ANIMAL FARM

George Orwell
1945
GEORGE ORWELL WAS DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST

A dystopian novel
 “Animal Farm” was written in 1945 and it deals with a criticism of totalitarian communism
in a softer way than “1984”.
A “fairy story” (style of Aesop’s fables) → It uses animals on an English farm to tell the
history of Soviet communism.
 Certain animals are based directly on Communist Party leaders.
 Orwell uses the form of the fable for aesthetic and political reasons.
 Orwell was inspired to write Animal Farm in part by his experiences in a Trotskyist group
during the Spanish Civil War.

Historical background
• In February 1917, Zar Nicholas II abdicated and the socialist Alexander Kerensky became
premier.
• On November 7th (October), Kerensky was ousted, and Vladimir Lenin became chief
commissar.
• As wars raged on many Russian front, Lenin’s allies began to try to gain power in the newly
formed state; (Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev).
• Trotsky and Stalin emerged were possible heirs to Lenin.
o Trotsky was a popular and charismatic leader, famous for his impassioned
speeches
o Stalin preferred to consolidate his power behind the scenes.

• After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin formed an alliance against Trotsky with Zinoviev and
Kamenev.
Stalin became the dictator of the Soviet Union. He had Trotsky expelled from Moscow,
from the Communist Party, and from Russia in 1936.
Trotsky exiled to Mexico, where he was assassinated on Stalin’s orders in 1940.
• In 1934, Serge Kirov (Stalin ally) was assassinated in Leningrad. This was used as a
scapegoat for Stalin to begin his purges of the Communist Party.
Holding arranged “show trials” Stalin had his opponents denounced as participants in
Trotskyist or anti-Stalinist conspiracies. They were immediately executed.
• Russia suffered violence, fear, and starvation.
Trotsky became a common national enemy also because by associating his enemies with
Trotsky’s name, Stalin could eliminate them from the Communist Party.
• These and many other developments in Soviet history before 1945 have direct parallels in
Animal Farm:
o Napoleon ousts Snowball from the farm and uses Snowball in his purges.
o Napoleon becomes a dictator, while Snowball is never heard from again.
• Animal Farm was written as an attack on a specific government. However, its general
themes of oppression, suffering, and injustice have larger application.
A POLITICAL ALLEGORY

• Animal Farm is a political fable in the form of an allegory.

• It may be read at various different levels:
o a story for children
o an attack against Stalinism
o a complaint for the fate of revolution and the hopes contained in them.
• It was published in 1945 when Stalin was at the power.
• In Animal Farm Orwell describes the transition from a capitalist society to a communist
dictatorship → where we find the abolition of the social classes and the “theoretical” equality
of all men in front of the law.
• Orwell had the idea for the novel after he came back from Spain.

 We find an allegorical intent in some historical events that form a parallel with the novel:
o the failure of the five -year plan
o the flight of Trotsky
o the Moscow show-trial, in which the opponents of the regime were forced to
denounce themselves after brainwashing
o the non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in 1933

World War
When Orwell wanted to publish it, he met some difficulties to find a publisher because at that
time Great Britain was allied with Russia against Germany.
The seven commandments (see plot)- ANIMALISM
 Animal Farm deals with the revolt of the animals in a farm.
 They win control of the farm and expel their human master. The farm is run by the animals
themselves on socialist principles, summoned up in seven commandments.
 The Seven Commandments are written on the barn wall. The original Commandments
are:
1. Whatever goes on two legs is an enemy
2. Whatever goes on four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal. “but some are more equal than others ” - assert the supremacy
of the class of the pigs.

 Very soon the commandments begin to be altered to fit them according to the Pigs’ needs:
When they decide to sleep in the farmhouse beds the fourth commandment is changed
with the adding of “with sheets“; when they start to drink the words “to excess” are added
to the fifth commandments; when some animals are executed after the “trial show” in
which they had confessed their ‘supposed‘ crimes the sixth commandment is changed
with the addition of the words “without cause“.

