animal farm study guide (overview)

7/28/2019 Animal Farm Study Guide (Overview)

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Animal Farm BACKGROUND

Orwells Bomb Animal Farm appeared on the bookstands in August 1945. That isthe same month that the UnitedStates dropped atomic bombs onHiroshima and Nagasaki. No onewould say that the effect of Orwells satire was as profound asthe dawning of the nuclear age.Still, both Animal Farm and the

bomb were aimed, ultimately, attotalitarian dictatorships, andOrwell wrote his book to alertcitizens to the threat posed by suchforms of government.

Orwells Love of AnimalsOrwell had a great love for animals. Hisinterest in furry and feathered beasts beganin his youth and continued throughout hisadult life. In letters he wrote home fromschool, George often inquired about animalsin and around the family home. Friends of Orwell recall how his house in Burma washome to a variety of creatures, includingducks and geese. Critic J. R. Hammond

writes the following in A George Orwell Companion : While living at Wallington hekept goats and hens, and he and his wifeinvented humourous names for them andrelated to each other imaginary stories inwhich farmyard animals had amusingadventures.

Terror and Tyranny in theThird Grade

When he was eight years old, EricBlair (Orwells family name) wassent to St. Cyprians, and English

boarding school. Orwell describesthe experience in an essay titledSuch, Such Were the Joys as

being flung into a world of forceand fraud and secrecy, like agoldfish into a tank full of pike.Separated from his family for thefirst time, the frightened boy wethis bed and was beaten for it. Heended up feeling guilty and outcast.He came away with a hatred of theschools authorities. It is thishatred of force and fraud andall-powerful authorities thatanimates almost all of Orwellswork as a writer. In Animal Farm,the authorities are pigs.

Marxism and CommunismKarl Marx, a German philosopher,developed the ideas that form the

basis of communism. Marx imagineda society in which everyone sharedequally in the societys wealth, thusending poverty. Old Majors dreamin the opening of Animal Farmechoes Marxs vision of a society inwhich the poor do not suffer at thehands of the rich, even though OldMajor is talking about animals andhumans.


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Literary DeviceALLEGORY

An allegory is a narrative in which the characters, their actions, and even thesetting, are contrived by the author to make coherent sense on the literal,or primary, level of signification, and at the same time to signify a second,correlated order of signification. Think of it as a pond, where the surface isone thing we see, but if the light is right (i.e. we use our intellect toilluminate that which might seem impenetrable) we can peer beneath thesurface to see that the author shows us much more. In this way, a simplesurface story represents a more complex story underneath.

There are two main types of allegory: (1) Historical and political allegory, inwhich the characters and actions that are signified literally in their turnrepresent, or allegorize, historical personages and events. Animal Farm isan example of this. (2) The allegory of ideas, in which the literal charactersrepresent concepts and the plot allegorizes an abstract doctrine or thesis.Allegories are written not only to entertain, but also to teach a lesson or moral principle.

Orwell uses his allegory in several ways. Firstly, his animals represent real people in the Russian Revolution, and the story represents and satirizes therevolution and its aftermath. Thus, Napoleon may be recognized as JosephStalin. In a second sense, Orwells allegory also implies that the principlesof all revolutions undergo negative changes once leaders who seek power corrupt the true revolutionary spirit. In this sense, Napoleon may be seen asthe historical Napoleon, who used the nationalistic spirit following theFrench Revolution of 1789 to increase his own power in France. Thirdly,and even more broadly, the allegory of the pigs suggests that there arealways pigs in society who seek power for their own purposes.

George Orwell was deeply concerned with the political and social issues of his time. He was particularly interested in the dictatorships that arose indifferent countries in the 1920s and 1930s: Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in

Nazi Germany, Stalin in Soviet Russia, Francisco Franco in Spain. He knewabout the Spanish case firsthand and wrote directly about how it and other dictatorships oppressed and betrayed the common people. In Animal Farm Orwell found a new way to express his objections.


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Literary DeviceTheme

We can say that theme is the most important idea that comes to the forefrontfrom the reading of a text, whether it is a narrative, a drama, a poem, or evena piece of non-fiction, such as a speech. Of course, several themes are

possible, and these may even be themes that the author has not evenconsidered, particularly when we interpret a text in light of our own presenttimes or context. Understanding theme, however, may well involve

becoming familiar with the authors own historical context.

As a political writer, George Orwell was interested in exposing specific

people, events, and social ills that he found repugnant. In Animal Farm heinvents animal characters and creates a plot that most of his contemporarieswould easily recognize as real figures, groups, or events in the RussianRevolution. At the same time he writes a fable about farm animals in which

pigs, for example, represent the tendency of more capable, powerful, or educated classes to take advantage of poorer and oppressed people. But thepigs in society are not the only targets of his satire. Other animals, such asBoxer and Clover, represent the foolishness and gullibility of some other groups in society. Orwell shows that they, too, have to take responsibilityfor their own exploitation.

