Many of the Aborigines got smallpox, measles, venereal disease, influenza, whooping cough,

pneumonia, and tuberculosis and died. European invaders cut down forests and brought foreign animals
to Australia. By 1860 there were 20 million sheep in Australia. The cattle and sheep destroyed the
Aborigines’ water holes.

For example Emmanuel Goldstein’s face was described as It resembled the face of a sheep and the
voice, too, had a sheep like quality. The significance of this description becomes more meaningful if you
look at a poster (see appendix 1) used during World War II. Henri Guigon represented Churchill as a
British bulldog in an American poster.

To the whole world Britain’s new prime minister epitomised the stubborn and proud nature of the
British. Orwell uses animals for descriptive comparison frequently in his writing but the use of a sheep,
in this instance, is a curious choice. The character Goldstein is the leader of the opposition and sheep
like qualities conjure up images of low intelligence and all following the crowd.