trying to warn his audience of the future. In Animal Farm, Orwell creates a farm where the animals have a need...
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...George Orwell who wrote for political purpose was for people to see history a little clearer. Not many people have a chance to read an allegory which for “Animal Farm’ is the Russian Revolution. In the three publications, the author’s political and artistic use was to understand rules according to the article “Politics and the English Language”. These thought provoking book, “Animal Farm”, as dependent on the revolution where these animals almost impersonate the dictators and working people which makes you understand the story a little better. As for Orwell’s point of view, it was to see if the audience can comprehend what is really behind these hard working animals. On the surface George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm” is about a group of neglected...
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...Animal Farm, first published in 1945, is a classic satirical novella by George Orwell. It portrays a revolution by the farm animals to bring about the downfall of the cruel owner, however ends up paving the way for the pigs to establish themselves as the ruling echelons in the new society. In this animal fable, the events clearly evoke particular unpalatable truths in reality, specifically, the emergence of the totalitarian regime by Joseph Stalin since the 1920s. Although the vast majority of Animal Farm’s readers are familiar with the context in which Animal Farm was created and Orwell’s motive, some may not. This raises a question whether the exposure of social injustice during Russia in the 19th century reflected within this story can be seen by readers without prior comprehension in regards to such humanitarian crisis. Background knowledge is a requisite but not indispensable skill for enabling...
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...How does a society go from being a utopia, to a dystopia, what is a utopia??. In George Orwell’s novella, Animal Farm, the farm animals are restricted and mistreated. They have an overseer named Mr. Jones who is not only a drunk, but is slowly losing his ability to take care of Manor Farm. Gradually the animals are moving toward the idea of revolution against their dictator. Lois Lowry once said, “The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. Is a life without colour, pain or past.” This quote can be interpreted as a life without problems, surprises or consequences, is a life with no originality or vitality. George Orwell uses a large variety of literary elements such as, symbols, dramatic irony and conflict...
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...Animal Farm Journal “Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think.” (Courtemanche) I think in this quote Gil Courtemanche is stating that propaganda is so powerful that it can easily corrupt people’s minds and change the way they think and their view on things. I agree with Courtemanche’s statement because propaganda can take away people’s ability to think for themselves and can cause people to believe in a distorted truth. For instance, propaganda was huge in manipulating the German people during World War II. The Nazis only allowed certain messages and information to be released to the public, which shaped Hitler’s character as a hero and almost God-like. Hitler’s book, “Mein Kampf” was distributed to schools and used to indoctrinate the youth. Anti-Semitic campaigns were used by the Nazis to corrupt the minds of Germans, making them believe that the Jewish public were to blame for Germany’s social and economic problems. As a result of this, eleven million innocent people were murdered. Germans mindlessly idolized Hitler only because they were repeatedly told what a great man he was. As a result, the German people were not able to think or make their own decisions. They agreed with whatever Hitler said because they were drawn into a false illusion that Hitler was a good man who only wanted the best for Germany. George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm contains numerous examples of the power of propaganda and how it can easily brainwash...
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...ANIMAL FARM First I want to tell you a little about a few outlines and a small part of the characters in the fable Animal Farm by George Orwell. After I've done this, I will try to discuss why George Orwell decided to write the story as a fable with talking and thinking animals. In the end of my essay I would try to draw a conclusion. Animal farm, a novel by George Orwell, shows how a government based system gone incredible wrong. George Orwell’s plot gives the reader a familiar feeling of being frightened. We learn through a group of farm animals, who rebel against their farmers, that we are not as free as we assume. Orwell composed many of his characters in the fable animal Farm after Russian leaders. He depicts the troubles of Russia in the book excellent. In the book Animal Farm George Orwell shows us how a person's language or way of expressing themselves can control other persons minds and not least how you can tell the people false information about you just to make you look better, and gain the people’s trust or to use it on the enemy to make them look worse. There is the character Squealer who stretches the truth a bit every time he spokes to the other animals. He fools them into believing that what happens is not as bad as it seems to be. In that easy way he gets them to work for him without even lifting a finger. Why the writer George Orwell chose to write the story as a fable, there may be many explanations. One of the explanations could be that the story...
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...Snowball and Leon Trotsky “Animal Farm was meant to help destroy the Soviet myth.” – George Orwell. Orwell was a democratic socialist and this led him to denounce that what was going on in the Soviet Union had anything to do with socialism. As people equated the Soviet Union with socialism, he thought no one could appreciate what democratic socialism is. Orwell doesn’t criticize the act of revolution itself but the misery it could cause if the leaders go corrupt, shortsighted, and greedy. George Orwell’s Animal Farm demonstrates a symbolism of the Russian Revolution through features of Snowball and the historical figure of Trotsky. Animal Farm is an allegorical novel written by George Orwell in 1945 that reflects the social issues of the Soviet Union in the time period of 1917 to 1943. This essay will explain about who Snowball is, who Leon Trotsky was, similarities and differences between these two characters, and the author’s purpose of using Snowball to represent Trotsky in his novel. Snowball is a Napoleon’s rival who contends for control of the Animal Farm after the rebellion. In Animal Farm, chapter two on page 16, it describes Snowball as an eloquent, inventive, and vivid leader. He is most clearly attuned to Old Major’s thinking and devotes himself to actualize it. Snowball insists that in order to defend Animal Farm and strengthen the reality of Old Major’s dream without human beings, the animals should stir up rebellions in other farms throughout England. He brings...
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...thirst for power runs through their veins taking hold of their mind ultimately causing them to stop at nothing to gain power. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the pigs new surge of power leaves them unsatisfied causing them to exploit and manipulate the other animals. The pigs defy their code to gain authority eventually leading to the corruption of the farm by their own greedy desires. George Orwell reveals the destruction that greed causes through the main antagonist, Napoleon, the affects of communism and his own life experiences. This ultimately leads the animals and Orwell into a world they do not recognize. Greed can be seen as a silent force that has the ability to conquer one’s life, where their selfish attitude allows his or her’s infatuation of power to consume them. Napoleon’s desire to become the only leader devours him as he becomes deceitful to animals except to the pigs. The animals on the farm are captivated by this new forming idea that they can become their own individuals by overthrowing the owner, Mr. Jones. This results in the animal to rejoice as they believe that they are able to control themselves and not be controlled, “And so, almost before they knew what was happening, the rebellion had been successfully carried through; Jones was expelled and the Manor Farm was theirs. For the first few minutes, the animals could hardly believe their good fortune” (Orwell 12). Napoleon secretly gains power from this rebellion as he and Snowball are the...
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...ideology of George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm by the means of why government is necessary. The concept of the necessity of government is brought up in the beginning of the novel when Mr. Jones is ran out of his farm due to nationalist uprising brought upon by Old Majors speech and song. When the animals rebelled against Mr. Jones there was no standing army to put them down. There wasn’t any laws or rules for the animals to follow so this led to anarchy due to no government or authority to enforce them. The novel Animal Farm demonstrates a lot of ideologies and themes that are similar to our politics today. In Animal Farm we see a repetitive theme of the consequences...
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