Political Allegory of George Orwell's Animal Farm - Essay Example

appears here] appears here] appears here] appears here] Political Allegory of George Orwell's Animal Farm Few books are as well-known as Animal Farm. Published fifty years ago, in August 1945, as the Cold War was about to begin, the novel with its mixture of simple fairy-tale and historical allegory, still has the power to charm and provoke, even though that war now seems to be part of a previous age. The novel, while frequently taught in schools to thirteen and fourteen year olds is rarely to be found in sixth form or university syllabuses. Like the author, the book occupies an ambiguous place in the literary world. Yet its fame amongst the reading and, to an extent, the non-reading public is indisputable; the slogan, 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others', is one that has become part of the language. For Orwell personally, Animal Farm marked his entry into the halls of literary fame. With the first impression of 4,500 copies soon sold out, sales in the UK reached 25,000 within five years, and over half a million in the US within four years. From being a marginal left-wing figure, Orwell became one of the most celebrated writers of the day, with periodic radio and television adaptations of both Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. In 1954, the first animated version of a literary text a cartoon of Animal Farm was made. However, in the last few years of his life, with a newly adopted son to bring up alone after his wife's unexpected death, and with his tuberculosis becoming increasingly serious, the success of what Orwell called his 'little squib' may have been some small comfort. Animal Farm is easily the most famous work of political allegory ever written. The animals take over the running of a farm, and everything is wonderful for a while until the pigs get out of hand. It is a brilliant description of what happens when the revolution goes astray. Allegory is hard to do gracefully, but Orwell manages it superbly: while true appreciation of Animal Farm requires an understanding of the history of the Russian revolution, those without it will still get the point. And Animal Farm can even be appreciated as a story by children with no understanding of the political message at all. http://dannyreviews.com/h/Animal_Farm.html Animal Farm succeeds as a brilliant realization of the beast fable genre. Since this work is longer than the typical fable and since it treats major events over a period of years, it can be termed a beast epic. In this fable Orwell, as he intended, fused the artistic and political purposes of the work, each enhancing the other. It succeeds, moreover, because of the importance of the political purpose itself: its message has apparently struck a responsive chord in its millions of readers. Animal Farm is a fable about rulers and the ruled, oppressors and the oppressed, and an idea betrayed. The particular meaning given will depend partly on the political beliefs- "political" in the deepest sense of the word. The book is there to be enjoyed about how human beings can best live together in this world. The novel, Animal Farm by George Orwell, successfully combines the characteristics of three literary forms- the fable, the satire and the allegory. Animal Farm could be called "A Fairy Story" because people think of the fairy story as the escapist form of literature par excellence. Animal Farm has sometimes been read as a fable against socialism. The animals are meant to represent certain types of human beings, not complex individuals. Using animals as types is also Orwell's way of keeping his hatred and anger against exploiters under control. Each animal character is a type with one human trait, or two at most traits usually associated with that particular kind of animal. www.wowessays.com/dbase/aa5/mts95.shtml Orwell was very clear about his intentions in writing the book. During the Spanish Civil War, he had seen the effects of the repressions and deceptions of Stalinism at first hand. He wished to open people's eyes to the reality of the Soviet regime 'in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone', even when that regime had become an ally to Britain and the USA in the fight against German fascism. Such an exposure was essential, Orwell believed, if a true and democratic form of socialism was to be created. Working in London, first as a BBC journalist, and then as the literary editor of Tribune, Animal Farm was written whilst the bombs dropped; one bomb even damaged the manuscript when it fell on the street where Orwell and his wife lived. Certainly the process by which the book saw the light of day was a tortuous one, with publisher after publisher finding reasons for refusing or delaying publication. For Gollancz, who had first option, and Faber, in the person of T. S. Eliot, the novel was too much of an attack on Russia, which had suffered so hugely at Stalingrad. Cape first consulted the Ministry of Information, who were concerned that the Russian leaders would take offence at their depiction as pigs, before turning the book down. (Contemporary Review, 1995) At the other end of the spectrum, even the Anarchist, Freedom Press, took exception to the novel. In America, the Dial Press thought it 'impossible to sell animal stories'. When, eventually, Warburg agreed to take the book, publication was delayed for almost a year, until the end of the European War. The question of whether this was due to a shortage of paper the official explanation or to political necessity is still unresolved. From Paris, to which he traveled in February 1945, to report the War for The Observer at closer quarters, Orwell checked the proofs, making one last change. When the Windmill is attacked Napoleon stays standing, instead of dropping to the ground, as a tribute to Stalin's courage in remaining in Moscow during Hitler's advance; even to his enemies Orwell is determined to be fair. Inevitably Animal Farm, when it was finally published, created controversy, although not of the kind originally envisaged. With the end of the struggle against fascism, a new conflict had begun to develop the Cold War. Once effectively banned because of its politics, the book started to become an instrument of propaganda in the West's campaign to claim the moral high ground. Many new translations were produced, some with the assistance of the US State Department, and were circulated in places where Soviet influence prevailed for example, the Ukraine and Korea. In 1947 the 'Voice of America' broadcast