Here is a list of some of the major themes in the novel:

Power corrupts those who possess it. Peoples ignorance contributes to their political and social oppression. Revolutions may result in a change of political power, but often most

peoples lives remain much the same. In societies individuals are rarely treated equally. All societies contain individuals who will seize power for their own ends. Those in power will sometimes attempt to revise history to fit their own

political needs. Language enables one to gain power; education is power.


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Characters in the Novel

PLEASE ASSIGN THE CHARACTERS SPECIFIC TRAITS AND GIVE A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THEIR FUNCTION IN THE NOVEL

MR JONES MURIEL

OLD MAJOR MOLLIE

SNOWBALL THE CAT

NAPOLEON MOSES, THE RAVEN

SQUEALER BENJAMIN

THE DOGS BOXER

THE SHEEP CLOVER

FREDERICK PILKINGTON

MR WHYMPER THE CHICKENS

NOW CONNECT THE CHARACTER TO THE APPROPRIATEPERSON OR ENTITY IN THE TIME OF THE RUSSIANREVOLUTION.

WE WILL NOW LOOK AT VARIOUS PLOT EVENTS IN THE NOVELAND SHOW HOW THEY RELATE TO VARIOUS EVENTS DURINGTHE TIME OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.


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Figures of The Russian Revolution

The TsarTsar or Czar was the title used by Russias emperors before therevolution. The word czar comes from the word Caesar, originally ancientRomes Julius Caesar, and then the name used by Roman emperors after him. The first Russian to call himself Tsar was Ivan the Terrible in 1547.The last was Nicholas II (1868-1918), who was overthrown by theBolsheviks in 1917.

Karl MarxMarx is considered one of the most foremost thinkers of economy and

politics and wrote on a wide variety of topics. With his lifelong collaborator Friedrich Engels, he produced The Communist Manifesto, first published onFebruary 21, 1848. After a series of moves, few of them by choice, he livedin London where he wrote, primarily in the reading room of the BritishLibrary, his major work, Das Kapital (Capital: A Critique of PoliticalEconomy).

After studying the philosopher Hegal, Marx developed his own theory of history, which he called historical materialism. It is based on Hegals ideathat history occurs through a dialectic, or a clash of opposing forces. Marxdiffered with Hegals idealistic view of reality, that people live in a world of appearances, and that reality only exists as an ideal. Instead, Marx believedthat the material world was real, and that our ideas of it are consequences,not causes of the world. But it was Engels book, The Conditions of theWorking Class in England, published in 1844, which led Marx to conceiveof the historical dialectic in terms of class conflict, and to see the modernworking class as the most progressive force for revolution.Other people took the ideas of Marx to propose a political and economic

philosophy they dubbed Marxism; Marx himself rejected the label with thefamous words, If this is Marxism, then Im not a Marxist.


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Karl Marx Speaks

The proletarians of the world havenothing to lose but their chains. Theyhave a world to win. WORKINGMEN OF ALL COUNTRIES,UNITE!

The history of all hitherto existingsociety is the history of class

struggles.From each according to his abilities,to each according to his needs.

The theory of Communism may besummed up in the single sentence:Abolition of private property .

Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his

labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others bymeans of such appropriations.

Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class.

Religion is the opiate of the masses. Marx's response, in both the Theses and the Critique, isthat state and religion will both be transcended when a genuine community of social and economic equalsis created and that t he proletariat can break free only by their own self-transforming action. Indeed if theydo not create the revolution for themselves guided, of course, by the philosopher they will not be fitto receive it.

History is not like some individual person, which uses men to achieve itsends. History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.


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Figures of The Russian Revolution

Lenin

The man who actually led theBolsheviks to victory in 1917,founded the Communist party, andestablished the dictatorship that ruledthe new Russia was Vladimir IlyichLenin. Lenin believed that workersand peasants could not bring aboutrevolution on their own. He thoughtthat workers needed to be led by asmall party of professionalrevolutionaries. He used force to takecontrol of the Russian governmentand made himself dictator. To hiscredit, Lenin, who worked withStalin, witnessed Stalins rise to

power and warned against giving himabsolute control, but it was too late.Weakened by a series of strokes,Lenin died in 1924, at which point

Stalin made himself dictator.

