Background information for George Orwell's Animal Farm
Animal Farm
is a satirical novella (which can also be understood as a modern fable
or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who
oust the humans from the farm on which they live. They run the farm
themselves, only to have it degenerate into a brutal tyranny of its own.
The book was written during World War II and published in 1945,
although it was not widely successful until the late 1950s.
Animal Farm is a satirical allegory of Soviet
totalitarianism.
Orwell based major events in the book on ones from the Soviet Union
during the Stalin era. Orwell, a democratic socialist, and a member of
the Independent Labour Party for many years, was a critic of Stalin, and
was suspicious of Moscow-directed Stalinism after his experiences in
the
Spanish Civil War.
Characters
The events and characters in
Animal Farm are all carefully
drawn to represent the history of the Soviet Union; Orwell makes this
explicit in the case of Napoleon, whom he directly connects to Stalin
in a letter of 17 March 1945 to the publisher.
- ...when the windmill is blown up, I wrote 'all the animals
including Napoleon flung themselves on their faces." I would like to
alter it to 'all the animals except Napoleon." If that has been printed
it's not worth bothering about, but I just thought the alteration would
be fair to JS [Joseph Stalin], as he did stay in Moscow during the
German advance.
The other characters have their parallels in the real world, but
care should be taken with these comparisons as they do not always match
history exactly and often simply represent generalised concepts.
Pigs
Napoleon is the leader of Animal Farm after the
rebellion. Based on Joseph Stalin, he uses his military/secret police
(of nine attack dogs) to cement his power. Napoleon uses force to drive
out his opponent, Snowball, and instill fear in the other animals. He
takes the role of a dictator over the farm and changes the original
intent of the animal society.
Snowball is a rival of Napoleon who contends for
control of the farm after the rebellion. Inspired by Leon Trotsky,
Snowball is a passionate intellectual and is far more honest about his
motives than Napoleon. However, he is far from perfect and agrees in
the uniting of the apples by the pigs. This suggests that had Snowball
triumphed the outlook for the animals would have been no better under
his leadership than Napoleon's. Snowball wins the loyalty of most of
the animals, but is driven out by Napoleon's attack dogs (Trotsky was
driven into exile in Mexico, where he was assassinated). After his
departure he is used as a scapegoat and blamed for everything that has
gone wrong. Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed.
However, after his departure, Squealer manages to convince the
forgetful animals that Snowball was censured for cowardice. Later on,
he convinces them that Snowball was the leader of the human forces in
the battle.
Squealer serves as Napoleon's public speaker.
Inspired by Vyacheslav Molotov and the Russian paper Pravda, Squealer
twists and abuses the language to excuse, justify, and extol all of
Napoleon's actions. 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 Mr. Jones's return as justification for the pigs'
privileges. "If this doesn't happen Jones will come back etc etc".
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 so they are convinced.
Minimus is a poetical pig who writes a song about
Napoleon, representing admirers of Stalin both inside and outside the
USSR such as Maxim Gorky.
Old Major is based upon both Lenin and Marx — Old
Major is the inspiration which fuels the rest of the book. Though it is
a positive image, Orwell does slip some flaws in Old Major, such as
his admission that he has largely been free of the abuse the rest of
the animals have suffered. As a socialist, Orwell agreed with some of
Karl Marx's politics, and respected Vladimir Lenin. However, the satire
in
Animal Farm is not of Marxism, or Lenin's revolution, but
of the corruption that occurred later. Old Major not only represents
Karl Marx in the allegory, but also the power of speech and how it can
and was used to evoke and inspire people. Old Major also represents the
generation who were not content with the old regime and therefore
inspired the younger generations to rebel against the regime under
which they were living.
Pinkeye is a small piglet who tastes Napoleon's food for poisoning.
Piglets are hinted to be the children of Napoleon
(albeit not truly noted in the novel), and are the first generation of
animals to actually be subjugated to his idea of animal inequality.
Rebel Pigs are pigs who complain about Napoleon's takeover of the farm but are quickly silenced and later executed.
Humans
Mr. Jones is the original owner of Manor Farm. He is
probably based on Czar Nicholas II. There are also several implications
that he represents an incompetent and autocratic capitalist.
Mr. Frederick is the tough owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept neighbouring farm. He represents Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.
Mr. Pilkington is the easy-going but crafty owner of
Foxwood, a neighboring farm. He represents the western powers, such as
Britain and the U.S. 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.
Mr. Whymper is a man hired by Napoleon to represent
Animal Farm in human society. He is loosely based on George Bernard Shaw
who visited the U.S.S.R. in 1931 and praised what he found.
Other animals
Boxer is one of the most popular characters. Boxer
is the tragic avatar of the working class, or proletariat: loyal, kind,
dedicated, and strong. He is not very clever and never progresses
beyond the fourth letter of the alphabet. His major flaw, however, is
his blind trust in the leaders, and his inability to see corruption. He
is used and abused by the pigs more or less in the same manner as he
was by Jones. He fights bravely in the Battle of the Windmill and the
Battle of the Cowshed but is upset when he thinks he has killed a stable
lad. His death serves to show just how far the pigs are willing to go —
when he collapses after overstraining himself, the pigs supposedly
send him to a vet, when in fact he was sent to the knacker's yard to be
slaughtered in exchange for a case of whiskey for the pigs. A strong
and loyal draft horse, Boxer played a huge part in keeping the Farm
together prior to his death. Boxer could also represent a Stakhanovite.
