1 Library facts

Author: George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Blair)
Title: Animal Farm
Publisher: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics
Date of publication: 1989
Year of first publication: 1945

2 Summary

The story describes the history of the Russian Revolution in 1917, but in another time and with other characters. There are many parallels between these two events.

Mr. Jones, the drunken, inefficient owner of Manor Farm, was one day expelled from his property by the starving, rebellious farm-animals. They started to run the farm by themselves under the leadership of the pigs. The revolution was the final result of a system of thoughts named "Animalism". After the take-over, the pigs made up "The Seven Commandments", based on Animalism. Every animal had to live by these rules. Thanks to the organising abilities of the pigs the farm was ran successfully. Most animals were very happy with the results of the revolution, although they had to work harder than before.

The leaders of the farm are the brilliant Snowball and the persevering Napoleon. But there arose a rivalry between them. At an election to decide which of them is the real leader Snowball was driven away by the dogs that Napoleon has secretly trained.

Napoleon starts to terrorise the farm animals with the help of the dogs and Squealer, his smooth spokesman. Under his command the Seven Commandments are changed again and again to suit the position of the ruling pigs. Whenever anything goes wrong, Napoleon would throw the guild on Snowball. Napoleon comes to terms with the human masters of the farms in the neighbourhood, who had given up the hope that Animal Farm would destroy itself.

The only hope and pride remaining to the animals was that they were the only farm run by animals. That made the shock even bigger when one day the pigs acted so humanly that there was no difference between them and the humans.

Perspective

The story is told by an omniscient narrator. This is very important for the story. The narrator sometimes even gives flash-forwards. Because of the way the book is written, you can tell from the start that the "Animal Farm" won't keep on existing the way it does at the start.

Because the animals are talking to each other about the things that are happening at the moment and because the pigs have Squealer, their propaganda maker telling the farm animals what ¡s going on, the story mostly exists of speeches and dialogs.

Characters

The Animals

Old Major
Old Major is the wise old pig whose stirring speech to the animals helps set the Rebellion in motion although he dies before it actually begins. His role compares with that of Karl Marx, whose ideas set the Communist Revolution in motion.

Napoleon
Napoleon is a "large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way." And so he does. Instead of debating with Snowball he sets his dogs on him and continues to increase his personal power and privileges from that time on. What counts for him is power, not ideas. Note his name; think of the other Napoleon (Bonaparte) who took over the French Revolution and turned it into a personal empire. Napoleon's character also suggests that of Stalin and other dictators as well.

Snowball

Snowball is an energetic, brilliant leader. He's the one who successfully organises the defence of the Farm (like Trotsky with the Red Army). He's an eloquent speaker with original- although not necessarily beneficial- ideas (the windmill).

Squealer
Squealer is short, fat, twinkle-eyed, nimble, and "a brilliant talker." He has a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail that is somehow very persuasive. They say he can turn black into white! That's just what he does, again and again. Every time the pigs take more wealth and power, Squealer persuades the animals that this is absolutely necessary for the well-being of all. When things are scarce, he proves that production has increased with figures. He is also the one who makes all the changes in the Seven Commandments. In human terms he is the propaganda apparatus that spreads the "big lie" and makes people believe in it.

Boxer
Boxer believes in the Rebellion and in it's Leader. His two favourite sayings are "Napoleon is always right" and "I will work harder." His huge size and strength and his untiring labour save the Farm again and again. He finally collapses from age and overwork and is sold for glue.

Clover
Clover the mare is a motherly, protective figure. She survives to experience, dimly and wordlessly, all the sadness of the failed Revolution.

Mollie
Mollie, the frivolous, luxury-loving mare, contrasts with Clover. She deserts Animal Farm for sugar and ribbons at a human inn. Orwell may have been thinking of certain Russian nobles who left after the Revolution or of a general human type.

Napoleon's Dogs
The dogs represent the means used by a totalitarian state to terrorise its own people. Think of them as Napoleon's secret police.

Muriel
Muriel the goat reads better than Clover and often reads things (such as Commandments) out loud to her.

The Sheep

The stupid sheep keep bleating away any slogan the pigs teach them. You can guess who they are.

Moses
Moses the Raven does no work but tells comforting tales of the wonderful Sugarcandy Mountain where the animals go when they die. He is a satire of organised religion. (Marx called religion, in a famous phrase, "the opiate of the people.") In terms of Russia, Moses represents the Orthodox Church.

Pigeons
The pigeons spread the word of Rebellion beyond the farm, as many Communists spread the doctrine of the revolution beyond the boundaries of the Soviet Union.

Benjamin
Gloomy Benjamin, the donkey, may remind you of Eeyore in Winnie-the-Pooh, except that unlike Eeyore he never complains about his own personal problems. He is a sceptic and a pessimist-I'd almost say a cynic, if it weren't for his loyal devotion to Boxer. Like his friend he doesn't talk much and patiently does his work, although- unlike Boxer- no more than is required. He's also unlike Boxer in that he does not believe in the Revolution, nor in anything else, except that life is hard. Whatever political question he is asked he replies only that "Donkeys live a long time" and "None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." He survives.

The Humans

Jones
In the narrowest sense the drunken, negligent Farmer Jones represents the Czar. He also stands for any government that declines through its own corruption and mismanagement.

