Analysis of Animal Farm and It's Characters
Animal Farm is an allegorical fable of the workers revolt and the rise to power of the communist party in the former Soviet Union shortly after World War I and in particular the rise to supremacy of Joseph Stalin, as told in the form of a story of the farm animals of Manor Farm who overthrow the drunken farmer Jones and seize control of the farm for themselves. In this allegory, farmer Jones represents the Russian aristocracy and the animals represent the peasants, working class, and some elements of the middle class who revolted against them.
The various animals on the farm were intended by Orwell to represent the various classes and responses of individuals to power. The pigs clearly represent the ruling class and the lust for power, the ones who will go out of their way to get what they want. They also represent the intellectual class, because of their capacity to read and write. First among the pigs is Old Major, the boar who prophesizes the revolution. He is based on the political economist Karl Marx, and, like Marx, dies before the revolution occurs, but whose teachings inspired the revolution. After the revolution, two pigs: Snowball and Napoleon, rise to prominence in the ruling pig class. Snowball was Orwell’s portrayal of the intellectual orator Leon Trotsky, who was outmanoeuvred for the leadership of the Russian communist party after the death of Lenin by Stalin, who is represented in Animal Farm by Napoleon. Snowball, like Trotsky, comes to be portrayed by the ruling forces as an anti-revolutionary figure who they claim to be working behind the scenes to undermine what happens on the farm. Second in the social ladder of Animal Farm are the puppies, taken from their mother at birth and indoctrinated by Napoleon. They signify the elite revolutionary guard, most loyal to the leadership but who also benefit from that loyalty. Further down the ladder is Boxer, the work-horse who is very loyal to authority. The expression "work-horse" refers to a
The various animals on the farm were intended by Orwell to represent the various classes and responses of individuals to power. The pigs clearly represent the ruling class and the lust for power, the ones who will go out of their way to get what they want. They also represent the intellectual class, because of their capacity to read and write. First among the pigs is Old Major, the boar who prophesizes the revolution. He is based on the political economist Karl Marx, and, like Marx, dies before the revolution occurs, but whose teachings inspired the revolution. After the revolution, two pigs: Snowball and Napoleon, rise to prominence in the ruling pig class. Snowball was Orwell’s portrayal of the intellectual orator Leon Trotsky, who was outmanoeuvred for the leadership of the Russian communist party after the death of Lenin by Stalin, who is represented in Animal Farm by Napoleon. Snowball, like Trotsky, comes to be portrayed by the ruling forces as an anti-revolutionary figure who they claim to be working behind the scenes to undermine what happens on the farm. Second in the social ladder of Animal Farm are the puppies, taken from their mother at birth and indoctrinated by Napoleon. They signify the elite revolutionary guard, most loyal to the leadership but who also benefit from that loyalty. Further down the ladder is Boxer, the work-horse who is very loyal to authority. The expression "work-horse" refers to a