animal farm literary criticism essay

A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Animal Farm is, after Nineteen Eighty-Four , George Orwell’s most famous book. Published in 1945, the novella (at under 100 pages, it’s too short to be called a full-blown ‘novel’) tells the story of how a group of animals on a farm overthrow the farmer who puts them to work, and set up an equal society where all animals work and share the fruits of their labours.

However, as time goes on, it becomes clear that the society the animals have constructed is not equal at all. It’s well-known that the novella is an allegory for Communist Russia under Josef Stalin, who was leader of the Soviet Union when Orwell wrote the book. Before we dig deeper into the context and meaning of Animal Farm with some words of analysis, it might be worth refreshing our memories with a brief summary of the novella’s plot.

Animal Farm: plot summary

The novella opens with an old pig, named Major, addressing his fellow animals on Manor Farm. Major criticises Mr Jones, the farmer who owns Manor Farm, because he controls the animals, takes their produce (the hens’ eggs, the cows’ milk), but gives them little in return. Major tells the other animals that man, who walks on two feet unlike the animals who walk on four, is their enemy.

They sing a rousing song in favour of animals, ‘Beasts of England’. Old Major dies a few days later, but the other animals have been inspired by his message.

Two pigs in particular, Snowball and Napoleon, rouse the other animals to take action against Mr Jones and seize the farm for themselves. They draw up seven commandments which all animals should abide by: among other things, these commandments forbid an animal to kill another animal, and include the mantra ‘four legs good, two legs bad’, because animals (who walk on four legs) are their friends while their two-legged human overlords are evil. (We have analysed this famous slogan here .)

The animals lead a rebellion against Mr Jones, whom they drive from the farm. They rename Manor Farm ‘Animal Farm’, and set about running things themselves, along the lines laid out in their seven commandments, where every animal is equal. But before long, it becomes clear that the pigs – especially Napoleon and Snowball – consider themselves special, requiring special treatment, as the leaders of the animals.

Nevertheless, when Mr Jones and some of the other farmers lead a raid to try to reclaim the farm, the animals work together to defend the farm and see off the men. A young farmhand is knocked unconscious, and initially feared dead.

Things begin to fall apart: Napoleon’s windmill, which he has instructed the animals to build, is vandalised and he accuses Snowball of sabotaging it. Snowball is banished from the farm. During winter, many of the animals are on the brink of starvation.

Napoleon engineers it so that when Mr Whymper, a man from a neighbouring farm with whom the pigs have started to trade (so the animals can acquire the materials they need to build the windmill), visits the farm, he overhears the animals giving a positive account of life on Animal Farm.

Without consulting the hens first, Napoleon organises a deal with Mr Whymper which involves giving him many of the hens’ eggs. They rebel against him, but he starves them into submission, although not before nine hens have died. Napoleon then announces that Snowball has been visiting the farm at night and destroying things.

Napoleon also claims that Snowball has been in league with Mr Jones all the time, and that even at the Battle of the Cowshed (as the animals are now referring to the farmers’ unsuccessful raid on the farm) Snowball was trying to sabotage the fight so that Jones won.

The animals are sceptical about this, because they all saw Snowball bravely fighting alongside them. Napoleon declares he has discovered ‘secret documents’ which prove Snowball was in league with their enemy.

Life on Animal Farm becomes harder for the animals, and Boxer, while labouring hard to complete the windmill, falls and injures his lung. The pigs arrange for him to be taken away and treated, but when the van arrives and takes him away, they realise too late that the van belongs to a man who slaughters horses, and that Napoleon has arranged for Boxer to be taken away to the knacker’s yard and killed.

Squealer lies to the animals, though, and when he announces Boxer’s death two days later, he pretends that the van had been bought by a veterinary surgeon who hadn’t yet painted over the old sign on the side of the van. The pigs take to wearing green ribbons and order in another crate of whisky for them to drink; they don’t share this with the other animals.

A few years pass, and some of the animals die, Napoleon and Squealer get fatter, and none of the animals is allowed to retire, as previously promised. The farm gets bigger and richer, but the luxuries the animals had been promised never materialised: they are told that the real pleasure is derived from hard work and frugal living.

Then, one day, the animals see Squealer up on his hind legs, walking on two legs like a human instead of on four like an animal.

The other pigs follow; and Clover and Benjamin discover that the seven commandments written on the barn wall have been rubbed off, to be replace by one single commandment: ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’ The pigs start installing radio and a telephone in the farmhouse, and subscribe to newspapers.

Finally, the pigs invite humans into the farm to drink with them, and announce a new partnership between the pigs and humans. Napoleon announces to his human guests that the name of the farm is reverting from Animal Farm to the original name, Manor Farm.

The other animals from the farm, observing this through the window, can no longer tell which are the pigs and which are the men, because Napoleon and the other pigs are behaving so much like men now.

Things have gone full circle: the pigs are no different from Mr Jones (indeed, are worse).

Animal Farm: analysis

First, a very brief history lesson, by way of context for Animal Farm . In 1917, the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, was overthrown by Communist revolutionaries.

These revolutionaries replaced the aristocratic rule which had been a feature of Russian society for centuries with a new political system: Communism, whereby everyone was equal. Everyone works, but everyone benefits equally from the results of that work. Josef Stalin became leader of Communist Russia, or the Soviet Union, in the early 1920s.

However, it soon became apparent that Stalin’s Communist regime wasn’t working: huge swathes of the population were working hard, but didn’t have enough food to survive. They were starving to death.

But Stalin and his politicians, who themselves were well-off, did nothing to combat this problem, and indeed actively contributed to it. But they told the people that things were much better since the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of the Tsar, than things had been before, under Nicholas II. The parallels with Orwell’s Animal Farm are crystal-clear.

Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the formation of a Communist regime in Russia (as the Soviet Union). We offer a fuller definition of allegory in a separate post, but the key thing is that, although it was subtitled A Fairy Story , Orwell’s novella is far from being a straightforward tale for children. It’s also political allegory, and even satire.

The cleverness of Orwell’s approach is that he manages to infuse his story with this political meaning while also telling an engaging tale about greed, corruption, and ‘society’ in a more general sense.

One of the commonest techniques used in both Stalinist Russia and in Animal Farm is what’s known as ‘gaslighting’ (meaning to manipulate someone by psychological means so they begin to doubt their own sanity; the term is derived from the film adaptation of Gaslight , a play by Patrick Hamilton).

For instance, when Napoleon and the other pigs take to eating their meals and sleeping in the beds in the house at Animal Farm, Clover is convinced this goes against one of the seven commandments the animals drew up at the beginning of their revolution.

But one of the pigs has altered the commandment (‘No animal shall sleep in a bed’), adding the words ‘ with sheets ’ to the end of it. Napoleon and the other pigs have rewritten history, but they then convince Clover that she is the one who is mistaken, and that she’s misremembered what the wording of the commandment was.

Another example of this technique – which is a prominent feature of many totalitarian regimes, namely keep the masses ignorant as they’re easier to manipulate that way – is when Napoleon claims that Snowball has been in league with Mr Jones all along. When the animals question this, based on all of the evidence to the contrary, Napoleon and Squealer declare they have ‘secret documents’ which prove it.

But the other animals can’t read them, so they have to take his word for it. Squealer’s lie about the van that comes to take Boxer away (he claims it’s going to the vet, but it’s clear that Boxer is really being taken away to be slaughtered) is another such example.

Communist propaganda

Much as Stalin did in Communist Russia, Napoleon actively rewrites history , and manages to convince the animals that certain things never happened or that they are mistaken about something. This is a feature that has become more and more prominent in political society, even in non-totalitarian ones: witness our modern era of ‘fake news’ and media spin where it becomes difficult to ascertain what is true any more.

The pigs also convince the other animals that they deserve to eat the apples themselves because they work so hard to keep things running, and that they will have an extra hour in bed in the mornings. In other words, they begin to become the very thing they sought to overthrow: they become like man.

They also undo the mantra that ‘all animals are equal’, since the pigs clearly think they’re not like the other animals and deserve special treatment. Whenever the other animals question them, one question always succeeds in putting an end to further questioning: do they want to see Jones back running the farm? As the obvious answer is ‘no’, the pigs continue to get away with doing what they want.

Squealer is Napoleon’s propagandist, ensuring that the decisions Napoleon makes are ‘spun’ so that the other animals will accept them and carry on working hard.

