Animal Farm Themes Flashcards
What are the themes
- power
- lies and deciet
- rules and order
- foolishness and folly
- dreams, hopes and plans
- cunning and cleverness
- violence
- pride
- religion
- satire
- tyrants
- role of populace
- religion and tyranny
- false allegiance
Power : leadership and corruption
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The pigs immediately start working their way to the top. Soon they start taking milk and apples for themselves, which soon turns to whiskey and other luxuries
Power:control over the intellectually inferior
The pigs on Animal Farm take control because they are intellectually superior to the rest of the animals. They immediately start abusing this power. On the other hand, the only reason this worked, is because the intellectually inferior animals blindly followed the pigs
Lies and deceit
Animal farm, once taken over by the pigs, is run by lies. By the end of the novel, the truth became so malleable tat the animals cant remember the facts for what they were. In the novel, a lie is something that goes against what the pigs want, and the truth is what is for the pigs.
Rules and order
In the novel, the animals get rid of the old rules they had had under jones, and make new once. They new rules end up being ,manipulated to cause the animals to become more oppressed that under the humans. Instead of perceiving order, the rules are used to deceive and abuse
Foolishness and folly
A lot of the lower-class animals on Animal Farm do not realize what is happening, they don’t recognize their oppression. The pigs are foolish when they get drunk and walk around on two legs
Dreams, hopes and plans
Animal Farm is a criticism of communism and of utopian ideals in general. It criticizes how people are the problem
Cunning and cleverness
The rebellion against man quickly turns sour as the pigs use their intelligence to oppress the other animals, like the animals with strength.
Violence
There is quite a lot of death and violence in Animal Farm. The violent rebellion to the violet battle of the windmill to the violent executions to sending boxer to the glue-factory
Pride
The animals have pride. They take pride in basing together to overthrow their first oppressive leader. Napoleon is smart enough to use this pride to manipulate and convince the animals into believing the whole system isn’t failing.
Religion
Moses plays a large part in this theme as he tells all the animals about sugarcany mountain. His tales of Sugarcandy mountain is the only thing that gets the animals working.
Satire
Animal Farm is a satirical novel in which George Orwell attacks what he saw as some of the prominent follies of his time. The novel satirizes politicians and their ability to manipulate others
Tyrants
In the book, napoleon is presented as a power-hungry individual who masks his actions with the excuse that it was done for the betterment of the farm.
Role of populace
Mollie cares only for herself and material thing and allows napoleon to stay a tyrant. Boxer is a devoted citizen and allows napoleon to stay a tyrant. Benjamin also doesn’t stop the pigs.
False allegiance
People proclaim their allegiance to each other, only to betray their true intentions. Frederick buying wood from napoleon, only for napoleon to find out it was fake money.