Pilkington
Pilkington, who likes hunting and fishing more than farming, represents Orwell's view of the decadent British gentleman in particular and of the Allied nations in general, especially Britain and France.

Whymper

Whymper is a commercial go-between for animals and humans, just as certain capitalists have always conducted business with Communist nations.

Frederick
The cruel Frederick doesn't really represent anything, but he does kind of show a strong resemblance toward Germany, the cruel nation that it was.

Time

The story begins early in March and it ends about fifteen years later, late in summer.

Space

The story takes place at a farm in England first called Manor Farm, later on Animal Farm and at the end Manor Farm again. The animals turn the Manor Farm into Animal Farm after they took over the farm.

Symbolic

- Napoleon- Stalin
- Snowball- Trotsky
- Old Major- Marx and Lenin
- Jones- Czar Nicholaus III
- Squealer- Propaganda (Pravda)
- Mollie- The land of Russia
- Boxer- The average loyal, hard working peasant
- Dogs- Stalin's secret police
- Manor Farm- Czarist Russia
- Animal Farm- Communist Russia
- Frederick of Pinchfield- Hitler of Germany
- Pilkinton of Foxwood- Churchill of UK

3 Theme

The story is comparable with the Russian Revolution. There is a plan of taking over a farm and starting a rebellion (Russian Revolution). There's a Civil War too, between Napoleon (Stalin) and Snowball (Trotsky). Then Snowball is abandoned and Napoleon rules. All the animals are very hungry and are afraid or too stupid to say anything about it.
I think there also a bit of betrayal in it because people who worked very hard are betrayed, like Boxer.


Connection title and theme

There is not really a connection between the title of the story and the theme.

Sort of story

The story is a novel. It's an animal fable.

4 My opinion

I've seen the film adaptation of this book a couple of years ago and now I wanted to read the book. It was a original story.
This book is a political satire, because George Orwell showed clearly that the communism system isn't working. He showed that, whatever may happen, the leaders always want to enrich themselves.

The story is mostly like Soviet Russia  because the animals are comparable with the politicians in Russia. Napoleon with Stalin, Snowball with Trotsky and Old Major with Lenin.

I agree with Orwell, because I also think the communism doesn't work very well, mostly because of the self enrichment of the leaders. Stalin killed a lot of people because he thought he would be better off without them.

I also like the way the story is written. Manor Farm is a farm in England, but that's not important because the farm is like a complete country and you can clearly see the positions of all the animals in that "country". The leaders were bad and the dogs were only soldiers and the chickens were the normal citizens. George Orwell used an omniscient narrator in this story. The narrator knew all the thoughts of all the animals so you are not forced to believe one animals point of view but you can decide for yourself who are good and who are bad animals. When the story starts you can see that the farm won't keep existing in the way it was at the start of the book. That is another benefit of an omniscient narrator; he can look forward so you can imagine what is going to happen in the near future. I think the language was not difficult.  I understood all most every word of it, but it wasn't a difficult story, so that's logical.

Comparing situations

I think that Orwell has compared the real situation in Russia very well with the situation on the farm. It was very clear who "played" who.


I've also read the book "Rosemary's Baby" (Ira Levin), but that was a whole other situation. That book was more fiction. What happened in Animal Farm could never happen for real, but is a allegory for the situation in Russia. Everything that happened on the farm also happen in Russia. The things that happened in "Rosemary's Baby" where all made up. But I must say I liked both books very much.

5 Expectations

When I chose the book I already knew what it was about because I had seen the movie a couple of years ago. I knew I was going to love it. And I did.

A
B Quotations

1. "All animal are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

2. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

3. "What is going to happen to all that milk?" said someone.
"Jones used sometimes to mix some of it in our mash", said one of the hens.

"Never mind the milk, comrades!" cried Napoleon, placing himself in front of the buckets. "That will be attended to. The harvest is more important. Comrade Snowball will lead the way. I shall follow in a few minutes. Forward, comrades! The hay is waiting."
So the animals trooped down to the hayfield to begin the harvest, and when they came back in the evening it was noticed that the milk had disappeared.

This milk incident was the first sign that something was going on on the farm and that it had something to do with the pigs. This quotation is very typical for the whole book, because constantly things aren't going fair and the pigs always cover up those incidents. The pigs keep on working less and are becoming fatter and fatter, while the other farm animals work harder and become famished.


D

Naam
Adres
Postcode/plaatsnaam
The Netherlands

Mrs. Paper
20th Wordroad
LONDON 1244

3th April 2001

Dear Madam,

Last week I read a very interesting novel, "Animal Farm", written by  George Orwell (Eric Blair). The story describes the history of the Russian Revolution in 1917, but in another time and with other characters. The characters are all animals. While reading the book, I noticed a couple of interesting passages, which I'm going to tell you about.
I think that the most impressive passage from the book the passage were Snowball (a good pig, Trotsky) is being killed by the dogs of Napoleon (a bad pig, Stalin). When I read that, I felt really sorry for Snowball, just like I did when I saw the movie for the first time.
There was another very impressive and touching passage in the book. It was the passage when a couple of men put Boxer (the strongest animal of the farm, a horse), in there truck to kill him; Napoleon sold him for glue. I also felt very sorry reading that passage. I hope I convinced you to read the book, and maybe you can write something about the book in your paper.


Yours sincerely,

naam