ANIMAL FARMGeorge Orwell

MEET GEORGE ORWELL

In the years since the publication of Animal Farm and 1984, both of which conjure visions of modern government’s dangerous power, critics have studied and analyzed George Orwell’s personal life

Orwell was a man who had a reputation for standing apart and even making a virtue of his detachment

This “outsider” position often led him to oppose the crowd

GEORGE ORWELL

Orwell began life as Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell was a pen name he adopted later for its “manly, English, country-sounding ring.”)

He spent his early years in India as a lonely boy who liked to make up stories and talk with imaginary companions

He began to “write” before he even knew how, dictating poems to his mother, and perhaps saw this outlet as an alternative to the human relationships he found so difficult

Refuge in words and ideas became increasingly important when Orwell’s parents sent him, at age eight, to boarding school in England

GEORGE ORWELL

Later, instead of going on to university, he decided to take a job in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police. Orwell wrote about this experi- ence in Burmese Days (1934) and in the essay “Shooting an Elephant.”

At odds with British colonial rule, Orwell said he “theoretically—and secretly, of course . . . was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.”

GEORGE ORWELL

Returning to England to recover from a bout of the chronic lung illness that plagued him all his life, Orwell began his writing career in earnest

Over the next two decades, he wrote newspaper columns, novels, essays, and radio broadcasts, most of which grew out of his own personal experience

GEORGE ORWELL

Orwell’s beliefs about politics were affected by his experiences fighting in the Spanish Civil War

He viewed socialists, communists, and fascists as repressive and self-serving

Orwell patriotically supported England during World War II, but remained skeptical of governments and their willingness to forsake ideals in favor of power

GEORGE ORWELL

With each book or essay, Orwell solidified his role as the outsider willing to question any group’s ideology

Orwell spoke his mind with Animal Farm, in which he criticized the Soviet Union despite its role as a World War II ally of Great Britain

At first, no one would publish the novel, but when Animal Farm finally appeared in 1945 it was a success

It was later adapted both as an animated film and as a play

GEORGE ORWELL

In explaining how he came to write Animal Farm, Orwell says he once saw a little boy whip- ping a horse:

It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the [worker].

GEORGE ORWELL

Orwell said it was the first book in which he consciously tried to blend artistic and political goals

Orwell’s final novel, 1984, continued that effort with a grim portrayal of a world totally under government control

Orwell pursued his writing career faithfully, although it was not always easy

In his final days he made the statement, “Writing . . . is a horrible, exhausting struggle . . . One would never under- take such a thing if one were not driven . . .”

LITERARY TERMS

Satire: the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it

Allegory: a narrative that can be read on more than one level (Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution)

Fable: a narration intended to enforce a useful truth; fables have two important characteristics:

1. they teach a moral or lesson2. the characters are most frequently

animals

BACKGROUND INFO

On the publication of Animal Farm in 1945, George Orwell discovered with horror that book- sellers were placing his novel on children’s shelves

According to his housekeeper, he began traveling from bookstore to bookstore requesting that the book be shelved with adult works

This dual identity—as children’s story and adult satire—has stayed with Orwell’s novel for more than fifty years

BACKGROUND INFO

Animal Farm tells the story of Farmer Jones’s animals who rise up in rebellion and take over the farm

Tired of being exploited solely for human gain, the animals—who have human characteristics such as the power of speech—vow to create a new and more just society

BACKGROUND INFO

Though the novel reads like a fairy story, and Orwell subtitles it as just that, it is also a satire containing a message about world politics and especially the former Soviet Union in particular

Since the Bolshevik revolutions of the early 1900s, the former Soviet Union had captured the attention of the world with its socialist experiment

Stalin’s form of government had some supporters in Britain and the United States, but Orwell was against this system

BACKGROUND INFO

Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as the myth of Soviet socialism

Thus, the novel tells a story that people of all ages can understand, but it also tells us a second story— that of the real-life Revolution

Many critics have matched in great detail the story’s characters to historical persons––for example, linking the power struggle between Napoleon and Snowball to the historical feuding between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trostky for control of the Soviet Union

BACKGROUND INFO

Critics often consider Animal Farm to be an allegory of the

Russian Revolution. In the early 1900s, Russia’s Czar

Nicholas II faced an increasingly discontented populace

Freed from feudal serfdom in 1861, many Russian peasants

were struggling to survive under an oppressive government

By 1917, amidst the tremendous suffering of World War I, a

revolution began

In two major battles, the Czar’s government was overthrown

and replaced by the Bolshevik leadership of Vladmir Lenin

BACKGROUND INFO

When Lenin died in 1924, his former colleagues Leon Trotsky,

hero of the early Revolution, and Joseph Stalin, head of the

Communist Party, struggled for power

Stalin won the battle, and he deported Trotsky into permanent exile

Once in power, Stalin began, with despotic urgency and exalted nationalism, to move the Soviet Union into the modern industrial age

His government seized land in order to create collective farms. Stalin’s Five Year Plan was an attempt to modernize Soviet industry

BACKGROUND INFO

To counter resistance (many peasants refused to give up their land), Stalin used vicious military tactics

