IntroductionOut of the world’s most famous political novels, Animal Farm has to be one of the top twenty. This novel, read by thousands, was written by British author George Orwell who once fought in the Spanish war against the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin. According to Orwell, this book was written with the sole purpose of cautioning those who idealized the russian revolution the true danger that lies behind the surface.
This book is a satire and allegory that transforms reality into story and tells how the animals escaped from their drunk farmer and started their own revolution in the name of Animalism, a system that promotes equality and freedom among animals. It tells how in an equal community, two pigs Napoleon and Snowball fought for leadership and how Napoleon won and executed Snowball, then began Animal Farm’s slow descent into dictatorship. The animals’ gullible personality made it easy for the pigs to take control, and by the end of the novel the pigs have completely abandoned their original ideology, instead violating the exact meaning of Animalism. This book is an attack on how dictatorships seize and control power therefore the events in the book parallel the events in the Russian revolution, with the same characters but using a different name. On this website, I will address five topics which have a connection to the novel - Orwell’s works, The October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin, Stalin, and propaganda. |
Historical characters VS characters in novelOld Major- Vladimir Lenin
Napoleon- Joseph Stalin Snowball- Leon Trotsky Mr Jones- Tsar Nicholas the 2nd HISTORICAL EVENTS VS events IN NOVELOverthrow of Jones- February Revolution
Battle of the cowshed- October Revolution |