And we can draw a pretty clear line between many of the major characters in Animal Farm and key figures of the Russian Revolution and Stalinist Russia. Napoleon, the leader of the animals, is Joseph Stalin; Old Major , whose speech rouses the animals to revolution, partly represents Vladimir Lenin, who spearheaded the Russian Revolution of 1917 (although he is also a representative of Karl Marx , whose ideas inspired the Revolution); Snowball, who falls out with Napoleon and is banished from the farm, represents Leon Trotsky, who was involved in the Revolution but later went to live in exile in Mexico.

Squealer, meanwhile, is based on Molotov (after whom the Molotov cocktail was named); Molotov was Stalin’s protégé, much as Squealer is encouraged by Napoleon to serve as Napoleon’s right-hand (or right-hoof?) man (pig).

Publication

Animal Farm very nearly didn’t make it into print at all. First, not long after Orwell completed the first draft in February 1944, his flat on Mortimer Crescent in London was bombed in June, and he feared the typescript had been destroyed. Orwell later found it in the rubble.

Then, Orwell had difficulty finding a publisher. T. S. Eliot, at Faber and Faber, rejected it because he feared that it was the wrong sort of political message for the time.

The novella was eventually published the following year, in 1945, and its relevance – as political satire, as animal fable, and as one of Orwell’s two great works of fiction – shows no signs of abating.

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Animal Farm

George orwell, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on George Orwell's Animal Farm . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Animal Farm: Introduction

Animal farm: plot summary, animal farm: detailed summary & analysis, animal farm: themes, animal farm: quotes, animal farm: characters, animal farm: symbols, animal farm: theme wheel, brief biography of george orwell.

Historical Context of Animal Farm

Other books related to animal farm.

Full Title: Animal Farm
When Written: 1944-45
Where Written: England
When Published: 1945
Literary Period: Modernism
Genre: Allegorical Novel
Setting: A farm somewhere in England in the first half of the 20th century
Climax: The pigs appear standing upright and the sheep bleat, “Four legs good, two legs better!”
Antagonist: Napoleon specifically, but the pigs and the dogs as groups are all antagonists.
Point of View: Third Person

Extra Credit for Animal Farm

Tough Crowd. Though Animal Farm eventually made Orwell famous, three publishers in England and several American publishing houses rejected the novel at first. One of the English editors to reject the novel was the famous poet T.S. Eliot, who was an editor at the Faber & Faber publishing house. One American editor, meanwhile, told Orwell that it was “impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”

Red Scare. Orwell didn’t just write literature that condemned the Communist state of the USSR. He did everything he could, from writing editorials to compiling lists of men he knew were Soviet spies, to combat the willful blindness of many intellectuals in the West to USSR atrocities.

George Orwell and Animal Farm: A Critical Analysis Essay (Critical Writing)

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George Orwell is one of the most celebrated English writers in the 20 th century (George 1). Orwell’s literature is committed to telling the blatant truth about the violation of people’s freedom and the injustices against the common person (Dedria and Hall 479). Such phrases from his works such as “some animals are more equal than others” have become so popular especially in political dialogues and has shaped peoples opinions regarding the kind of society we live in (Kerala 36).

George Orwell was born as Eric Arthur Blair in India in 1903, where his British father worked as a civil servant. He had gone to school like any other normal child and graduated at Eaton. He worked in the Burma police force and later unsuccessfully tired his hand in a few business ventures but failed. He left for Spain where signed to fight in the Civil War.

His experience at the civil war de-motivated his views abut communalism so much that he decided to live a life of voluntary poverty (Dedria and Hall 479) . This was a deliberate effort to “experience want and the suffering of the oppressed.” He wanted to feel how poor people fell to help in shaping his own theories on socialism.

At this time, he had changed his name to P.S. Burton. His first novel Down and out in Paris was published as a response to his life in voluntary poverty. This was soon followed by Burmese Days and several other essays that questioned the capitalist state. His best novel so far is The Road to Wigan Pier which was published in 1937. It highlighted the pathetic life of the poor.

By this time, he had started gaining prominence as a writer and his works were starting to draw attention. He continued his writing with such other publications as Keep Aspidistra Flying and Coming up for Air followed in 1936 and 1939 respectively. His novel The Animal Farm is his most popular. It is a satirical piece that portrays a society that fully embraces totalitarian rules, much to the chagrin of those who want “individual freedom” (Kerala 36).

All of George Orwell’s novels seem to defend one main theme: socialism. Socialism is a means of production whereby everything is owned communally or by the government. Every one has equal opportunities to everything. The kind of socialism that George Orwell’s socialism advocates for has real life significance as it portrays “revolutionary idealism experienced in Russia and other countries which was betrayed by the revolutionaries themselves, who continue to pat lip service to revolutionary ideas” (Pierce para 6).

His novel then Animal Farm brilliantly employs satire in highlighting shameless betrayal by leaders who promised change (Dedria and Sharon 479). Orwell continues to portray authoritarianism as an enemy to individual freedoms.

There were concerted efforts to bring in a revolution that would save the people but always the new leaders upon tasting power, would betray this revolution. The new leaders would start to dictate what the same people whom they were fighting to save would do, or not do. Such betrayal was the end of socialism in the 20 th century. In this light, this paper will analyze one of his prized novels The Animal Farm.

The story begins in Mr. Jones’ farmhouse one night. Old major, a fatherly and respected pig, gathers the animals and informs them that they had endured deplorable conditions for a long period under the leadership of human beings and therefore a rebellion was necessary. Unfortunately, Old Major succumbs to old age. This leaves the other pigs to lead the fights for animal rights (Darell Para 1).

Two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball lead a successful revolution and after Mr. Jones and his family is driven out, Manor Farm is renamed The Animal Farm (para 2). Other farm owners try to attack the Animal Farm but Snowball lead a successful defense in the battle of the Cowshed and gains much worship amongst the animals (para 4). This is the beginning of his downfall. False rumors are spread by Squealer about him and when the conflict heightens he chased off the farm by Napoleons’ guard dogs (para 6).

Squealer is adopted as Napoleons spokes animal, and proposes the construction of a windmill, an idea that Napoleon takes credit for. Unfortunately the windmill is destroyed in a storm but Napoleon blames Snowball and sentences him to death, together with his sympathizers (para 6). Napoleon and the other pigs begin engaging in anti animalism behavior, such as doing business with men and drinking whiskey. To add to this, the food rations to other animals are reduced significantly (para 6).

To concur with his message that new and old leadership is alike; pigs begin to walk on two feet just like humans. They also start claiming, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” The novel culminates in the farm being renamed The Animal Farm while napoleon and other pigs initiate friendship with the human owners of the neighboring farm, and they become just like humans (para 8). It portrays the betrayal of the initial comradeship, and the pessimism of revolutionary movements (Hall and Poupard 348).

George Orwell creates characters carefully to fit in the roles that he needs them to play. Some characters play a major role in this novel. Mr. Jones is a tyrant who represents the old corrupt order. In the real world George Orwell model 20 th century dictators such as Stalin in Mr. Jones (Novelguide para 1).

Snowball and Napoleon are the two pigs who lead a successful revolution. They were ambitious of leadership and courageously fought Mr. Jones out of the farm (NovelGuide para 7-12). The pigs are symbolic of the calculating leaders who benefit from tyrannical leadership. They are opportunists who do not spare any chance afforded to them to exploit their advantaged position in the society (Hall and Poupard, 348).

Squealer is Napoleons manipulative tool in the farm. The dogs are a symbol security only that this security is used negatively. They are also another group of loyalist who are misused by the system to gain advantage over the common person (NovelGuide para 20- 22). However, other characters only play minor roles. Old major represents the good father figure in the society who can be relied upon to give concrete advice. He is respected by other animals who take to his advice without question (NovelGuide para 4).

Boxer and Clover in contrast are dedicated workers who spent all their life serving the society (They are also foolishly gullible in that they believe in all the propaganda spread by Squealer who is a “manipulative and persuasive figure” (Hall and Poupard 348). Just like Squealer, Moses is another manipulative and cunning character in the novel (NovelGuide para 7, 8; 13, 14). Benjamin is an enigmatic character who continues to do his work without care of what is happening (NovelGuide para 17).

The Animal Farm is a classic example of how governments exploit and deny citizens of their basic rights. At the beginning of the novel, the animals are united under the banner of exploitation by Mr. Jones. They manage to fight and install their own leaders in Napoleon.