 Among them, the most important is the last one: All the animals are equal.
In spite of the equality, the class of the Pigs gradually takes the power, betrays the
revolution and restores a society based on exploitation of the working class and on
dictatorship.
 With the passing of time on the barn wall there is no other commandment but the seventh
to which someone had added “but some are more equal than others” to assert the
supremacy of the class of the pigs.
 CHARACTERS
NAPOLEON
 It takes Old Major’s power after his death, but he become more cruel than Mr. Jones. He
uses nine dogs to frighten animals.
 Those who oppose him are forced to leave the farm.
 To control the animals, he alters the laws to his needs and controls the education of the
young.
 He stands for Stalin, the pig who emerges as the leader of Animal Farm after the Rebellion.
 Napoleon uses military force to consolidate his power.
Napoleon will be more treacherous (sleale) than his counterpart, Snowball.
Napoleon emerges as an utterly corrupt opportunist.
 Always present at the early meetings of the new state. Napoleon makes no contribution
to the revolution.
He never shows interest in the strength of Animal Farm itself, only in the strength of his
power over it.
 He undertakes training of a litter of puppies. He educates them for his own good: they
become his own private army / secret police.
 His namesake is the French general Napoleon, who betrayed the democratic principles on
which he rode to power.
 In the behavior of Napoleon and his henchmen (scagnozzo), one can totalitarian leaders
such as Josip Tito, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Augusto Pinochet, and Slobodan Milosevic .
 Napoleon was, like Stalin:
• A master at pulling strings behind the scenes.
• He had his own little secret police force, (in Russia the NKVD (later the KGB)).
• He kept tight control over the media.
• He commissioned paintings of himself surrounded by adoring children.
• He essentially re-wrote Russian history, inserting himself into the Russian
Revolution of 1917.
• He wanted to be remembered for his modesty.
• He destroyed Russia's economy and hide it
• He lived a luxurious lifestyle while everyone else was starving.
• Napoleon messed up Old Major's ideas just like Stalin messed up Karl Marx's ideas.

 When Karl Marx was writing The Communist Manifesto (1848), he was inspired by the
ideas of the French Revolution:
liberty, equality, and fraternity. (Liberté, égalité, fraternité)
He really believed that communism would create a utopia. Unfortunately, no communist
state has quite pulled it off.

 Orwell seems to be arguing that idealist thinkers can what they want, but some self-
interested pig is always going to come along to ruin it for everyone.
 Napoleon's tyranny is described as pure lust for power.
The very first description of Napoleon presents him as a "fierce-looking" boar "with a
reputation for getting his own way."
His own way involves propaganda and terror.

 The many crimes he commits against his comrades is for taking nine puppies to "educate"
them as his band of killer guard dogs.
 Napoleon's greatest crime is his complete transformation into Jones
Napoleon is a much more harsh and stern master.
By the end of the novel, Napoleon is sleeping in Jones' bed, eating from Jones' plate,
drinking alcohol, wearing a derby hat, walking on two legs, trading with humans, and
sharing a toast with Mr. Pilkington.
 His final act of propaganda → "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL / BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL
THAN OTHERS".

SNOWBALL
 the leader of the opposition.
 He stands for Trotsky,intelligent, passionate, eloquent, and less subtle and devious than
Napoleon.
 He is a very intelligent pig and tries to spread the rebellion on the other farms.
 He plans a military attack against the Windmill to provide the farm with electricity.
 He tries to organize the animals into “Animal committees” but he is defeated and forced
to leave the farm. (Trotsky’s exile)
 Snowball seems to win the loyalty of the other animals.
 Orwell’s participation in a Trotskyist battalion in the Spanish Civil War influenced his
“positive” portrayal of Snowball.
Relying only on the force of his own logic and rhetorical skill to gain his influence, he
proves no match for Napoleon’s brute force.

 Orwell depicts Snowball in a positive, however he refrains from idealizing his character.
Snowball accepts the superiority of the pigs over the rest of the animals. His single-minded
enthusiasm might have erupted into megalomaniac despotism if had he not been chased
from Animal Farm.
Orwell suggests that we cannot eliminate government corruption. The power itself
corrupts.
 Snowball is the most similar animal to old Major, and he devotes himself to bettering the
animals in intellectual, moral, and physical ways.
He brings literacy to the farm.
He reduces the Commandments to a single precept ("Four legs good, two legs bad") so
that everyone can understand the farm's philosophy.
 Force governs the farm and not good intentions.
SQUEALER
 A very intelligent porker (only Napoleon and Snowball are called pigs) and a brilliant talker.
 He supports Napoleon →he convinces the animals that Snowball is Mr Jones secret agent.
 He stands for “Pravda”, the Soviet newspaper. (How politicians manipulate language in an
age of mass media).
 He abuses language to justify Napoleon’s actions.
 He radically simplifies the commandments to “Four legs good, two legs better!”
 By complicating language, he confuses and intimidates the uneducated.
In this latter strategy, he also employs jargon (“tactics, tactics”) as well as a baffling
vocabulary of false statistics.
 Squealer is the perfect propagandist because he has a lack of conscience and complete
loyalty to his leader.
 Squealer’s name:
• squealing (stridere, gridare, fare la spia)→ pig’s typical form of vocalization
(Squealer’s speech)
• To squeal also means to betray
• Squealer is Napoleon’s sycophants (leccapiedi), a clever pig.
Throughout the novel, he serves as Minister of Propaganda.
Every time an act of Napoleon's is questioned by the other animals Squealer is able
to convince them that they are wrong and he is sacrificing himself.
• His physical "skipping from side to side" is a parallel for "skipping" words, which
are never direct.
E.g. when he convinces the animals that Boxer was taken to a veterinary hospital
instead of the knacker's (slaughter).

