Animal Farm Essay, Research Paper

George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm does an excellent job of drawing

parallels from the situation leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Animal Farm is a satire that uses its characters to symbolize leaders of

the Russian Revolution. The animals of “Manor Farm”, the setting of this

novel, which symbolizes Russia, overthrow their human master after years of

mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work,

only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as

opposed to working for their human master, Farmer Jones. Slowly over time

the pigs gain power and take advantage of the other animals. They gain so

much power that they become just as power hungry and corrupt as their human

master. The theme in the novel being that in every society there are

leaders who will, if given the chance, likely abuse their position.

Old Major is a prize white boar who helps point out to the animals that no

animal in England is free. He continues to tell the animals that the their

labor is stolen by man, who benefits alone. The animals in return get near

nothing, just enough to keep them away from starvation. Old Major gave

many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the future. He is the

main animal who got the rebellion started even though he died before it

actually began. Old Major’s role compares to Lenin and Marx whose ideas

would spark the communist revolution. Lenin became the leader and teacher

of the working class in Russia, and their determination to struggle against

capitalism. Like Old Major, Lenin and Marx wrote essays and gave speeches

to the working class poor. The working class in Russia, as compared with

the barnyard animals in Animal Farm, were a laboring class of people that

received low wages for their work. Old major tells the animals that the

source of the problem is man, they must overthrow man to abolish tyranny

and hunger. Soon Old Major does die, but his words still echo in the

hearts of all the animals. With the leadership of the pigs, the smartest

animals, they repel against the human and gain complete control of the

farm. This would symbolize the Russian Revolution.

Another parallel represented in the book is Farmer Jones. His character

is similar to the politician Czar Nicholas who treated his people similar

to how Farmer Jones treated his animals. The animal rebellion on the farm

was started because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care of the

animals. This made them very angry, fed by the words of Old Major the

animals decided to rebel like the Russians. Czar Nicholas was a very weak

man who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his animals.

The Czar made his working class people very uneasy with the way he used

his authority and preached all the time, and the people suffered and

finally demanded reform by rebelling.

The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character representing Stalin in

Russia. Both were very mean looking, didn’t talk very much but always got

what they wanted through force. In one part of the book Napoleon had the

dogs charge Snowball, another animal, as soon as he thought that the pigs

were becoming corrupt. Stalin became the Soviet Leader after the death of

Lenin. He was underestimated by his opponents who always became his

victims, and he had one of the most ruthless, regimes in history. In was

not till very many years later that the world found out about the many

deaths that Stalin created in Russia during the Revolution.

Another strong parrael would is the character of Snowball with the

Russian leader Trotsky. Snowball was very enthusiastic and was a leader

who organized the defense of the farm. He gave speeches and instructions

but was not very beneficial. All the other animals liked him, but he was

outsmarted by Napoleon. Trotsky and Stalin’s relationship was very much

like Snowball’s and Napoleons. Trotsky organized the Red Army and gave

speeches and everyone in Russia thought he would win power over Stalin.

After Lenin’s death Trotsky lost all his power to Stalin and was expelled

from the communist party.

George Orwell has created a masterpiece which is excellent if it is read

without any prior knowledge to the situation in Russia. However the added

element does wonders for this novel. Orwell is a genius and he has

cleverly hidden the satire in such an excellent way, that everything fits

into the picture like a jigsaw puzzle. I give this book five stars. This

rating is given for many reasons. It is a very easy read and quite

enjoyable to many levels of education.

By: RickyG