However, Napoleon turns to be worse that Mr. Jones and “perverts the first commandments he helped make” (Pierce para 7). For example, he reduced food rations for the other animals other than the fellow pigs. Some animals as Boxer worked so hard, believing in their leaders but instead of being rewarded, were exploited for the benefit of the same leaders they served (Grade saver para 15-17). These governments use totalitarian rules, to stay in power and subvert justice.

The pigs lead a revolution against Mr. Jones totalitarian rule, but ends up worse. They not only “end up in Mr. Jones House and position but also in his clothes.” Some critics have used this evidence to explain that The Animal Farm is another successful attempt by the society to kill dissent (Hall & Poupard 349). Propaganda is also used to intimidate those who question the abuse of human rights. Napoleon manipulates information and deceives the animals when he gains full power.

He spreads false accusation against snowball leading to his expulsion from the farm. Squealer, Napoleons spokes animal, is the face of propaganda in this novel. He represents governments’ spokes people who are responsible of spreading rumors that help their government to gain a tighter grip on power (Grade saver para 9-11). As a last result, totalitarians use violence and terror, to silence the rebels. Its effect I that it makes people submit to such government. These who do not are either forcefully exiled or killed.

Such excesses were practiced against Snowball and his sympathizers. Terror can also be propagated through propaganda. Squealer instills fear into anyone who tries to question napoleons unethical conduct, with Mr. Jones return (Grade saver para 12-14). Another major theme highlighted with importance is Education. Unfortunately, it is present in a very negative light. In its essence education is supposed to enlighten people. However in this novel, those in power “manipulate those that are governed” by the use of education.

Take the case of the pigs as an example. They realize the intellectual vulnerability of the other animals and take advantage of it by manipulating the seven commandments to their advantage. Napoleon also uses education negatively when he teaches new pigs his oppressive doctrines (Grade saver para 7, 8). This mis-education cast the other animals deeper into oppression.

In conclusion, George Orwell manages to highlight the fact that the biggest political problem is not capitalism but authoritarian rules. Whether under capitalism of socialism authoritarianism is inevitable this is because of the insatiable nature of human beings. The novel The Animal Farm will continue to be relevant for eons to come it.

It explicitly portrays the “class struggles and exploitation in the human society” (Hall & Poupard, 348). New leaders, like Napoleon, who assume power on the platform of change, abandon the idea as soon as they come to power. Most of them end up being worse of than the ones they replaced. They are just turn coat revolutionaries who take advantage of people’s naïveté to fulfill their selfish personal ambition. Because of the effect his works have achieve he one of the best authors in the 20 th century.

Works Cited

Darrell, Victor. Plot Summary: Animal Farm, by George Orwell. N. d. Web.

Dedria, Bryfonski & Hall, Sharon. Twentieth century literary criticism: George Orwell . Michigan: Book Tower. 1979. Print.

“Grade saver.” Animal Farm Themes . 2010. Web.

Hall, Sharon & Poupard, Dennis. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Michigan: Book Tower,1982. Print.

Kerala, Calling. From Eric Blair to George Orwell, Biography. London: Sage, 2003. Print.

“NovelGuide.” Novel Analysis: Animal Farm, Characterization . 2010. Web.

Pearce, Robert . ‘ Orwell, Tolstoy, and ‘Animal Farm’ . The Review of English Studies , 1998. Web.

Storgaard, Claus. Opinion Essays : George Orwell, Socialist, Anarchist or what…? 2004. Web.

Social Conflicts in “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
"Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom" by Thomas E. Ricks
The Rhetorical Devices of George Orwell
“Ozymandias”- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lewis Carroll and Wonderland
The Mortal Immortal Themes: Questions and Answers, Character Analysis, Summary
“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
Idleness and the Reasons Why It Goes on Undetected
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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IvyPanda . 2018. "George Orwell and Animal Farm: A Critical Analysis." August 2, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/george-orwell-and-animal-farm-a-critical-analysis/.

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Bibliography

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Animal Farm Literary Analysis

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Animal Farm

Introduction to animal farm ‎.

One of the best novels for children and adults alike, Animal Farm , is stated to be an allegorical novellet by George Orwell . It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1945. Since then it has been published every year and also has been part of the middle school teaching curriculum, mesmerizing the generations. Set in the background of the animal rebellion on an animal farm, the storyline reflects the cleverness of the clever animals leading the other simpletons and guiding them to victory with the allusion of freedom and happy life. Animal farm is also known as symbolic writing for Russia during the revolution in 1917 and the Soviet nation under the communist rule, and how the common people were affected by it. The novel created ripples for attacking capitalists and the communist regime, in other words, totalitarian states and propagandist approach of the statecraft.

Summary of Animal Farm

The story begins with animals on Mr. Jones’ Manor Farm who are fed up with his maltreatment and rise to rebellion after an old pig, Old Major. The Old Major narrates to them his dream of freedom and liberating from the cruelty of men. He also coins a slogan for them that four legs are good and two legs are bad. However, he does not live long to see the revolution. Later, Snowball and Napoleon, two clever pigs, lead the animals and when Jones and his men come to teach the animals a lesson, the animals beat them out of the far, making them flee for their lives. The pigs take charge of the affairs on the farm and issue seven commandments for animals’ rights and protection.

Following the success, the animals start harvesting and cultivation, with weekly meetings to debate on the policy matters. The pigs become administrators and assign duties to all the animals. However, Napoleon, the clever and astute pig, becomes the head, who does what he wants for himself. He also resorts to propaganda against his enemies and in his own praise. Therefore, Squealer is employed for this specific task. Although Jones and his men try to win the farm back, animals fight back ferociously. This is called the Battle of the Cowshed in which they are victorious. Soon the winter takes hold of the farm, while the only mare, Mollie, also flees. Snowball, on the other hand, devises innovative plans for a windmill installation and electricity generation. However, Napoleon opposes him for such schemes. Both go against each other and soon Napoleon, the astute one, uses the dogs to chase him out of the farm. Later, Squealer and Napoleon use his escape as the source of all evils on the animal farm.

While the work on windmill and harvest continues around the year, Boxer, the strong horse, proves very useful. Jones, also, seems to lose interest in taking back the farm, while Napoleon takes full charge of the animal form. However, his lust for power increases day by day. Seeing the shortage of grain, he issues a mandate to the animals to eat less than before. All the setbacks on the farm projects are attributed to Snowball or Mollie, while the pigs enjoy life in luxury on one or the other excuse. Soon Napoleon engages himself in timber selling and doing business with the neighboring farms. Despite attacks from the neighboring form owner, the animals win once again but lose their windmill. Boxer, though, tries to gird up his loins but feels that he is now old and cannot work. Napoleon, seeing the opportunity, sells him to a knacker to be butchered and make useful things from his bones. However, animals are told that he has been sent to a vet for treatment. The pigs also take charge of the commandments and start changing them one by one to suit their purpose. Life for animals continues to become harsh. Soon they see that their motto is changed to “ All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” When the other animals see that the pigs have started living separate from them, they see that they have also started meeting the human beings of the neighboring farm and drinking. When the novel ends, the animals are at loss to distinguish between human beings and pigs when all of them are drinking in the barn.

Major Themes in Animal Farm

Leadership and Corruption: Leadership and its corruption is the major theme of the novel as depicted through Napoleon and his propaganda minister, Squealer. Although in the beginning, he shares power with Snowball, the most creative one, but later, he turns to Squealer and proves devious by making Snowball run away and using every mishap to demonize him. He also starts doing what human beings are supposed to do, using his power. By the end of the novel, he proves as exploitative as Mr. Jones in the name of leadership.
Control on Mentally Weak: The novel also shows that the people with sharp minds control the people having weak minds, or who do not want to think and work hard. The pigs, who are mentally sharp, take control of the revolution. Even among them, Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer prove leaders and compete with each other whereas the most devious and deceptive, Napoleon wins and Snowball flees to save his life. Napoleon, then, uses all the pigs to exploit other animals and enjoys life himself.
Lies and Deceit: Animal Farm shows that politics is the game of lies and deceits. Although Old Major is sincere and his experience is honest, his successors do not prove sincere and honest like him. Napoleon, specifically, spreads so much lies and deceits about Snowball and Mollie that other animals lose the verve and memory of the revolution.
Rules and Order: Animal Farm also shows that rules and order suit the upper class that exploits them and change them whenever the time is suitable, or whenever they do not suit them. The animals are amazed at the speed that pigs change the rules and Squealer changes the order. Even the main slogan of all animals are equal change by the end to all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Foolishness and Folly: The novel, Animal Farm, shows that foolishness and folly cost dearly whether shown by an animal or a human being. Had Mr. Jones been clever and wise, he would have made arrangements to keep animal satisfied. The folly of the pigs and other animals of using only a few leaders without any check also cost them dearly.
Dreams and Hopes: The novel also shows dreams of the animals for freedom, their subsequent hopes, and plans. Hens, horses, pigs, and other animals have various dreams. They dream of being equal to each other and even adopt the slogan of the Old Major. However, when they see the end of their revolution where pigs and human beings enjoying together, their hopes and dreams dashed to the ground.
Cunning and Cleverness: Cunningness and cleverness in the novel are shown through the character of Napoleon and Squealer. The first one is deceptively cunning in wielding power and using it, while the second is dexterous in propaganda. Therefore, both make Snowball run away and use this power to their own end.
Violence: The novel shows that every revolution and power usurpation involves violence. When the animals rise up to the rebellion, they resort to violence and change the status quo of Mr. Jones’ ownership. They again face violence when the neighboring people try to capture the farm. Also, when Snowball leaves the farm, there was fear of violence as the fierce dogs were chasing him.
Propaganda : The use of propaganda to wield power has been shown through the character of Squealer. He not only paints black to white and vice versa but also distorts the very spirit of the revolution by changing the commandments one by one.