The GulagsFrom the beginning, Communist Russias purges led to large-scale arrests.To accommodate so many enemies of the state, a huge system of prisoncamps was built. These were called gulags an abbreviation of theRussian words GLAVNOYE UPRAVLENIYE ISPRAVITELNO TRUDOVYKH LAGEREY (Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps). The word became known in the West when Aleskandr

Solzhenitsyn published The Gulag Archipelago in 1973. In that book,Solzhenitsyn said that between 1928 and 1953, as many as 50 million peopleserved long sentences in the Gulags. Others have estimated that the number from 1936 to 1953 ranged between 6 and 15 million. No one disputes that

both the number and the injustice were enormous.


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The Russian Revolution

Before 1917

Until 1917, Russia was ruled by an Emperor called the Czar. The rulingclass was rich and powerful, but compared with the rest of Europe Russiawas a backward country, most of the population being poor rural peasants.Even when the Czar tried to industrialize the country in the last years of the19 th century, the peasants who moved into the towns found appalling living

conditions, with low wages and not enough to eat. There were someorganized protests against the repressive regime, but most of these were

brutally put down and the leaders imprisoned. The Czar tried a fewexperiments in democracy, notably a Russian parliament called the Duma,

but they did little to ease the poverty.

When Russia entered the First World War in 1914 the Czars positionseemed reasonably secure, but then followed a series of defeats, which,

coupled with dreadful lack of organization, meant that by 1917 Russia wasin a state of collapse. In the early weeks of 1917 many soldiers began todesert, and in February there were major demonstrations in the capital,Petrograd, against the conduct of the war. Nicholas II, the Czar, realized hehad little support and gave up power.


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The Russian Revolution Page 2

1917 RevolutionFor eight months there was a period of uncertainty, and with a ProvisionalGovernment tried to fight the war and hold the country together. Finally, inOctober 1917, Lenin, who led the Bolshevik party, decided the time wasright to seize power in the name of the workers. Street fighting continuedfor ten days, and ended with the Bolsheviks capturing the Winter Palace, andholding a meeting there. In 1905, the Palace had been the scene of brutalrepression when hundreds of people holding a peaceful demonstration had

been killed by the Czars soldiers. In entering it, the Bolsheviks made a powerful symbolic gesture.

Lenin Takes ControlLenin proclaimed the first socialiststate in which all workers could havea say in the running of the country.Many of his ideas came from KarlMarx, the German economist, whosemajor work Das Kapital proposed asociety in which all people would be

free and equal. Marx died in 1883and never saw the revolution he hadinspired. Lenin had worked towardsthis revolution for many years, and aneffective part of his agitation had beenthe use of simple but effective slogansto help people understand the aims of the revolution. But when he and theBolsheviks gained power they facedenormous problems.

The combination of years of inefficient government by the Czar, and theeffects of the First World War, meant that the economy had collapsed, therewas little food, and there were huge outbreaks of typhus and influenza.From 1918 to 1921 a civil war ensued, and many foreign countries, alarmedthat their own workers might take over in the same way, sent troops to fightagainst the Bolsheviks.


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After three years of bitter fighting, the Bolsheviks gained control of Russia,

though the country was still very weak. In 1924 Lenin died, and therefollowed a struggle for power between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky.

Joseph StalinStalin was a silent and cunning man,who was General Secretary of theCommunist (previously Bolshevik)

party. He posed as a moderate man,carrying out Lenins policies. He wasnot interested in spreading revolutionabroad, and his main aim was to buildup Russia as a strong country Socialism in One Country.

Trotsky, a brilliant speaker who had been in charge of the Red Army duringthe Civil War, wanted to see the revolution spread throughout the world Permanent Revolution. Both men had their supporters within the party,and for a period of two years there was much discussion within the party

about the direction the newly formed Soviet Union should take.

Stalin Takes ControlBy 1926 Stalin was able to discredit Trotsky. He was deported and, in 1929,

permanently exiled. From this time onwards, whenever Stalin met with problems inside the country he blamed the difficulties on Trotsky, who heclaimed was working with foreign powers against the Soviet Union. By1928 Stalin was virtual ruler of the Soviet Union, certainly a contradiction tomany Soviet people, who saw their country moving in a very differentdirection from what they understood of the ideas of Karl Marx. To theordinary Russian, Stalin seemed more like a Czar than someone trying to

build a new society based on the views of Marx and Lenin. In addition,Stalins own views rapidly changed, often in contradictory ways. In 1921 heopposed Russias rapid industrialization, yet in 1928 he decided to startRussia on her first 5 year plan an attempt to industrialize the countryquickly and at the same time collectivize the peasants, that is to say, putthem to work in


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large state farms. In 1929, Stalin ordered the first Five-Year Plan, decreeing

Soviet agriculture be collectivized by the end of 1933.For individual farmers, it meantturning their land and livestock over to the state and becoming workerson giant collective farms. Reluctantlandowners were accused of beingclass enemies, rich kulaks exploitingthe masses, thus setting the stage for Stalins decree in December, 1929 toliquidate the kulaks as a class.Famine historians estimate 7-10million farmers and family membersdied as victims of starvation, torture,rape and murder. Propaganda posters,such as this one, promoted the ideas,without communicating the truth, thatmany were dying of starvation

because the true production of agriculture was much lower than was

being claimed.

