Animal Farm (1)
Heya everyone, it's ben a long time since I last posted, but there isn't much for me to post on... =P
I've just finished reading Animal Farm, an excellent book written by George Owell. It describes a series of happenings after the animals in a farm called Manor Farm, revolt, driving the farmer, Mr Jones, out and proclaiming the farm as their own. I did a slight check on the internet, and fond out that Animal Farm isn't as simple as it seems. In fact, the whole book represents the nation of USSR, and in the end, the US and UK.
Ok, now for a small 'introduction' of the characters in the story.
By the way, this was based on pre-WWII, and follows it into post-WWII.
The events and characters in Animal Farm satirise Stalinism ("Animalism"), authoritarian government and human stupidity generally; Snowball is seen as Leon Trotsky and the head pig, Napoleon, is Stalin. Animalism is a term referred to by the animals of the 'Seven Commandments', which the pigs installed, and expected by all animals to abide to. They include:
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
Now, these Seven Commandments are supposed to be abode to be ever animal, but the pigs, tasting power, decided to alter the commandments to their needs, and slowly, but surely, destroying everything the animals have worked so hard for. It is changed to this:
No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets;
No animal shall drink alcohol to excess
No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
In the end of the book, it is said that the Seven Commandments were altered to one single Commandment, stating:
'All Animals Are Equal
But Some Animals Are
More Equal Than Others'
Now here's the irony.
Now,here come the characters...
Old Major - He is the inspiration that fuels the Rebellion in the book, and connections can be made between him and Karl Marx (in that he describes the ideal society the animals could create if the humans are overthrown) or Vladimir Lenin (in that his skull is put on revered public display, as was Lenin's embalmed corpse).
Napoleon - He is the main tyrant and villain of Animal Farm and is based upon Joseph Stalin. He begins to gradually build up his power, using puppies he took from mother dogs Jessie and Bluebell, which he raises to be vicious dogs as his secret police. After driving Snowball off the farm, Napoleon usurps full power, using false propaganda from Squealer and threats and intimidation from the dogs to keep the other animals in line. Among other things, he gradually changes the Commandments to allow himself privileges such as eating at a table and to justify his dictatorial rule. By the end of the book, Napoleon and his fellow pigs have learned to walk upright and started to behave similarly to the humans against whom they originally revolted. Napoleon's name adds to the novella's themes of totalitarian dictators rising from vacuum of power and absolute power corrupting absolutely. The character's namesake, Napoleon Bonaparte, forcibly took control from a weak government in 1799, installed himself as First Consul and eventually crowned himself Emperor.
Snowball - Napoleon's rival, he is an allusion to Leon Trotsky. He wins over most animals, but is driven out of the farm by Napoleon. Snowball genuinely works for the good of the farm and devises plans to help the animals achieve their vision of an egalitarian Utopia, but Napoleon and his dogs chase him from the farm, and Napoleon spreads rumours to make him seem evil and corrupt and that he had secretly sabotaged the animals' efforts to improve the farm. In his biography of Orwell, Bernard Crick suggests that Snowball was as much inspired by the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leader Andrés Nin as by Trotsky. Nin was a similarly adept orator and also fell victim to the Communist purges of the Left during the Spanish Civil War.
Squealer - He serves as Napoleon's right hand pig and minister of propaganda. Inspired by Vyacheslav Molotov and the Soviet paper Pravda, Squealer manipulates the language to excuse, justify, and extol all of Napoleon's actions. He represents all the propaganda Stalin used to justify his own terrible acts. In all of his work, George Orwell made it a point to show how politicians used language. Squealer limits debate by complicating it and he confuses and disorients, making claims that the pigs need the extra luxury they are taking in order to function properly, for example. However, when questions persist, he usually uses the threat of the return of Mr Jones, the former owner of the farm, to justify the pigs' privileges. Squealer uses statistics to convince the animals that life is getting better and better. Most of the animals have only dim memories of life before the revolution; therefore, they are convinced.