Major Characters in Animal Farm

Napoleon : Napoleon is an important character in that he is the mainstay of the revolution following the Old Major, after his death. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin. He comes into power along with Snowball’s support to lead the rebellion. However, he is quite clever and cunning when it comes to usurping powers. A taciturn but tactician, Napoleon leads the pigs and other animals to believe that he is the true leader after making Snowball flee and chased by fierce dogs. He is a strategist who knows the mob psychology and power of propaganda. That is why he uses Squealer for his purpose. He even uses a simpleton like Boxer and sells him to a knacker by the end and yet shows that he has sent him to a vet for treatment.
Old Major: Old Major is another significant character on account of his importance as being the doctrinaire of the animal farm. He represents Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, who starts the animals to gain consciousness about the exploitation by humans, and how to rise up against it. His final speech shows him a dignified character who leaves the stage as soon the revolution is set in motion. Despite his absence and lack of direction by his successors, his words resonate until the end of the novel.
Snowball: The second important leader of the pig community and animals is Snowball. Snowball represents Leon Trotsky. He is a creative, motivated as well as an intelligent person, whose ingenuity lies in developing things and preparing plans. With the help of Napoleon, he forms seven commandments, prepares the plan of a windmill, and also develops plans for its work. However, Napoleon soon realizes that Snowball could outwit him. Therefore, he makes him an outlaw. He sends dogs to chase him out of the farm on the pretext of helping enemies.
Squealer: A very clever and eloquent fellow, Squealer joins hands with Napoleon to drive out Snowball from the animal farm and enjoy the life of luxury while leading the gullible animals. He represents Vyacheslav Molotov knowns as a protégé of Joseph Stalin. He is the cleverest one among all the pigs, the reason that he can write and read. He also writes the commandments and other rules and changes them when the time comes. However, he ensures to inform the animals about the changes and their reasons.
Boxer: Boxer is the toughest and hard horse on the animal farm who sets examples of the blind following and hardworking people. He is also representative of Alexey Stakhanov, a hard-working and passionate role model of the lesser-known Stakhanovite movement. He is always found working very hard and getting up early than other animals. However, when he is unable to perform the duties, Napoleon and Squealer make a deal with a knacker to sell him.
Jones: The representative of most upper-class citizens in the Soviet Union. Mr. Jones is a lazy and drunk landlord who merely seeks his own interests fulfilled, leaving others to go to dogs. The animals hate him for his cruelty and drive him out of the farm when he does not mend his ways. His repeated tries to subdue animals fail badly.
Clover: A beautiful mare and Boxer’s friend, Clover is a kindhearted animal who sees the violations of the rules but does not take courage to explain it to others. She is the representative of the innocent animals who does not interfere in the statecraft.
Pilkington: Owner of the other form, he feels a threat of the revolt on his own farm. Although his farm is quite small, he tries to win Jones to keep his animals away from rebellion.
Frederick: The owner of the neighboring farm, the Pinchfield Farm, Mr. Frederick is a shrewd fellow who knows the legality of the land and issues of the landowners. He tries to purchase the animal farm from Mr. Jones, but once seeing the ferocity of the animals, backs out of his deal.
Benjamin: The cynical donkey, Benjamin, has seen through his mind’s eyes that the situation after Mr. Jones would not change. Therefore, he always comments that life will be bad whether the farm is under Mr. Jones or Napoleon and pigs.

Writing Style of Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a very simple novelette written in a formal as well as informal style . The formal style is shown through terse and succinct prose , while informal style creeps in when the animals talk to each other or when the Old Major addresses the animal. The simplicity of language shows its tones changing according to the setting of the novel, from ironic to sarcastic and from simple to rhetorical. However, by the end of the novel, this tone becomes highly ironic.

Analysis of Literary Devices in Animal Farm

Action: The main action of the novel comprises the rise of animals and their fall like their previous condition. However, it comprises the rising action that is the successful rebellion of the animals culminating into the establishment of the Animal Farm and then the falling action that demonstrates the deteriorating circumstances of the animals.
Alliteration : Animal Farm shows many examples of the use of alliteration in its songs.

Cows and horses, geese and turkeys, All must toil for freedom’s sake. Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, Beasts of every land and clime, Hearken well and spread my tidings Of the golden future time. (Chapter-1)

The above lines taken from the first chapter show the use of alliteration that means the use of consonant sounds in quick succession in a line. For example, the /f/ sound is seen in 2 nd line.

Allegory : Animal Farm is an allegory in that it shows how animals bring a revolution to set up a utopia dreamed by their old teacher, Old Major, but then it proves as futile as the efforts of human beings. Therefore, it shows the setup of a state and its working as shown through the animal story and then the elite class enjoying at the expense of the lower classes.
Antagonist : Although it seems that Snowball is the antagonist for the animals on the farm, in a real sense, it is Napoleon and Squealer, who are antagonists, for Snowball flees to save his life, while they are still there to rule the animals and are involved in subverting the very structure of the farm that the animals have dreamed to set up.
Allusion : There are various examples of allusions given in the novel, Animal Farm. For example, Old Major represents Karl Marx, while Snowball is the allusion of Leon Trotsky, the intellectual, who was chased out of the farm. Napoleon alludes to the character of Joseph Stalin, while Squealer alludes to Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Hitler.
Anaphora : The novel, Animal Farm, also shows the use of anaphora as given below.

No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. (Chapter-II)

The phrase “No animal shall…” is repeated in the beginning of these three commandments, showing a good use of anaphora.

Conflict : There are two types of conflicts in the novel, Animal Farm. The first one is the external conflict that is going on between the animals and Mr. Jones. The internal conflict goes into the minds of the different animals about the changing behavior of the pigs about eating and drinking.
Characters: Animal Farm presents both flat as well as round characters . Old Major, Boxer, and Benjamin are flat characters who do not show any change in them throughout the storyline. However, Snowball, Squealer, and Napoleon are round characters who change with the events of the story.
Climax : Although it seems that climax is the success of the revolution, it is not the case; actually, the climax occurs when Napoleon accuses Snowball of every problem arising on the farm.
Fable : Animal Farm shows the type of fable in which animals take part as if they are human beings. Old Major, Napoleon, Boxer, Benjamin, and other pigs debate the revolution and take part in it as if they are human beings.
Foreshadowing : The first example of foreshadowing in Animal Farm occurs with the entry of Mr. Jones in the very first chapter where it is shown that he “was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes,” a foreboding that something sinister is going to happen. Shortly after that, the old Major speaks to the animals to make them prepare for the revolution.
Hyperbole : Hyperbole or exaggeration occurs when Squealer is engaged in stating things and attributing them to Snowball. Old Major is also engaged in hyperbole that all bad things are occurring due to man and that man is always the enemy of the animals.
Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses.
“At one end of the big barn, on a sort of raised platform, Major was already ensconced on his bed of straw, under a lantern which hung from a beam. He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tusks had never been cut.” (Chapter-I)
There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously. (Chapter-X)

Both of these passages show the use of the sense of sound, hearing, touch, and sight in an effective way.