RepressionWhen faced by opposition, Stalin tended to adopt brutal, simple solutions.Those who refused to accept the propaganda delivered by the State wereeither killed or exiled to remote areas. When Kirov, the Leningrad party

boss, was murdered in 1934, it marked the start of a period of show trialsof leading party members who admitted to crimes they almost certainlycould not have carried out. Stalin had them removed because he felt they

posed a threat to his rule. Many millions of ordinary Russians were killed or uprooted and no members of society were beyond the repressive power of Stalin. Out of these purges, and supported by an ever-present campaign of

propaganda, developed the Stalin cult of personality, whereby everyone was Expected to see him as a sort of god-like figure. There was no area of life

beyond Stalins notice, from agriculture to science to the arts, everyone hadto be certain to remain in favour or risk public humiliation, exile, or worse.


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With regard to foreign policy, Stalin realised that a Communist government

was not popular with the governments of other states, and when Hitler cameto power in 1933, fascism became his greatest worry. The Soviet Union joined the League of Nations in 1934 and Stalin tried desperately to findallies against Hitler.

When this seemed impossible, in1939, he actually signed a treaty withHitler. While this Nazi-Soviet pactseemed unbelievable to many in theSoviet Union with the Second WorldWar looming, Stalin needed time to

build up his country to face what wasthe superior military power of Germany.

In 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union and for the next two years theSoviet people had to endure incredible hardship to survive. During this timeStalin rallied the Russian people around himself until this time he hadseriously misread foreign affairs and he now wanted to give the impression

that only his leadership and the sacrifice of the Russian people would resultin victory. From 1941 to 1943 Stalin encouraged his new allies, America,Britain, and France, to start a second front to help ease the situation in theSoviet Union, but because of his previous position help was notforthcoming. "Beloved Stalina fortune of the people!"


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The Rise of the Soviet Union

Even though Stalins economic figures are difficult to believe, and untrue incertain areas, the rise of the Soviet Union as one of the worlds greatestindustrial powers took place in the 1930s and was only robbed of itsmomentum by war. The human sacrifice, however, was very great, and theconsumer benefits virtually nil. Stalin concentrated on building up heavyindustry, and even though there were many mistakes and failures, by 1939Stalin had laid down the pattern for the future.

During the war, the Soviet people often found it difficult to understand theshifting nature of Stalins thinking: enemies of the past became friends,and much of the propaganda of the previous 10 years was largely rewritten.Stalin was able to get away with this because he controlled all aspects of Soviet life, including all of the media sources. Of course, the society thathad been created, with a powerful ruling elite, was far from what people hadenvisaged as expressing the original ideals of Marx and Lenin.


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Propaganda

propaganda (prop-a-gan-da) n. Something written or spoken withthe intention of making people believe what you want them to believe.

Propaganda can take the form of a leaflet, a poster, a slogan, a speech, or a broadcast. Most people immediately think of wars when the word propaganda is mentioned. When wars are being fought it becomes essentialto keep up the spirits and morale of your own side or country and at thesame time persuade the enemy that they are fighting a lost cause without anyhope of victory. The aim of propaganda is to persuade people to acceptcertain beliefs or facts without questioning them. Propaganda may not be

necessarily evil, but one must always scrutinize who is benefiting by havinginformation believed. In addition, one must become aware of the line

between information and misinformation.

Propaganda on Animal FarmOn Animal Farm Squealer is in charge of all of the propaganda for

Napoleon. Every time something happens which makes the animalsquestion the way that the revolution is progressing, Squealer uses his skillwith language to persuade them that everything is as it should be.

In the speech below, Squealer realizes that even the least intelligentanimal would remember that Old Major said Only get rid of man and the

produce of our labour would be our own. Squealers speech is an attemptto justify the pigs action in taking the milk and apples.

Comrades! he cried. You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doingthis in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milkand apples. I dislike them myself. Ur sole object in taking these things is topreserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science,comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of apig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization ofthis farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. Itis for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you knowwhat would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades, cried Squealer almostpleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, surely there is noone among you who wants to see Jones come back? (p 23)

animal farm study guide (overview)

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