Mr. Jones represents Nicholas II of Russia, the deposed Czar, who had been facing severe financial difficulties in the days leading up to the 1917 Revolution. The character is also a nod towards Louis XVI. There are several implications that he represents an autocratic but ineffective capitalist, incapable of running the farm and looking after the animals properly. Jones is a very heavy drinker and the animals revolt against him after he drinks so much that he does not feed or take care of them, and his attempt to recapture the farm is foiled in the Battle of the Cowshed (the Russian Civil War).
Mr. Frederick - The tough owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept neighbouring farm. He represents Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in general.[8] He buys wood from the animals for forged money and later attacks them, destroying the windmill but being finally beaten in the resulting Battle of the Windmill (World War II), which could be interpreted as either the battle of Moscow or Stalingrad. There are also stories of him mistreating his own animals, such as throwing dogs into a furnace, which may also represent the Nazi Party's treatment of political dissidents.
Mr. Pilkington - The easy-going but crafty owner of Foxwood, a neighbouring farm overgrown with weeds, as described in the book. He represents the western powers, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. The card game at the very end of the novel is a metaphor for the Tehran Conference, where the parties flatter each other, all the while cheating at the game. This last scene is ironic because all the Pigs are civil and kind to the humans, defying all for which they had fought. This happened at the Tehran Conference: the Soviet Union formed an alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom, capitalist countries that the Soviet Union had fought in the early years of the revolution.[8] At the end of the game, both Napoleon and Pilkington draw the Ace of Spades and then begin fighting loudly, symbolising the beginning of tension between the U.S. and Soviet superpowers.
Mr. Whymper - A man hired by Napoleon for public relations of Animal Farm to human society. He is loosely based on Western intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw and, especially, Lincoln Steffens, who visited the USSR in 1919.
And these are not all. It's late now, and one must retire fo the oncoming day. I will continue this post the next moment I have the chance to do so.
Animal Farm is indeed a excellent book, giving you a lot of complicated thought, of the irony, of the conformity, of how the book describes the world happening then, of the corruption of the USSR itself. It is definetely a book worth reading, but only if you have the right mind to enjoy it, of course.
I've just finished reading Animal Farm, an excellent book written by George Owell. It describes a series of happenings after the animals in a farm called Manor Farm, revolt, driving the farmer, Mr Jones, out and proclaiming the farm as their own. I did a slight check on the internet, and fond out that Animal Farm isn't as simple as it seems. In fact, the whole book represents the nation of USSR, and in the end, the US and UK.
Ok, now for a small 'introduction' of the characters in the story.
By the way, this was based on pre-WWII, and follows it into post-WWII.
The events and characters in Animal Farm satirise Stalinism ("Animalism"), authoritarian government and human stupidity generally; Snowball is seen as Leon Trotsky and the head pig, Napoleon, is Stalin. Animalism is a term referred to by the animals of the 'Seven Commandments', which the pigs installed, and expected by all animals to abide to. They include:
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
Now, these Seven Commandments are supposed to be abode to be ever animal, but the pigs, tasting power, decided to alter the commandments to their needs, and slowly, but surely, destroying everything the animals have worked so hard for. It is changed to this:
No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets;
No animal shall drink alcohol to excess
No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
In the end of the book, it is said that the Seven Commandments were altered to one single Commandment, stating:
'All Animals Are Equal
But Some Animals Are
More Equal Than Others'
Now here's the irony.
Now,here come the characters...
Old Major - He is the inspiration that fuels the Rebellion in the book, and connections can be made between him and Karl Marx (in that he describes the ideal society the animals could create if the humans are overthrown) or Vladimir Lenin (in that his skull is put on revered public display, as was Lenin's embalmed corpse).