Metaphor : Animal Farm shows good use of various metaphors such as the entire novel is a metaphor of the Russian for that matter of the Cuban Revolution. The names also refer to different personalities in a metaphorical manner. Gun, flag, milk, cowshed and even the animal farm is a metaphor.
Mood : The novel, Animal Farm, shows a serious mood in the beginning but it suddenly charges up when the revolution takes place and becomes cheerful and light when the animal wins. However, it turns to darkly comic when the pigs transformed into the old masters.
Motif : Most important motifs of the novel, Animal Farm, are the corroboration of songs and chants with the idea of revolution and then the ensuing rituals such as the flag march and parades.
Narrator : The novel, Animal Farm, has been narrated by a third-person narrator . It is also called an omniscient narrator, who happens to be the author himself, as he can see things from all perspectives .
Protagonist : Snowball and the Old Major are two main protagonists of Animal Farm, as they lay the foundations of the revolution.
Paradox : Animal Farm shows the use of paradox in its amusing way. The statement, “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” is a paradox where to illogical concepts have been bound together.
Rhetorical Questions : The play shows good use of rhetorical questions at several places. For example,
“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?” (Chapter-I)
“But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?” (Chapter-I)
“Why should we care what happens after we are dead?” or “If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?” (Chapter-I)

These examples show the use of rhetorical questions mostly posed by the Old Major in Animal Farm. They are not supposed to elicit answers from the animals. They are rather supposed to make them aware of the existing realities.

Theme : It is a central idea that the novelist or the writer wants to stress upon. The novel, Animal Farm is a critique of the revolutions such as the Russian Revolution or the Cuban Revolution. It also shows violence, human nature, and the use of deception.
Setting : The setting of the novel, Animal Farm, is the farm where the rebellion takes place and where the animals set up their own government.
Simile : The novel, Animal Farm, shows good use of various similes.For example,
It was decided to set the gun up at the foot of the Flagstaff, like a piece of artillery (Chapter-IV)
The earth was like iron, and nothing could be done in the fields. (Chapter-V)
All that year the animals worked like slaves. (Chapter-VI)

The first simile compares the gun to a piece of artillery, in the second example, the earth is compared to the hot iron, and in the third one, animals are compared to slaves.

Symbol : Animal Farm, the barn, the windmill , and the gun are symbols of different gadgets that the animals place value to show that they have brought a revolution and that the common people are always oppressed under any type of regime.
Verbal Irony : The novel shows verbal irony through some of its commandments such as “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” This is an irony that equality shows through its use with “more.”

Animal Farm Characters
Animal Farm Quotes
Bought The Farm
All Animals are Equal
1984 Themes
1984 Quotes
George Orwell
Literary Writing Style of George Orwell

A Critical Read of Animal Farm (2022)

This transcript was adapted by Compañera Mai and Roderic Day from a freely available online lecture given by Brazilian Communist Party member Jones Manoel. [1] It is not an exact to-the-letter adaptation; we have attempted to stay faithful while focusing on readability. Please verify with the original before referencing this text. All Animal Farm excerpts were taken from Project Gutenberg. [2]

Let us broach a polemical subject. The British author George Orwell is very well known for works such as Animal Farm , Nineteen Eighty-Four , and his book about the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia . Throughout 2022 I intend to discuss each of these three works in detail. They’re not necessarily his best works, nor necessarily the most revealing ones regarding his own personal development, but I consider them his most popular works, with the largest impact. Here I want to focus only and specifically on Animal Farm . I don’t intend to discuss the context of Orwell’s production at large, nor Orwell’s biographical trajectory. [3] I won’t go into Nineteen Eighty-Four or any other of his works, either. We will discuss Animal Farm in isolation, which I think is fundamental. Why?

The name George Orwell carries immense ideological, political, and historical weight. He is the kind of author most of us have heard about before even encountering his work. We’ve heard about him, we’ve formed an opinion about him. With an unknown book by an unknown author, our opinion is formed after our first read, based on our first read. With Animal Farm , however, we approach it with a pre-formed opinion — a prejudice, even. In this way it is similar to The Communist Manifesto , The Bible , and pretty much any book that is considered general knowledge. Whether correct or incorrect, whether based on reality or not, everybody approaches the work having previously heard about it, and about its author as well. Before reading a single page the reader is likely already aware that Orwell’s a democrat, a socialist, that he later fought with anarchists, that he was an anti-Stalinist, that he fought against “Totalitarianism,” that he was an advocate for individual liberties, that he was opposed to surveillance, and so on. This general knowledge means the reader does not pick up the book “bare-handed,” they approach it armed with some knowledge. In my view, this prevents the reader from noticing certain aspects of the book. Regardless of how the reader feels about the Soviet Union or about capitalism, Orwell is pre-labeled a “democratic author” — democratic in the sense of “anti-Totalitarian” individualism, against the state, etc. I believe this heavy cultural bias prevents the reader from noticing several alarming elements in its narrative.

Animal Farm is a critical allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It aims to discredit the revolutionary process by stressing that, though the revolution was initially impelled by desires of hope and change and transformation, it quickly derailed, and life got as bad or even worse than it was before the revolution. Some insist the book is a narrow critique of “Stalinism.” I will later explain why I believe the book does not stand narrowly opposed to the Soviet Union or Stalin’s administration, but in fact stands opposed to revolutions in general. However, that’s not the really alarming part. The quality of the critique of the Bolsheviks, the Soviet Union, so-called “Stalinism” is not my main concern here.

I was 20 years old when I first picked up this book. I was young, I had only just begun reading Marxist literature, only just begun getting involved in communist organizing. To be clear: I’m the son of a housemaid; my father was a bricklayer. I started working at the age of 13. In other words, I’m a proletarian, born and raised in the favela. Therefore, I was very familiar with the subjects of the book’s metaphors when I first read it.

In Animal Farm , the animals represent the working class, and each different species represents a different social category within the working class. The pigs — the most intelligent animals — are the professional revolutionaries, Orwell’s stand-in for the Bolsheviks. The chickens, the horses, the sheep and so on are representations of the workers. The humans represent the bourgeoisie, and the book depicts class struggle in terms of animals versus humans.

Even back then, that first time I read this book, something really bothered me. There was something really strange about it, and it had nothing to do with the Soviet Union.

In 2013 I read the book for a third time. By this time I was organizing with the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) Youth, the Communist Youth Union (UJC). I was well-read in Marxist literature, and even had tried my hand at literary critique based on my studies of the works of Carlos Nelson Coutinho, which ended up being the topic of my master’s thesis a few years later. Studying Coutinho’s literary critique — possibly the highlight of his intellectual contribution — I learned to detect when an author writes from an aristocratic or pseudo-popular perspective, when an author, despite advocating for perspectives that superficially appear left-wing or progressive, manifests disdain and scorn for the people, for the working class and the oppressed. In other words, as Lukács might put it, the individual might have left-wing ethics, but a right-wing epistemology.

Consider, for example, the works of José de Alencar, a Brazilian writer from the 19th Century. Initially it appears that José de Alencar is exalting the indigenous and native perspective, but a critical read reveals that he is doing so in order to take the focus off of slavery, the maintenance of which he advocated for. In his works he depicts indigenous people as lacking agency, with no capacity as historical subjects. They are not the protagonists of their own history. Critical analysis reveals that this pseudo-elevation is an attempt to avoid grappling with the main contradiction of his era: slavery. His representation of the indigenous is a stereotype without autonomy.

This lesson from Carlos Nelson Coutinho allowed me to understand the cause of my discomfort with Animal Farm . In this book, George Orwell expresses aristocratic contempt towards the people, the working class. The main target of critique in this book is not the revolutionaries, but the working classes themselves. They are depicted as dumb, incompetent, incapable of reasoning, without any historical initiative — a manipulable mass lacking any capacity for political protagonism. When you analyze its narrative, only two subjects emerge as having the capacity for reason and historical autonomy: the human beings (the bourgeoisie) and the pigs (the Bolsheviks). The working class — the rest of the animals — is depicted as dumb and docile from beginning to end. In fact, about 70% of the book consists of nothing but such depictions.

I’ll cite several examples in order to illustrate that this is a constant theme throughout the novel. Such segments are so plentiful that there’s simply no way to chalk them all up to “cherry-picking” or “missing context.”

Orwell begins his story with Old Major, a pig metaphor for Karl Marx, who introduces the principles of Animalism — Marxism. With the exception of the other pigs, none of the animals can really grasp the depth of his theory, but they like what they hear anyway. The stage is set, and Orwell begins introducing the rest of the cast. Boxer and Clover are the first representatives of the working class that the reader learns about:

Clover was a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal. Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together. A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first-rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous powers of work.