a radio version to Eastern Europe. The success of the novel in propaganda terms may be gauged by the Soviets' fear and loathing of the book, expressed by the seizure of copies in Germany, as well as by the cancellation of proposed radio dramatizations in Czechoslovakia. This occurred just before Soviet crackdowns in 1948 and again in 1968 on regimes which seemed to be dangerously libertarian. Whilst Orwell was happy to see his book used to attack the Soviet myth, he did become increasingly worried about the way it was being used by the Right as a means of demonstrating that all revolutionary change was bound to fail. Picking out as central the moment when the pigs keep apples and milk for themselves, he makes the point that if 'the other animals had had the sense to put their foot down then it would have been all right'. Major's dream could have been realized. The masses should be 'alert', ready to 'chuck out their leaders as soon as they have done their job'. This is rather a different message than that found in the anti-Communist propaganda which so frequently surrounded, and surrounds, the novel. On the surface, the fable seems fairly simple to comprehend. It tells the story of a revolution by farm animals against a cruel master, a revolution eventually corrupted by greed, selfishness, and the lust for power. This revolution and its aftermath are quite pointedly modeled on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent developments in the Soviet Union up until the mid-forties when Orwell was writing. A long list of correspondences between events in the Soviet Union and events in Animal Farm can be made. The Stalin-Trotsky rivalry, leading to the expulsion of Trotsky and Stalin's consolidation of power, is paralleled by the rivalry between the two leading figures of the animals' revolution, Napoleon and Snowball. Snowball, the Trotsky figure, is, like the historical Trotsky, a military leader and a better speaker and theoretician than his rival, Napoleon, who wins through a keener understanding of the nature of power and through sheer ruthlessness. Napoleon has been considered a mixture of Lenin and Stalin. As the one who sequesters puppies and trains them to become a fierce political police force loyal to him, Napoleon may recall Lenin, who formed the Cheka in 1917; but as the satire progresses, Stalin emerges as Orwell's clear target. The rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union under Stalin's prodding is represented by the superhuman or should we say super animal efforts of the farm's residents to build a windmill, which is eventually supposed to increase their standard of living, but which benefits only the pigs. The starvation of the Kulaks who opposed the collectivization of farming has its counterpart in the starvation of the protesting chickens who refused to give up their eggs. The Moscow purge trials are represented by the pitiful confessions and subsequent executions of the animals who opposed Napoleon. The failed pact with Hitler and the disastrous destruction of World War II are reflected in the treachery of neighboring farmer Frederick and the destruction from the Battle of the Windmill. Apart from these detailed correspondences, Orwell's broader satire was, of course, based not specifically on the Russian Revolution, but on any revolution, which could be corrupted by the less desirable aspects of human nature. The theme of Animal Farm is not difficult to understand. Orwell intended to criticize the communist regime he saw sweeping through Russia and spreading to Europe and even the United States. Though he agreed with many Marxist principles, Orwell was unable to accept the communist interpretation of socialism because he saw many similarities between the communist governments and the previous czarist regimes in old Russia. Communism, he thought, was inherently hypocritical. In his self-proclaimed "fairy-story," Orwell uses his allegorical farm to symbolize the communist system. Though the original intention of overthrowing Mr. Jones (who represents the Czars), is not inherently evil in itself, Napoleon's subsequent adoption of nearly all of Mr. Jones' principles and harsh mistreatment of the animals proves to the reader that indeed communism is not equality, but just another form of inequality. The pigs and dogs take most of the power for themselves, thinking that they are the best administrators of government. Eventually the power corrupts them, and they turn on their fellow animals, eliminating competitors through propaganda and bloodshed. This is of course a reference to Stalin, who murdered many of his own people in order to maintain his dictatorship of Russia. (Courtney T. Wemyss, Alexej Ugrinsky, 1987) Thanks in part to Animal Farm; much of the Western world finally realized the danger of communism. Soon a Cold War began between the world's greatest superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States. In the end, America would prove that capitalism and democracy could outlive a system of government-mandated equality. http://www.novelguide.com/animalfarm/themeanalysis.html Animal Farm is the story of a revolution gone sour. Animalism, Communism, and Fascism are all illusions which are used by the pigs as a means of satisfying their greed and lust for power. As Lord Acton wrote: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." So long as the animals cannot remember the past, because it is being continually altered, they will have no control over the present and hence over the future. http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-paf.htm George Orwell, as many readers have done, recognized that the book's great achievement was to 'fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole'. For this reason, fifty years on, in spite of the collapse of the Soviet system, in spite of the dilution of democratic socialism into liberalism, and in spite of the habit of literary critics to favor complex texts for deconstruction, Animal Farm may still be read with pleasure and profit, inside and outside the classroom, as one of the most imaginatively compelling satires on what Orwell called, in another of his fine phrases, the 'gramophone mind'. Bibliography Contemporary Review, 1995. 267:1555 (August) 90-91. Courtney T. Wemyss, Alexej Ugrinsky, 1987. George Orwell; Greenwood Press, pp 120-136 http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-paf.htm www.wowessays.com/dbase/aa5/mts95.shtml http://dannyreviews.com/h/Animal_Farm.html http://www.novelguide.com/animalfarm/themeanalysis.html Read More