Rigged trials led to executions of an estimated 20 million government officials and ordinary citizens

The government controlled the flow and content of information to the people, and all but outlawed churches

KARL MARX

Many of the ideals behind the Soviet revolution were based on the writings/teachings of Karl Marx

A German intellect who lived in the mid-1800s, Marx believed that societies are divided into two segments – a working class and an owner class

The working class creates all the products, while the owner class enjoys all the benefits of these products

This class division leads to an inequality and oppression of the working class

Marx’s objective was to create a classless society in which the work is shared by all for the benefit of all, and he believed revolution was the way to achieve this goal

VOCABULARY – CHAPTERS 1-4

cannibalism: practice of eating one’s own kind

cryptic: intended to be mysterious or obscure

parasitical: like a parasite; gaining benefits from a host it injures

CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

New characters Mr. Jones: the owner and operator of Manor Farm Old Major: prize Middle White boar; founder of

Animalism Bluebell, Jessie, Pincher: farm dogs Boxer: horse; hardest worker on farm Clover: stout, motherly mare Muriel: white goat Benjamin: ill-tempered donkey Mollie: foolish white mare Moses: tame raven; Mr. Jones’s special pet/spy

Animal Farm is the story of talking farm animals and their struggle against a cruel master

Old Major reveals his dream of utopian society, a place where the animals will be able to live out their lives to their natural ends and animals will be equal

Old Major identifies man as the cause of all problems for the animals; Old Major’s dream is of a world without man

In addressing the animals, Major reveals ideas for a better world after a revolution to overthrow man

He warns them not to become like man once man is gone, nor to be corrupted by power

The pigs later formulate these principles into a theory called Animalism

THEME – “THE DREAM BETRAYED”

There are already signs that the pigs are different

Animals are fighting about the status of the wild creatures

These are the first examples of foreshadowing (a hint of what is to come in the novel)

This is perhaps Orwell’s way of suggesting that true equality will never exist

ALLEGORICAL REFERENCES

Old Major = Karl Marx Jones = Czar Nicholas II Napoleon (whose name suggests power/authority) =

Lenin/Stalin Snowball = Leon Trotsky Squealer = propaganda/Stalin’s government news

agency Clover/Boxer = peasants/workers Moses = Russian Orthodox Church Dogs = Stalin’s military police Pilkington, Frederick = Great Britain, Germany Mollie = old Russian aristocracy (which resists change)

CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

New characters Napoleon: one of the pig leaders; not

much of a talker but has a reputation of getting his own way

Snowball: another pig leader, vivacious and inventive

Squealer: a fat pig who is a persuasive talker

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS

(the unalterable laws that are to govern the animals)

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.

2. Whatever goes upon 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.

The animals destroy all of the symbols of Jones’s control over them (Mollie’s ribbons, etc)

The milk disappearing is the first in a series of events to establish the inequality that is developing between the pigs and the other animals

Orwell uses the voice of a detached observer to narrate his story; he doesn’t judge, but presents events without commentary and allows his readers to come to their own conclusions

CHAPTER 3 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

New characters Sheep: unintelligent animals who follow

the leader

The days after the Rebellion are good for the animals; all of the animals work hard except the pigs, who direct and supervise

It appears that Old Major’s dream will come true, but there are some indications of problems

The pigs, the new leaders on the farm, do no labor

The milk and apples are reserved exclusively for the pigs

Squealer explains the necessity for this – because the pigs are the brain workers, the whole management and organization of the farm depends on them; they are the new upper class in a theoretically classless society

CONFLICT BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND SNOWBALL

The coming rift between Napoleon and Snowball (suggestive of the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky) begins to surface in this chapter

Their conflict stems from a difference in ideology as they try to build their personal power bases on the farm

CONFLICT BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND SNOWBALL

Snowball works to organize the animal committees and teach them how to read

Napoleon calls for the education of the youth, and takes the nine puppies to be raised for his own purposes

The pigs are called the “brain workers” by Squealer

This chapter also shows the importance of propaganda and the use of managed, slanted information to attain a political end

Squealer is able to head off any complaints by making them believe that the unselfish pigs are acting in the best interest of the farm by eating the apples and drinking the milk

He also relies on the animals’ fear by linking the pigs’ actions to the return of Jones

The other animals are so naïve because they are misinformed, ignorant, afraid, but most importantly because they are trusting

CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

Mr. Pilkington: neighbor of Animal Farm; owner of Foxwood Farm

Mr. Frederick: neighbor of Animal Farm; owner of Pinchfield Farm

Pilkington and Frederick join forces with Mr. Jones in an attempt to help him retake Manor Farm

THE BATTLE OF THE COWSHED

The pigeons bring word of the humans’ imminent attack

Snowball, who has studied an old book of Julius Caesar’s military campaigns, is in charge of the defenses of Animal Farm and puts his strategy into action

THE BATTLE OF THE COWSHED

The humans, tricked into believing that the animals are in retreat, rush into battle

Quickly they are surrounded and defeated by the well-disciplined and well-organized animal forces

The two heroes are Snowball, who is wounded, and Boxer

SNOWBALL AS THE HERO

Leon Trotsy was a military genius who built the Soviet Army and planned the military campaigns that gave victory to the Communists in the civil war that followed the Russian Revolution