His name is a reference to the Boxer Rebellion. His two mottos "I will
work harder" and "Napoleon is always right" sum up the double side of
his character.
Clover is Boxer's close friend and a draft horse.
She helped and cared for Boxer when he split his hoof. She blames
herself for forgetting the original Seven Commandments when Squealer
revises them. She represents the educated middle class people who
acquiesce to the subversion of principles by the powerful. Clover is
kind and good as is shown when she protects the baby ducklings during
Major's speech. She is also upset when animals are executed by the
dogs.
Mollie is a horse who likes wearing ribbons (which
represent luxury) and being pampered by humans. She represents
upper-class people, the Bourgeoisie who fled from the U.S.S.R. after the
Russian Revolution. Likewise, she quickly leaves for another farm and
is not mentioned for the rest of the story.
Benjamin is a donkey who is cynical about the
revolution — and just about everything else. In general, he represents
the skeptical people in and out of Russia who believed that Communism
would not help the people of Russia. More specifically, he represents
the Jewish population in Russia who were there before the Revolution
and fully expected to be there after the Soviet Union fell (which they
were). "None of you have ever seen a dead donkey" is a nicely
allegorical way of expressing the Jewish community's attitude towards
changes in national politics. His penchant for pessimism and occasional
self-deprecation is also in keeping with Jewish forms of humor. He is
the wisest animal on the farm, and is able to "read as well as any
pig". However, this is an ability he does not exercise until the end of
the book.
Moses is a tame raven who spreads stories of
Sugarcandy Mountain, the "animal heaven." These beliefs are denounced
by the pigs. Moses represents religion (specifically the Russian
Orthodox Church), which has always been in conflict with Communism. It
is interesting to note that, while Moses initially leaves the farm
after the rebellion, he later returns and is supported by the pigs.
This represents the cynical use of religion by the state to
anaesthetise the minds of the masses. Moses also shows some
characteristics of Grigori Rasputin. The acceptance of Moses by the
pigs could be seen to represent Stalin's relaxed attitude towards the
Russian Orthodox Church during WWII, as the Church was a way to raise
funds for the Russian war effort.
Muriel is a goat who reads the edited commandments. She may represent intelligent labour.
Jessie and
Bluebell are two dogs who give birth in
Chapter III. Their puppies are nurtured by Napoleon to inspire fear, representing the formation of the NKVD.
The
Hens represent the Kulaks, landed peasants
persecuted by Stalin. They had refused to give up their eggs, the way
the Kulaks had strongly resisted surrendering their lands in the Soviet
Union of the 1930s. Napoleon promptly starved the hens to death — the
exact same punishment Stalin had inflicted upon the Kulaks.
The
Dogs are Napoleon's secret police and bodyguards (inspired by Cheka, NKVD, OGPU, MVD).
The
Sheep show the dumb animal following of the
proletariat in the midst of the Russian Civil War, and the masses
during Stalin's reign. (“Four legs good, two legs bad!”).
The
Cat shows the unethical, silent rejections of
the new order — unwilling to work, yet encouraging others to do so, and
acting bravely in the face of threats, but disappearing when there is
danger. Some say the cat represents the flaws in Animalism or
Communism.
Significance
The allegory that the book employs allows it to be read on a variety of different levels.
Orwell wrote the book following his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, which are described in another of his books,
Homage to Catalonia.
He intended it to be a strong condemnation of what he saw as the
Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals. For the
preface of a Ukrainian edition he prepared in 1947, Orwell described what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm.
- ..I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge
carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn.
It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength
we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much
the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.
This Ukrainian edition was an early
propaganda
use of the book. It was printed to be distributed among the Soviet
citizens of Ukraine who were just some of the many millions of
displaced persons throughout Europe at the end of the Second World War.
The American occupation forces considered the edition to be propaganda
printed on illegal presses, and handed 1,500 confiscated copies of
Animal Farm
over to the Soviet authorities. The politics in the book also affected
Britain, with Orwell reporting that Ernest Bevin was "terrified" that it
may cause embarrassment if published before the 1945 general election.
In recent years the book has been used to compare new movements that
overthrow heads of a corrupt and undemocratic government or
organization, only to eventually become corrupt and oppressive
themselves as they succumb to the trappings of power and begin using
violent and dictatorial methods to keep it. Such analogies have been
used for many former African colonies such as Zimbabwe and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, whose succeeding African-born rulers were
accused of being as corrupt as, or worse than, the European colonists
they supplanted.
The book also clearly ponders whether a focus of power in one person
is healthy for a society. The book leaves the ending slightly ambiguous
in this regard.
In addition, the book encourages the reader to ponder whether
rebellion will eventually resort to a sort of dictatorship — whether
that particular power in society is merely part of human nature. This
is shown in the way that the pigs, through their own power, lack of
equality, and their domination become indistinguishable from the old
regime in creating layers of power and concentrating power at the top.
