Examples Of Satire In Animal Farm

Introduction

Animal Farm, a fable that represents the Russian Revolution and communism, in 1917 shows how people with power can corrupt a whole society. Each character in Animal Farm has the personality of important leaders during the Russian Revolution and Soviet era-Russia. Snowball is Trotsky; Old Major is Lenin; and Napoleon is Stalin. Old Major stated, “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing". Old Major believed all humans preyed on animal labor without giving back, that they were greedy, and self-indulgent. He believed animals should receive full credit for all their labor; Old Major's dreams were a farm where animals ruled and humans are banished. Old Major's vision is an act of communism, but then it was soon corrupted due to the selfishness of the pigs. George Orwell’s Animal Farm was a satirical allegory, presented in the form of a fable, which was to criticize and bring forth a deeper
Satire is a form of irony that mocks and criticizes a topic. In Animal Farm, the topic is the Russian Revolution, and it ridicules Communism and its principles. Satire uses fictional characters to signify and represent real people. Satire also makes the characters seem foolish to exaggerated the real people who are being mocked. In Animal Farm, the characters who are mocked are the “unimportant characters” who only go along with what Squealer says. These “unimportant characters” represent the people of Russia who wanted a revolution but didn’t know what to do after that. They are shown as unintelligent animals who couldn’t even know the alphabet by heart. Squealer was a manipulative pig who was able to convince the animals of blatant lies and misinformation. Squealer was the communist’s source of propaganda to lie to the people. Another character that was made fun of, being Stalin, represented by Napoleon. He was portrayed as a cruel, mean, and a dishonest person who only cared for his own