He is personified by Snowball, the first-class hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, whose planning and actions make him the hero

CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

This chapter begins with the hope of a better future for the animals, but it ends with hopelessness, the termination of the Sunday morning meetings, strict control by a select committee of pigs, and with Napoleon becoming a total dictator

Mollie, dissatisfied with the events, cannot accept the new order and the loss of the privileges that she had enjoyed under Jones

She was never really committed to the cause of the Rebellion, and at the first opportunity she escapes, choosing to pull a cart for a human in exchange for ribbons and lump sugar

Historically, Mollie represents the thousands of Russians who fled their country after the Revolution

Although Napoleon and Snowball disagree on everything, it is the windmill, the modernization and industrialization of Animal Farm, that brings their conflict to a head

For Snowball, the windmill is a promise of leisure time for everyone, provided by electrical power that will run the machines and do the hard work presently done by the animals

Napoleon advises the animals to vote against it

Windmill = the early attempts after the Revolution to bring Russia into the 20th century through a series of Five Year Plans

These plans were aimed at building roads, dams, hydroelectric plants and factories, and increasing farm production

CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

New character:Whymper = human solicitor (lawyer) who acts as intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world; represents opportunists who made the most of the hardships and famine in Russia in 1921-22 and 1932-33

Squealer heads off any animal protest by rewriting history (rewriting Commandments); the Fourth Commandment is aimed at sheets, not beds

As with the milk and apples, the animals are told that the pigs sleeping in beds is a way to keep Jones off the farm

Squealer represents propaganda. In the Soviet Union, it was used to influence public opinion

Napoleon makes Snowball the “scapegoat” (person that is blamed for whatever goes wrong in a society; finding a scapegoat focuses the attention away from the real problem, and unifies the energies of a society against a common enemy)

By shifting the guilt and making Snowball the villain, Napoleon appears blameless

Snowball becomes a traitor and enemy of Animal Farm

CHAPTER 7 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

Napoleon’s brutality is the major focus of this chapter

The hens refuse to turn over their eggs for sale because it is the equivalent of murdering their unborn clutches

Historically, the Mutiny of the Hens represents the reaction of large numbers of Russian peasants who rebelled against Stalin’s Five Year Plan

They chose to burn their crops and slaughter their livestock in a time of famine, rather than turn them over for sale to foreign countries

POINT OF VIEW

In this chapter, Orwell deviates from his impersonal third-person point of view, which relates events without commentary or emotion

For the first time, he takes the reader into the minds of one of the characters. The reader is given insight into Clover’s feeling

Clover is confused and afraid but lacks the ability to convey her feelings to the others because of ignorance and fear

This best explains why the other animals on Animal Farm do not resist, and may also explain why the Russian people never rebelled against Stalin

CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

Historically, the chapter deals with Hitler’s rise to power in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the early years leading up to the beginning of World War II

The agreement between Napoleon and Frederick for the sale of the woodpile suggests the Stalin-Hitler Pact signed in 1939

The chapter focuses on the changes that continue to occur on the farm

The animals have come to regard Napoleon, their new “master,” much in the same way they once regarded Jones; he never associates with the “lower” animals

When the pigs discover alcohol, another step is taken in the journey to become more and more like man; Napoleon’s attentions turn towards producing his own alcohol

The field, once intended as a grazing ground for retired animals, is to be sown with barley for the pigs’ beer (another one of the “unalterable” commandments has been changed to suit Napoleon)

CHAPTER 9 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

This is the climactic chapter in the novel

It is here, more than any other place, that Old Major’s dream of the revolution is betrayed; Napoleon and the pigs have established themselves as the new aristocracy; pigs are the new masters

Even the memory of Snowball, the hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, is gone, replaced by the image of a coward and a traitor, who fought against the animals and was stopped only by Napoleon’s bravery

Boxer, Napoleon’s greatest supporter, the farm’s hardest and most faithful worker, the hero of the Battle of the Cowshed, and the main force in the building and rebuilding of the windmill, is sold for enough money to buy the pigs a case of whiskey

CHAPTER 10 SUMMARY + ANALYSIS

With the passage of time, many of those who fought in the Rebellion are dead and forgotten; the new animals have only a dim tradition passed on by word of mouth; the memories of the older animals have been so altered by Squealer’s revisions of history that it is impossible to know what’s real

The sheep’s new slogan convinces the other animals that walking on two legs has always been preferable to walking on four

The final example of Squealer’s “double speak” can be seen when the Seven Commandments are changed into one: All animals are equal, but the pigs are more equal than the others; they are the new masters who carry the whips and live in the house and wear clothes

IRONY

Orwell’s final irony is witnessed when the humans come to visit the farm. They openly refer to the farm animals as “lower animals” and they observe them working harder and longer for less food than any other animals in the county

There is now little difference between pig and man

The animals looking through the window of the farmhouse cannot tell the difference between the men and the pigs

The animals no longer need to fear that Jones will come back to make their difficult lives miserable; he has already come back in the form of Napoleon and the pigs

THE END!