 Some people think he's supposed to be Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin's Prime Minister who
issued a lot of the death warrants during the Great Purge.
 Squealer is a general allegorical figure for propaganda.
 Orwell meant Squealer to be hypocrisy embodied. He's selfish and power-hungry. He
twists reality to suit his interests.
"Squealer was so fat that he could with difficulty see out of his eyes" (10.2).

Old major
 The leader of the animals.
 He delivers the speech which start the revolutiom. He tells them that the animals are
exploited and live in misery and slavery. The solution is to get rid of him. He uses powerful
slogans such as “All animals are equal”, “All men are enemies”, “All animals are
comrades”.
 Orwell had a great respect for Karl Marx and Lenin.
His critique of Animal Farm is not really to Marx’s ideas but to the later ideology made by
leaders.
 Major represents both Marx and Lenin. It serves as the source of the ideals.
 Old Major is described as largely positive. However, Orwell does include a few small
ironies.
Old Major inspires the rebellion with his rhetorical skill.
When he announces that he wishes to share the contents with his companions, all the
animals comply, demonstrating great respect for him.
 In its speech there is a methodical enumeration of man's crimes against the animals. Doing
this, old Major rouses the other animals into the rebellion.
He is leading them in singing "Beasts of England" (but pigs can’t sing)
The flaw in old Major's thinking is → he places total blame on man for all the animals' ills.
 Old Major believes that Man is capable only of doing harm and that animals are capable
only of doing good. (one-dimensional thinking).
 IRONIC: "Remember also that in fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble
him." This warning is ignored by Napoleon and the other pigs, who, by the novel's end,
completely resemble their human masters.

Boxer
 A very strong horse, great physical strength but not intelligent. He works very hard in the
factory and never takes a day off work. (he has a physical breakdown and is sold by the
pigs to the knackers).
 He stands for the representative of the masses who can easily be manipulated.
Sympathetically drawn, Boxer represents all of the best qualities of the exploited working
classes → dedication, loyalty, and a huge capacity for labor.
He suffers from a naïve trust in the good intentions of the intelligentsia and an inability to
recognize the most obvious forms of political corruption.
Boxer represents all the invisible labor that supports the political drama.
Boxer’s pitiful death at a glue factory → it illustrates the extent of the pigs’ betrayal.
 Before being taken away he serves as the force that holds Animal Farm together.
 When he learns about Animalism, Boxer throws himself into the rebellion's cause.
At the Battle of the Cowshed, Boxer proves to be a valuable
 He wakes up early and always says "I will work harder" . Devotion to the animals' cause.
 He is innocent and naive. He can only think in simple slogans.
 Even when he collapses while rebuilding the windmill, he thinks of work: "It is my lung ...
It does not matter. I think you will be able to finish the windmill without me."
 His hopes of retiring with Benjamin after his collapse display the extent of his innocence
(Napoleon won’t maintain him). Even when he is being led to his death Benjamin and
Clover need to tell him.
 He becomes wise to Napoleon's ways too late (he is killed)
SATIRE
Satire: art that ridicules a specific topic to provoke readers into changing their opinion of it.
Satirists usually imply their own opinions on how the thing being attacked can be remedied.
The most famous work of British satire is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), where the
inhabitants of the different lands Gulliver visits embody what Swift saw as vices and
corruptions of his time.
Orwell discovered Swift's novel as a child. Animal Farm is a satirical novel in which Orwell
attacks what he saw as some follies of his time.

