Free Essays - Animal Farm :: Animal Farm

The novel Animal Farm was written in 1945 by author George Orwell. George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, a British writer born in Motihari, India in 1903. After serving in the Indian Imperial Police force, Orwell wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, an account of the conditions faced by the poor in France and England. Next, in 1936, he fought in the Spanish Civil War, which was his source of inspiration for Homage to Catalonia. After his days in service, he devoted his efforts to speaking come out of the closet against the domination of one man over another. This is shown in books such as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.Animal Farm takes place in England, on Manor Farm ( later renamed Animal Farm) in Willingdon. It incorporates all seasons of the year, as it takes place over the course of many years, tracing the lives of all the animals. The point of view in the novel is third person, omniscient.Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution and the cou rse of communism in Russia and the USSR. The many characters in the book symbolize each one person or a group of people. The pigs represent the communist government and are the ones that become corrupt. More specifically, Old Major is Karl Marx, the father of communism, snowball is Vladimir Lenin and Napoleon is Joseph Stalin. The dogs that Napoleon uses as his personal guards symbolize the KGB, the Soviet police force. Most of the other characters like Boxer, Clover, the chickens, Benjamin and others represent the working class that is piecemeal taken advantage of more and more throughout the story. Mr. Jones represents the last Russian Czar, Nicholas II, who is overthrown in the Russian Revolution, his men represent the Red Army and Mollie represents the sympathizers of the experienced government in the USSR.George Orwell sets up the novel by introducing the prize winning boar Old Major and establishing him as the leader of the animals. He then uses to detect the harsh conditi ons that the animals (or Russian labor class) were forced to endure on Manor farm and throughout England. He then tells them how good life would be without humans, which was called in the book animalism (represents communism). Old Major finishes off by teaching the animals a song called Beasts of England which becomes their anthem and remains until outlawed by Napoleon later in the book.