Boxer is the personification of The Worker — a metaphor for the Stakhanovite movement in the USSR. [4] Orwell then goes back to Old Major and the preparation for the upcoming revolution, caricaturing Marxism as a simple doctrine where animals simply label humans as a great enemy, and insist that all life will immediately improve as soon as the humans — the bourgeois — disappear. This is what Orwell says about this process:

Major’s speech had given to the more intelligent animals on the farm a completely new outlook on life. They didn’t know when the Rebellion predicted by Major would take place, they had no reason for thinking that it would be within their own lifetime, but they saw clearly that it was their duty to prepare for it. The work of teaching and organizing the others fell naturally upon the pigs, who were generally recognized as being the cleverest of the animals.

The pigs, the revolutionaries, are said to be the cleverest. But what about the working class?

Some of the animals talked of the duty of loyalty to Mr. Jones, whom they referred to as “Master,” or made elementary remarks such as “Mr. Jones feeds us. If he were gone, we should starve to death.” Others asked such questions as “Why should we care what happens after we are dead?” or “If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?”, and the pigs had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism. The stupidest questions of all were asked by Mollie the white mare.

The animals being described as “stupid” or otherwise made to seem dumb or incapable is a running theme throughout the novel. Orwell continues:

Their most faithful disciples were the two cart-horses, Boxer and Clover. These two had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but having once accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed everything that they were told, and passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments. They were unfailing in their attendance at the secret meetings in the barn, and led the singing of “Beasts of England,” with which the meetings always ended.

Here “Beasts of England” is a metaphor for “The Internationale.”

Boxer was the admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Jones’ time, but now he seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night, he was pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the morning half an hour earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labor at whatever seemed to be most needed, before the regular day’s work began. His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” — which he had adopted as his personal motto.

Orwell describes Boxer as a hard worker — excited for working, someone who believes in the revolutionary project, and also always as dumb. Boxer as subject is pure, he truly and wholeheartedly believes in the revolution and in Animalism, and this makes him gullible.

Time passes, Old Major dies, and the revolution goes on without him. We are treated to assemblies organized by Snowball and Napoleon — Trotsky and Stalin — in its aftermath:

Here the work of coming week was planned out and resolutions were put forward and debated. It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions. The other animals understood how to vote, but could never think of any resolutions of their own.

Check this out: it’s not the case that the other animals are being manipulated. There’s no institution that manufactures consent here. Animal Farm is not Nineteen Eighty-Four , which portrays ideological control in complex terms, including some ideas I appreciate, like the manipulation of the past as a mechanism of domination. In Animal Farm the process is straightforward: the animals are fooled because they are dumb; there’s no complex scheme here. You might argue “Jones, it’s not a complex book, the narrative is simplified!” Listen, I understand that the book is simple by nature, that everything is direct for a reason, but you notice this in turn: when it comes to the betrayal of the revolution, the subversion of the revolution, there’s no challenge for the pigs. Do you get it? It’s easy for the pigs, because the working class is stupid.

There are very few moments in the narrative where we see animals protesting. There’s an incident with the chickens in the second half of the book, when Napoleon (Stalin) decides to take four hundred eggs to trade with the humans. The chickens protest, the dogs — the police and the army — threaten to repress the chickens, and they give up. That’s it. There’s two other moments, and it’s between the pigs only. Pigs who disagreed with Napoleon do question his decisions and stand against him, but the pigs are part of the revolutionary elite (from Orwell’s perspective) and not of the working class. As far as the working class goes, the incident with the chickens is the only incident. It’s treated as a triviality: the chickens tried, the dogs growled, Squealer (Napoleon’s lieutenant, Molotov?) spoke, and that’s it. The People are stupid.

Orwell also describes the animals’ literacy campaigns:

As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly. The dogs learned to read fairly well, but were not interested in reading anything except the Seven Commandments. Muriel, the goat, could read somewhat better than the dogs, and sometimes used to read to the others in the evenings from scraps of newspaper which she found on the rubbish heap. Benjamin could read as well as any pig, but never exercised his faculty. So far as he knew, he said, there was nothing worth reading. Clover learnt the whole alphabet, but could not put words together. Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D, in the dust with his great hoof, and then would stand staring at the letters with his ears back, sometimes shaking his forelock, trying with all his might to remember what came next and never succeeding.

We’re about a third of the way through the book and it’s the third time Boxer, the metaphor for The Worker, is described as an imbecile. The third time! In my edition of the book, this happens within a scarce 20 pages. Orwell continues, and does not restrict himself to Boxer:

None of the other animals on the farm could get further than the letter A. It was also found that the stupider animals, such as the sheep, hens, and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart. After much thought Snowball [Trotsky] declared that the Seven Commandments could in effect be reduced to a single maxim, namely: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” […] The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all humbler animals set to work to learn the new maxim by heart. Four legs good, two legs bad.

With the exception of the donkey Benjamin, the pigs, the dogs, Muriel, and Clover, all animals are incapable of reading. Clover isn’t actually capable of putting words together, so really it’s just Benjamin and the others. Thus Orwell begins to explain the rise of hierarchy within the revolution’s ranks. Every con is obvious, but the animals swallow any explanation, because they are stupid. Consider the construction of the windmill:

Gradually the plans grew into a complicated mass of cranks and cog-wheels, covering more than half the floor, which the other animals found completely unintelligible, but very impressive.

Once again, the animals are incapable of comprehending absolutely anything. Orwell’s portrayal of the arguments that divided the factions to which Trotsky and Stalin belonged is pathetic:

According to Napoleon, what the animals must do was to procure firearms and train themselves in the use of them. According to Snowball, they must send out more and more pigeons and stir up rebellions among the animals on the other farms. The one argued that if they could not defend themselves, they were bound to be conquered; the other argued that if rebellions happened everywhere they would have no need to defend themselves. The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment.

Notice that this critique targets neither Napoleon nor Snowball, neither Stalin nor Trotsky. This critique targets the people, you dig? Once again: the people are stupid. They don’t understand anything, they agree with whoever’s speaking, they are a gullible mass. Orwell then proceeds to describe the process of “bureaucratization” of the revolution by way of the suspension of the assemblies. Remember how the animals learned to vote, but were incapable of producing either questions or answers?

They were unnecessary, [Napoleon] said, and wasted time. In the future all questions relating to the working of the farm would be settled by a special committee, presided over by himself. These would meet in private and afterwards communicate their decisions to the others. The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag, sing “Beasts of England,” and receive their order for the week; but there would be no more debates.

This could be volunteered as a critique of Stalinism and the bureaucratization of the revolution, since with the suspension of debates there’s no more direct democracy. However, look at how Orwell describes the reaction of the workers, through Boxer:

Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He set his ears back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in the end he could not think of anything to say.

Check this out: so far in the narrative, there’s no repression worth noting. From this moment on the dogs will begin to show up more often, as will the pigs, and Napoleon will instill a general climate of fear. Fair enough. Right up until this point, however, half-way through the book , there’s barely any repression. It’s as if the revolution gradually decays by itself due to the stupidity of the working class. The pigs give orders, and nobody can think of anything else to say. The voting ceremonies have already been portrayed as simulations where only the pigs really debate and participate, and now even that is taken away from them… and the workers still have nothing to say about it. Why? Because they are dumb.

In one truly bizarre episode Orwell describes how Napoleon’s spokesman, Squealer, fools the animals:

Now that Snowball was out of the way, the plan could go forward without his interference. This, said Squealer, was something called tactics. He repeated a number of times, “Tactics, comrades, tactics!” skipping round and whisking his tail with a merry laugh. The animals were not certain what the word meant, but Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the three dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation without further questions.

This is Orwell “explaining” how it came to be that Napoleon — who advocated against Snowball and his idea for the windmill — ended up getting credit for the construction of the windmill after Snowball was exiled. This is a very poor metaphor of the Soviet Union’s internal debates on rapid industrialization. In these debates, Stalin together with Bukharin were in favour of maintaining the NEP, while Trotsky was against it, a matter on which Stalin’s stance would later change. That’s not what’s important, though. The crucial point here is that all Squealer has to do is say “Tactics, comrades, tactics!” and the animals don’t get it but accept it regardless.