SATIRE - TYRANTS
Animal Farm satirizes politicians and especially their rhetoric, ability to manipulate others,
and insatiable lust for power.
Napoleon is presented as the epitome of a power-hungry individual who masks all of his
actions with the excuse.
His stealing the milk and apples is explained by the lie that these foods have nutrients
essential to pigs.
His running Snowball off the farm is explained by the lie that Snowball was actually a
traitor.
Each time that Napoleon and the other pigs wish to break one of the Seven
commandments, they legitimize their transgressions by changing the
Commandment's original language.
Whenever the farm suffers a setback, Napoleon blames Snowball's treachery
Napoleon's walking on two legs, wearing a derby hat reflect how he (and the other
pigs) completely disregard the plights of the other animals.
The dominant theme of Animal Farm is the tendency for those who espouse the most virtuous
ideas to become the worst enemies of the people whose lives they are claiming to improve.
SATIRE - ROLE OF THE POPULATION
Orwell, says that Napoleon is not the only cause for Animal Farm's decline. He satirizes the
different kinds of people who led Napoleon to success.
Mollie, the white mare (giumenta) only concerns are materialistic
o like people who are so self-centered that they lack any political sense.
o Apolitical people offer no resistance to tyrants.
Boxer, the hard worker horse is never thinking about himself, he is naïve
o Like blindly devoted citizen whose reliance on slogans.
o Boxer is a sympathetic character but his ignorance is infuriating
o Unquestioning ignorance allows rulers to grow stronger.
Benjamin, the donkey, is cynic
o his only stand on what is occurring is a cynical dismissal of the facts.
o He does nothing to stop the pigs' ascension. His only action is to warn Boxer of
his impending death.
o Like the older, cynical Russian citizens who did not believe communism would
benefit society and even saw communism's evil side.

SATIRE - RELIGION AND TYRANNY

There is a satiric note on religion being the "opium of the people" (as Karl Marx wrote).
Moses (RAVEN) talks about Sugarcandy Mountain (paradise for animals) and he seems
unreliable.
As their lives get worse, the animals begin to believe him, because.
Orwell mocks the futile dreaming of a better place that clearly does not exist.
The pigs allow Moses to stay on the farm — and encourage his presence by giving him beer
— because they know that his stories of Sugarcandy Mountain will keep the animals calm.
As long as there is some better world somewhere — even after death — the animals will live
through this one. Orwell implies that religious devotion can distort the ways in which one
thinks of his or her life on earth.

SATIRE - FALSE ALLEGIANCE

False Allegiance (fedeltà, lealtà)
Another satiric theme is the way in which people proclaim their allegiance to each other, only
to betray their true intentions later.
The novel's final scene demonstrates that, despite all the friendly talk between Pilkington and
Napoleon, each is still trying to cheat the other (as seen when both play the ace of spades
simultaneously). Of course, only one of the two is technically cheating, but Orwell does not
indicate which one because such a fact is unimportant: The "friendly" game of cards is a
facade that hides each ruler's desire to destroy the other.
According to Orwell, rulers such as Napoleon will continue to grow in number unless people
become more politically aware and more wary of these leader's "noble" ideals.

THE FINALE
The finale the novel is the apotheosis of the novel itself and symbolizes the failure of the
revolution.
There is a big party in the farm. In the dining room, the Pigs and the human enemies are at
the same table, eating and drinking and enjoying themselves.
The pigs, standing and walking on two legs, try to imitate the humans and wish to create a
cooperative enterprise with them. The animals, protagonists of the revolution, are outside
the house. They had rebelled against their human master and had conquered their freedom.
They had worked hard in the hope to better their condition. Now they are only passive
spectators.
They are astonished because they can’t distinguish the Pigs from the Humans.
It’s a bitter conclusion to suggest a negative and pessimistic view of the masses because they
can be easily manipulated.
This final scene completes the circular structure of the book.
The story had started with the animals enslaved and exploited by their human master, Mr
Jones, now they are more and more enslaved and exploited by their new masters, the pigs.
Now they realise the failure of Animalism and, above all, they realise that the situation has
returned to the starting point with new masters, the Pigs, who are more powerful and even
worse than Mr Jones. He could only control their actions while the Pigs, coming from their
own social class, knowing their tastes and their language, control their thoughts, too. The
seven commandments have disappeared. There is only one, the last, which has been changed
to assert the superiority of the class of the Pigs: All the animals are equal, but some animals
are more equal than others.

ORWELL’S CHOICE OF PIGS

Orwell uses pigs to symbolize the leaders of what was actually the Bolshevik Revolution and
the start of communism in Russia because pigs are actually known to be the most intelligent
animals found on a farm, next to dogs. Studies have shown that pigs are able to use mirrors
to their advantage and do all kinds of tricks, including "jump hoops, bow and stand, spin and
make wordlike sounds on command, roll out rugs, herd sheep, close and open cages, play
videogames with joysticks, and more" (Angier, "Pigs Prove to be Smart, if Not Vain"). Hence,
it was most definitely appropriate for Orwell to symbolize Carl Marx, leader of Russia's
communist revolution, as an old, wise pig named Old Major.
Pigs are also known to represent uncleanliness as can be seen in the fact that they are known
to wallow in mud and eat any slop and in the fact that pigs are forbidden cuisine in many
religions like Judaism. Uncleanliness can also be likened to moral depravity; hence, it's also
very fitting for Orwell to use the pig Napoleon to symbolize Stalin, the pig Snowball to
symbolize Trotsky, and other pigs to represent other aspects of Stalin's regime.