Napoleon - He is the main tyrant and villain of Animal Farm and is based upon Joseph Stalin. He begins to gradually build up his power, using puppies he took from mother dogs Jessie and Bluebell, which he raises to be vicious dogs as his secret police. After driving Snowball off the farm, Napoleon usurps full power, using false propaganda from Squealer and threats and intimidation from the dogs to keep the other animals in line. Among other things, he gradually changes the Commandments to allow himself privileges such as eating at a table and to justify his dictatorial rule. By the end of the book, Napoleon and his fellow pigs have learned to walk upright and started to behave similarly to the humans against whom they originally revolted. Napoleon's name adds to the novella's themes of totalitarian dictators rising from vacuum of power and absolute power corrupting absolutely. The character's namesake, Napoleon Bonaparte, forcibly took control from a weak government in 1799, installed himself as First Consul and eventually crowned himself Emperor.
Snowball - Napoleon's rival, he is an allusion to Leon Trotsky. He wins over most animals, but is driven out of the farm by Napoleon. Snowball genuinely works for the good of the farm and devises plans to help the animals achieve their vision of an egalitarian Utopia, but Napoleon and his dogs chase him from the farm, and Napoleon spreads rumours to make him seem evil and corrupt and that he had secretly sabotaged the animals' efforts to improve the farm. In his biography of Orwell, Bernard Crick suggests that Snowball was as much inspired by the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) leader Andrés Nin as by Trotsky. Nin was a similarly adept orator and also fell victim to the Communist purges of the Left during the Spanish Civil War.
Squealer - He serves as Napoleon's right hand pig and minister of propaganda. Inspired by Vyacheslav Molotov and the Soviet paper Pravda, Squealer manipulates the language to excuse, justify, and extol all of Napoleon's actions. He represents all the propaganda Stalin used to justify his own terrible acts. In all of his work, George Orwell made it a point to show how politicians used language. Squealer limits debate by complicating it and he confuses and disorients, making claims that the pigs need the extra luxury they are taking in order to function properly, for example. However, when questions persist, he usually uses the threat of the return of Mr Jones, the former owner of the farm, to justify the pigs' privileges. Squealer uses statistics to convince the animals that life is getting better and better. Most of the animals have only dim memories of life before the revolution; therefore, they are convinced.
Mr. Jones represents Nicholas II of Russia, the deposed Czar, who had been facing severe financial difficulties in the days leading up to the 1917 Revolution. The character is also a nod towards Louis XVI. There are several implications that he represents an autocratic but ineffective capitalist, incapable of running the farm and looking after the animals properly. Jones is a very heavy drinker and the animals revolt against him after he drinks so much that he does not feed or take care of them, and his attempt to recapture the farm is foiled in the Battle of the Cowshed (the Russian Civil War).
Mr. Frederick - The tough owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept neighbouring farm. He represents Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in general.[8] He buys wood from the animals for forged money and later attacks them, destroying the windmill but being finally beaten in the resulting Battle of the Windmill (World War II), which could be interpreted as either the battle of Moscow or Stalingrad. There are also stories of him mistreating his own animals, such as throwing dogs into a furnace, which may also represent the Nazi Party's treatment of political dissidents.
Mr. Pilkington - The easy-going but crafty owner of Foxwood, a neighbouring farm overgrown with weeds, as described in the book. He represents the western powers, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. The card game at the very end of the novel is a metaphor for the Tehran Conference, where the parties flatter each other, all the while cheating at the game. This last scene is ironic because all the Pigs are civil and kind to the humans, defying all for which they had fought. This happened at the Tehran Conference: the Soviet Union formed an alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom, capitalist countries that the Soviet Union had fought in the early years of the revolution.[8] At the end of the game, both Napoleon and Pilkington draw the Ace of Spades and then begin fighting loudly, symbolising the beginning of tension between the U.S. and Soviet superpowers.
Mr. Whymper - A man hired by Napoleon for public relations of Animal Farm to human society. He is loosely based on Western intellectuals such as George Bernard Shaw and, especially, Lincoln Steffens, who visited the USSR in 1919.
And these are not all. It's late now, and one must retire fo the oncoming day. I will continue this post the next moment I have the chance to do so.
Animal Farm is indeed a excellent book, giving you a lot of complicated thought, of the irony, of the conformity, of how the book describes the world happening then, of the corruption of the USSR itself. It is definetely a book worth reading, but only if you have the right mind to enjoy it, of course.
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