[tab name="Plot"]“Animal Farm” is one of George Orwell’s most famous works. The book contains a thinly desguised critique of the Russian Revolution and the development of communism under Joseph Stalin. The book is still widely read today.
“Animal Farm” is an allegory that uses farm animals to represent Stalin’s rise to power in Russia. The animals are a democratic coalition that rises up to overthrow the oppressive farmer, Mr. Jones. Labor is then divided among the various animals and the farm begins to thrive. Soon however, the pigs begin to take over and establish themselves as the rulers.
Orwell believed strongly in socialist ideals. However, based somewhat on these experiences in the Spanish Civil Ware, he believed that the Soviet Union had corrupted these ideals. In “Animal Farm”, the pigs come to represent the Soviet’s intelligentsia, those who corrupted the ideals to their own ends.
As in Stalin’s Soviet Union, “Animal Farm” is replete with show trials and confessions, executions, and expulsions. He shows the violence of Stalin and his cohorts against the very people they rule through the actions of the pig Napoleon who consolidates his own power. Soon the rest of the animals are working like slaves to provide wealth and comfort to Napoleon.
Eventually, Napoleon begins to corrupt and re-write the “Seven Commandments,” under which the revolution was founded, to his own ends. He begins to cut rations and trade with nearby farmers. All seven commandments are replaced by “all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. At the end, Napoleon invites nearby farmers to dinner and, when the other animals peek in the window, they realize they can no longer tell the difference between the pigs and the men.
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Animal Farm Quotes
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Animal Farm Summary
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