Rhetorical Devices In Animal Farm
Abigael Schneider
English IIII
George Orwell’s Animal Farm Lesson Review:
Writing Activity #1: Review your notes on the questions posed in the ‘before reading’ activity. Use your responses as the basis for writing a short essay in response to the questions below.
a. How is Orwell’s Animal Farm an allegory? Be specific and provide examples from the text to support your statements.
While George Orwell’s Animal Farm is best known as an expertly written allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917 disguised as a humorous story about the Manor Farm it also criticizes both totalitarianism as well as communism as a whole. In Animal Farm, the animals working on Manor Farm have grown tired of working in conditions they deem as unfavorable and …show more content…
Using rhetorical devices made Orwell’s story humorous and much more enjoyable to read. These rhetorical devices utilized by Orwell in Animal Farm include analogy, symbolism, personification, and satire. Of these, Orwell chose to use satire the most. As stated above, from beginning to end Animal Farm is based on the analogy that the Russian Revolution is like beasts taking over a farm and uses symbolism/personification within the characters to support this analogy as well as the allegorical message. The entire novella uses humorous farm animals to symbolize important historical political leaders. Mr. Jones for example represents Czar Nicholas II, while Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky is Snowball. Other factors such as the KGB (secret police) and the Russian Orthodox Church are also represented in Animal Farm with Napoleon’s trained litter of pups and Moses the raven. Using pigs to personify the political leaders and the sheep to represent the masses of “mindless citizens” that ate whatever information was fed to them by superior leaders are important symbols and analogies all in their own. Meaning that, by using a pig to represent Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky we are forced to compare them and downgrade them to filthy farm animals. It also allows people to more easily securitize decisions made by political leaders during the Russian Revolution. Imagining these political leaders as pigs also utilizes satire, which is Orwell’s most powerful rhetorical device for
English IIII
George Orwell’s Animal Farm Lesson Review:
Writing Activity #1: Review your notes on the questions posed in the ‘before reading’ activity. Use your responses as the basis for writing a short essay in response to the questions below.
a. How is Orwell’s Animal Farm an allegory? Be specific and provide examples from the text to support your statements.
While George Orwell’s Animal Farm is best known as an expertly written allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917 disguised as a humorous story about the Manor Farm it also criticizes both totalitarianism as well as communism as a whole. In Animal Farm, the animals working on Manor Farm have grown tired of working in conditions they deem as unfavorable and …show more content…
Using rhetorical devices made Orwell’s story humorous and much more enjoyable to read. These rhetorical devices utilized by Orwell in Animal Farm include analogy, symbolism, personification, and satire. Of these, Orwell chose to use satire the most. As stated above, from beginning to end Animal Farm is based on the analogy that the Russian Revolution is like beasts taking over a farm and uses symbolism/personification within the characters to support this analogy as well as the allegorical message. The entire novella uses humorous farm animals to symbolize important historical political leaders. Mr. Jones for example represents Czar Nicholas II, while Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky is Snowball. Other factors such as the KGB (secret police) and the Russian Orthodox Church are also represented in Animal Farm with Napoleon’s trained litter of pups and Moses the raven. Using pigs to personify the political leaders and the sheep to represent the masses of “mindless citizens” that ate whatever information was fed to them by superior leaders are important symbols and analogies all in their own. Meaning that, by using a pig to represent Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky we are forced to compare them and downgrade them to filthy farm animals. It also allows people to more easily securitize decisions made by political leaders during the Russian Revolution. Imagining these political leaders as pigs also utilizes satire, which is Orwell’s most powerful rhetorical device for