Orwell doesn’t showcase even sparks of original thought — he doesn’t concern himself with that. At all times the working class is described as subjects who feel a disturbance, who sense something is off, but are incapable of even verbalizing their own dissatisfaction in a conscious, intelligible way. They can feel, but are incapable of reasoning. This is the core message of the book. The working class are, in the metaphor of the narrative, farm animals incapable of reasoning.

I’ll limit myself to just a couple more examples.

Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals’ minds at rest. He assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball. A few animals still felt faintly doubtful, but Squealer asked them shrewdly, “Are you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written down anywhere?” And since it was certainly true that nothing of the kind existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken.

The relevant context here is that at the beginning of the novel, in the aftermath of the revolution, it was decreed that making contact or trading with the humans was prohibited, but later Napoleon established trade deals with the humans, and so on. However, take note here of Squealer’s method for convincing the other animals: “Are you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed?” Do you realize how contemptuous of the workers this metaphor is?

Imagine this situation: I ask my friend Cauê to lend me $400, and he hands me the money. One month later, Cauê asks me to return the $400 I borrowed, and I reply “Money? What money? I didn’t take any money from you! You must have dreamt it.” You dig? “Do you have video to prove that I asked for your money? You don’t? Then it didn’t happen.” Would anyone be convinced by that? Imagine Cauê replying “Oh, ok. Yeah, indeed, I don’t have any video to prove it, so I must have dreamt it…” You might say, “But, Jones, that’s just a literary metaphor!” Yes, it’s a literary metaphor, a metaphor which portrays its subject as stupid. If Cauê was convinced by that he’d be a dunce. And this is how the workers are portrayed.

Close to the end there’s a notable passage in which Orwell describes how several years go by and the farm “prospers” — the animals are still poor, barely eating, going through a famine, etc. but the pigs and dogs eat well. He discusses the new animals being born:

The farm possessed three horses now besides Clover. They were fine upstanding beasts, willing workers and good comrades, but very stupid. None of them proved able to learn the alphabet beyond the letter B. They accepted everything that they were told about the Rebellion and the principles of Animalism, especially from Clover, for whom they had an almost filial respect; but it was doubtful whether they understood very much of it.

Orwell spends the entire book describing generations of animals as easily confused, dumb, stupid, illiterate, amnesiac… the entire book! The main target of this book’s critique aren’t the revolutionaries or communism: it’s the working class. George Orwell writes from an aristocratic ethos. “Elite theory” posits the people as incapable of self-governance, without the capacity to constitute themselves as a political subject , and therefore always the object of dispute and manipulation by vying elites. The people lack the capacity for political self-determination, cannot build a political program or engage in autonomous political action. This is George Orwell’s theory, borne out by his choice of metaphors.

Notice that the revolution isn’t lost to repression. In the book’s narrative structure, it is not the repression that kills the revolution and it is not the institution of privileges that kills the revolution. The book’s narrative structure indicates that all the processes that led to its corruption have their roots in the fact that the working class is incapable of intervening on its own behalf. For example, in the Sunday assemblies in which the direction of the revolution is debated, nobody from the working class can think for themselves — only the pigs speak. It’s not the case that the pigs manipulate the working class. When the animals undergo a literacy campaign, the working class proves incapable of learning how to read and write. This point is very important! It’s central to the argumentative and narrative structure. The pigs don’t try to stop the rest of the animals from learning how to read and write, it’s the animals themselves who prove incapable… because they are dumb.

According to the story, every time a new bureaucratic privilege is established someone changes the Commandments that were written on the wall, until one day all Seven Commandments disappear and a single new one is written: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” If the animals knew how to read, it wouldn’t be possible for Squealer, Napoleon’s spokesman, to change the Commandments every dawn. And in the narrative it’s not the dogs who prevent the animals from reading; it’s not even Squealer or anyone else convincing the other animals to forget about learning how to read and write. In fact, Squealer explicitly tells the other animals that it’s precisely because they can’t read or write that the pigs must “expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called files, reports, minutes, and memoranda.” And the animals accept this, beause they are dumb.

Animal Farm isn’t a critique of revolutionaries; it’s a critique of workers. It’s an aristocratic manifesto against the working class.

When you get down to it, the villains in the book are more meritorious than the workers. The humans are described as exploiters, but they can negotiate. They manage to hold on to the other farms and, by the end, they are happily collaborating with the pigs, satisfied that they have squelched all the potential out of the revolution. They are intelligent, cunning, and achieve their goals. Same goes for the pigs: they’re capable of fooling everyone, etc. Meanwhile, the non-pig, non-dog animals — especially the horses Boxer and Clover — are imbeciles. They have no merit outside of their kind character and ability to work. This point is crucial. The novel repeatedly describes Boxer as a hard worker of great character, and an imbecile. He explicitly gets called stupid at five separate points; there’s even an interesting aside where, approaching the age of twelve, Boxer contemplates retiring and using that time to finally learn the last twenty letters of the alphabet. In other words, the representative of the working class needs to dedicate his entire retirement to overcoming illiteracy.

Some might say “Jones, this isn’t a critique of the working class, he’s just saying the working class doesn’t have proper conditions, that the working class doesn’t have the resources to dedicate itself to theorical studies or politics…” I would buy this had there been a single character from the working class, from the entire cast of animals, who pursued that path, who tried to lead another rebellion and failed. For example, Orwell could’ve sent a message by making an animal character who understood what was happening, got pissed off, and was taken out by the dogs as they attempted to ignite a movement to revive the principles of Animalism. This character simply doesn’t exist. All that exists are other pigs — other Bolsheviks — who question Napoleon’s politics and are assassinated as a result. In Orwell it’s clear: no representative of the downtrodden people ever manages to achieve any complex political conscience nor advocacy for a return to the principles of the revolution betrayed.

Some argue the character of the donkey Benjamin plays this role. This is not the case. Benjamin is described as the oldest animal of the farm, a cynic who witnessed everything, and because of it, he doesn’t harbour any hope. He has no concern or enthusiasm for anything, because he believes that in the end everything always ends in tragedy. Orwell describes Benjamin thus:

Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse — hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.

Benjamin represents a sort of nihilist conscience. He is the only working class animal who is actually intelligent, who knows how to read well, and therefore he doesn’t believe in anything, because “hunger, hardship, and disappointment … the unalterable law of life.” The only conscious being among the workers is politically apathetic because he knows, due to his intelligence, that the situation of his class will never change, that life will always be shit, that life never changes for the better or worse, that it’s always a disgrace.

The message is clear. Don’t conflate this with Nineteen Eighty-Four , that’s another story altogether. That novel expresses a complex theory of manipulation. As Louis Althusser would say, a complex ideological apparatus is deployed to ideologically dominate the people. Arguments about that work will be addressed in a specific piece on it. In Animal Farm , however, there’s no such complexity in domination; the fundamental critique is not over a supposedly “totalitarian” state which controls everything, overseeing every single aspect of life and thought. It’s simply about the working class being hopelessly stupid.

The pig-revolutionaries are also targets of critique, of course. Here we simply see several anticommunist myths recycled. I will spare the reader tiresome citations, but, for example, mid-way through the story Orwell ridicules the Soviet accounts of siege, sabotage, and espionage endured at hands of the imperial powers, portraying them all as Napoleon’s (Stalin’s) fabrications. The book showcases no real sabotage carried out by other farms still run by humans — that is, other capitalist countries. Orwell reproduces the myth that the Soviet Union didn’t face sabotage or terrorism, you dig? There’s no Animal Farm metaphor for the actions of England, France, the United States, Japan, Spain, Portugal. No metaphor for industrial sabotage, the blowing up of water treatment plants and hydroelectric dams, etc. Everything is a “Stalinist” lie. Whether you like or dislike Stalin is completely besides the point. Nobody can deny that the same imperialist nations which invaded Russia in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, who fueled the civil war which killed more than six million people — 17 countries banded together to invade Russia after the revolutionary war! A story where all of these capitalist countries simply stood by the sidelines and peacefully observed the growth of Soviet industry? That’s a fairytale.

There’s so much documentation out there: telegrams from ambassadors, CIA reports, British intelligence reports, diaries from agents and spies, etc. all discussing systematic sabotage, assassination attempts, the organization of groups of exiled reactionary Russians to commit terrorist attacks in the Soviet Union, etc. etc. Some might say “But, Jones, the Soviet government, with Stalin as leader, exaggerated these narratives to justify repressions!” Sure, you can say that, but it’s one thing to allege exaggerations, and an entirely different thing to assert that they were all fabrications and that these imperial adversaries were flat-out innocent. Read Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend by Domenico Losurdo and Terror and Democracy in the Age of Stalin by Wendy Goldman — read both of them, both are really worthwhile.

George Orwell’s ommisions are so conspicuous they in fact qualify as a form of Naziphilia. At around page 80 (in my edition), he begins to construct a metaphor of the preliminary stages of WWII, and criticizes Stalin (through Napoleon) for the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Throughout the book, there is no literary metaphor whatsoever that captures the gravity of the Nazi menace, the dangers Nazism presented to mankind. The story is constructed such that the denunciations against the neighbouring Foxwood and Pinchfield farms are all fabricated by the pigs. This is a seriously disturbing choice. It is tantamount to whitewashing the Nazis. At no point in the book does Orwell illustrate the Nazi threat through any metaphor or equivalent; according to his narrative Napoleon is simply being cunning, filtering out for faithful subordinates (who later end up backstabbing him anyway).

Any account of WWII should be honest about the fact that the Soviet Union made several desperate attempts to establish antifascist alliances with the liberal imperialists, especially England, France and the US, and that these same liberal imperialists rejected these efforts because they wanted the Soviet Union to experience maximal losses warring against Nazi Germany by itself. Particularly in the US, many of the figures from the political-economical establishment worked off of the thesis that Nazi Germany would invade and dominate the Soviet Union. If Europe fell to the Nazis, the Americas would still belong to the US, you dig? The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was a brilliant diplomatic maneuver because only thanks to this pact was the rest of Europe forced to join the war against the Nazis. That deal, in fact, prevented the forging of a liberal-fascist pact against the Soviet Union. There were concrete possibilities of an alliance between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, France, England, the US, and Fascist Japan against the Soviet Union. This possibility was undermined by Soviet diplomacy, and you can read about it in Opera magazine. [5] I also produced a video a couple of years ago, titled “Who defeated the Nazis?”, where I explain in more detail. [6] Additionally, I’ll discuss this in more depth in a forthcoming book chapter I’m writing, titled “Struggle for Memory: Reflections on Socialism and Revolution.”

In conclusion, it seems obvious to me that George Orwell was furious about the fact that the Soviet Union was not defeated in WWII. Animal Farm was published in 1945. Orwell witnessed the tragedy that Nazism brought to the world. In 1945 most people already knew about the Holocaust. People at that point were already informed about the concentration camps. People already knew what the Nazis had done in Poland and at Auschwitz. George Orwell, in this context, wrote an allegory where WWII and Nazism are depicted as nothing, where Soviet self-defense policies are depicted as sinister intrigues unrelated to liberal and fascist siege. There’s no Churchill cheerleading fascism in Italy or Spain. The gravity of this framing needs to be understood. In 1945 the whole world was shocked by Nazi concentration camps, and Orwell was asking “Sure, that was bad, but what about the Soviet Union?” It seems absurd, but this is exactly what this book describes, under cover of literary metaphor. “Sure, Auschwitz was bad, but what about Stalin?” That is this whole book’s vibe.

As I promised, I have steered clear of questioning whether Orwell was an anarchist, whether he was a democratic Socialist, whether he was anti-Stalinist or a “labourite” or “reformist” or anything else. I have strictly referred to Animal Farm and its contents. And this book, Animal Farm , is a deeply reactionary book, displaying aristocratic condescension against the people, a book in which the working class appear as imbeciles. It displays all the marks of the bourgeois genre of elite theory. Its historical metaphors for Soviet history whitewash capitalists and imperialists. The USSR is shown as self-sabotaging, while its enemies are completely absolved. This is George Orwell, and this is why he was so successful.

To conclude, it’s obvious why a book that depicts the workers as dumb, as imbeciles, would be eagerly promoted in a racist country with enormous inequality such as Brazil. The Brazilian “middle class” took to the streets and supported fascist politicians because housemaids were included in labor protection legislation, because they started seeing poor people in airports and shopping malls. Consciously or unconsciously — I don’t want to discuss Freud or Lacan here — the metaphor works for them, it validates their belief that the housemaid that works for them is stupid, dumb, and incapable of reasoning. Any profoundly unequal, racist, and pseudo-aristocratic society like Brazil’s would enjoy this book. It promotes an aristocratic perspective in which working people are stupid beasts incapable of reason. This explains all the hype, all the buzz and promotion it receives from the establishment. This book will remain famous and beloved so long as racist and aristocratic liberalism persists, until we put and end to this profoundly unequal society by waging a revolution of our own.

[1] Jones Manoel, 2022-01-30. Revolução dos bichos: uma abordagem crítica. [web]

[2] George Orwell, Animal Farm. [web]

[3] For a brief survey of George Orwell’s life, see On Orwell. — R. D. [web]

[4] Stakhanovism is named after Alexei Stakhanov, a Soviet miner, CPSU member, and “Hero of Socialist Labour” who advocated for demonstrating the superiority of socialist industrial production based on the voluntary disposition and enthusiasm of the workers.

[5] O Pacto Hitler-Stálin: Mito e Realidade. [web]

[6] Quem derrotou os Nazista? Mitos e verdades sobre a Segunda Guerra Mundial — Ep. III Ajuda Professor. [web]

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Animal Farm Essays and Criticism
The grotesque end of the fable is not meant to shock the reader—indeed, chance and surprise are banished entirely from Orwell's world. The horror of both Animal Farm and the later 1984 is ...
Animal Farm by George Orwell: Literary Analysis Essay
An animal farm is traditionally discussed as a place where animals are bred by humans. The farms are usually named after the owner. However, Animal Farm is rather different. It is a place where animals are owners of the properties (Orwell 6). While referring to the meaning and significance of the phrase which is used for the title of the ...
A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell's Animal Farm
Animal Farm: plot summary. The novella opens with an old pig, named Major, addressing his fellow animals on Manor Farm. Major criticises Mr Jones, the farmer who owns Manor Farm, because he controls the animals, takes their produce (the hens' eggs, the cows' milk), but gives them little in return. Major tells the other animals that man, who ...
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Full Title: Animal Farm. When Written: 1944-45. Where Written: England. When Published: 1945. Literary Period: Modernism. Genre: Allegorical Novel. Setting: A farm somewhere in England in the first half of the 20th century. Climax: The pigs appear standing upright and the sheep bleat, "Four legs good, two legs better!".
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George Orwell and Animal Farm: A Critical Analysis Essay (Critical Writing) George Orwell is one of the most celebrated English writers in the 20 th century (George 1). Orwell's literature is committed to telling the blatant truth about the violation of people's freedom and the injustices against the common person (Dedria and Hall 479).
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Animal Farm is a literary masterpiece that uses symbolism, irony, and the portrayal of power dynamics to convey its powerful message. Orwell's creation of a world populated by animals allows for a nuanced exploration of political ideologies and the corrupting influence of power. By examining the allegorical elements and themes present in Animal ...
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Animal Farm is a very simple novelette written in a formal as well as informal style.The formal style is shown through terse and succinct prose, while informal style creeps in when the animals talk to each other or when the Old Major addresses the animal.The simplicity of language shows its tones changing according to the setting of the novel, from ironic to sarcastic and from simple to ...
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Critical analysis reveals that this pseudo-elevation is an attempt to avoid grappling with the main contradiction of his era: slavery. His representation of the indigenous is a stereotype without autonomy. This lesson from Carlos Nelson Coutinho allowed me to understand the cause of my discomfort with Animal Farm. In this book, George Orwell ...
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Get free homework help on George Orwell's Animal Farm: book summary, chapter summary and analysis, quotes, essays, and character analysis courtesy of CliffsNotes. Animal Farm is George Orwell's satire on equality, where all barnyard animals live free from their human masters' tyranny. Inspired to rebel by Major, an old boar, animals on Mr. Jones' Manor Farm embrace Animalism and stage a ...
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Literary Criticism Of Animal Farm. Good Essays. 1106 Words. 5 Pages. Open Document. The book that I read for this literary analysis was Animal Farm by George Orwell. This book is about a farm whose animals rebel against their owner because of his lack of care for them. In the beginning of this book, a elderly pig named Major gathers all of the ...
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Marxist Criticism In Animal Farm By George Orwell. Marxist Criticism is grounded in the economic and cultural theories of Karl Marx. Rather than viewing a text as the product of an individual consciousness, Marxist critics examine a work as the product of an ideology particular to a specific historical period (Eagleton 551). Such critics judge ...
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