animal farm themes and context Flashcards
how does The Societal Tendency Toward Class Stratification get shown in animal farm
Animal Farm offers commentary on the development of class tyranny and the human tendency to maintain and re-establish class structures even in societies that allegedly stand for total equality. The novella illustrates how classes that are initially unified in the face of a common enemy, as the animals are against the humans, may become internally divided when that enemy is eliminated. The expulsion of Mr. Jones creates a power vacuum, and it is only so long before the next oppressor assumes totalitarian control.
The natural division between intellectual and physical labor quickly comes to express itself as a new set of class divisions, with the “brainworkers” (as the pigs claim to be) using their superior intelligence to manipulate society to their own benefit. Orwell never clarifies in Animal Farm whether this negative state of affairs constitutes an inherent aspect of society or merely an outcome contingent on the integrity of a society’s intelligentsia. In either case, the novella points to the force of this tendency toward class stratification in many communities and the threat that it poses to democracy and freedom.
How is The Danger of a Naïve Working Class shown in animal farm
One of the novella’s most impressive accomplishments is its portrayal not just of the figures in power but also of the oppressed people themselves. Animal Farm is not told from the perspective of any particular character, though occasionally it does slip into Clover’s consciousness. Rather, the story is told from the perspective of the common animals as a whole. Gullible, loyal, and hardworking, these animals give Orwell a chance to sketch how situations of oppression arise not only from the motives and tactics of the oppressors but also from the naïveté of the oppressed, who are not necessarily in a position to be better educated or informed. When presented with a dilemma, Boxer prefers not to puzzle out the implications of various possible actions but instead to repeat to himself, “Napoleon is always right.” Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the full extent of the ruling class’s oppression.
how is The Abuse of Language as Instrumental to the Abuse of Power shown in animal farm
The Abuse of Language as Instrumental to the Abuse of Power
One of Orwell’s central concerns, both in Animal Farm and in 1984, is the way in which language can be manipulated as an instrument of control. In Animal Farm, the pigs gradually twist and distort a rhetoric of socialist revolution to justify their behaviour and to keep the other animals in the dark. The animals heartily embrace Major’s visionary ideal of socialism, but after Major dies, the pigs gradually twist the meaning of his words. As a result, the other animals seem unable to oppose the pigs without also opposing the ideals of the Rebellion.
By the end of the novella, after Squealer’s repeated reconfigurations of the Seven Commandments in order to decriminalize the pigs’ treacheries, the main principle of the farm can be openly stated as “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This outrageous abuse of the word “equal” and of the ideal of equality in general typifies the pigs’ method, which becomes increasingly audacious as the novel progresses. Orwell’s sophisticated exposure of this abuse of language remains one of the most compelling and enduring features of Animal Farm, worthy of close study even after we have decoded its allegorical characters and events
how is Corruption shown in animal farm
Animal Farm demonstrates the idea that power always corrupts. The novella’s heavy use of foreshadowing, especially in the opening chapter, creates the sense that the events of the story are unavoidable. Not only is Napoleon’s rise to power inevitable, the novella strongly suggests that any other possible ruler would have been just as bad as Napoleon. Although Napoleon is more power-hungry than Snowball, plenty of evidence exists to suggest that Snowball would have been just as corrupt a ruler. Before his expulsion, Snowball goes along with the pigs’ theft of milk and apples, and the disastrous windmill is his idea. Even Old Major is not incorruptible. Despite his belief that “all animals are equal,” (Chapter 1) he lectures the other animals from a raised platform, suggesting he may actually view himself as above the other animals on the farm. In the novel’s final image the pigs become indistinguishable from human farmers, which hammers home the idea that power inevitably has the same effect on anyone who wields it.
how is The Failure of Intellect shown in animal farm
Animal Farm is deeply skeptical about the value of intellectual activity. The pigs are identified as the most intelligent animals, but their intelligence rarely produces anything of value. Instead, the pigs use their intelligence to manipulate and abuse the other animals. The novella identifies several other ways in which intelligence fails to be useful or good. Benjamin is literate, but he refuses to read, suggesting that intelligence is worthless without the moral sense to engage in politics and the courage to act. The dogs are nearly as literate as the pigs, but they are “not interested in reading anything except the Seven Commandments” (Chapter 3). The dogs’ use of their intelligence suggests that intellect is useless—even harmful—when it is combined with a personality that prefers to obey orders rather than question them.
how is The Exploitation of Animals by Humans in animal farm shown
As well as being an allegory of the ways human exploit and oppress one another, Animal Farm also makes a more literal argument: humans exploit and oppress animals. While the animals’ rebellion is mostly comic in tone, it ends on a serious and touching note, when the animals “wipe out the last traces of Jones’s hated reign. The harness-room at the end of the stables was broken open; the bits, the nose-rings, the dog-chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones had been used to castrate the pigs and lambs, were all flung down the well” (Chapter 2).
The novella also suggests that there is a real connection, as well as an allegorical one, between the exploitation of animals and the exploitation of human workers. Mr. Pilkington jokes to Napoleon: “If you have your lower animals to contend with […] we have our lower classes!” (Chapter 10). From the point of view of the ruling class, animals and workers are the same.
what are the main themes in animal farm
equality
inequality
work
leadership
corruption
power
education
control
religion
propaganda
class/hierarchy
deception
violence
who was George Orwell
George Orwell was a life-long socialist. This means that he would have agreed with the socialist ideas which Old Major presents in Chapter One of the novel. He would have disagreed with the capitalist approach of Jones.
what was on of his views on war/ civil war
Orwell’s socialist ideals led him to fight for the republicans during the Spanish Civil War. However, he became disillusioned after seeing the in-fighting between people who should have been on the same side. We see this in the novel in the disagreements between Snowball and Napoleon.
why might Orwell use a lot of effective propaganda
Between 1941 and 1943 Orwell worked as an Intelligence Officer for the BBC Eastern Service, writing propaganda broadcasts for India. We see this in Squealer and Napoleon’s propaganda.
what was the cult of personality
Stalin uses propaganda to become a powerful dictator. People are encouraged to idolise him; this was called the ‘Cult of Personality’
how does religion in animal farm relate to the Russian revolution
(mosses and his theory of sugar candy mountain)
*Marx thought of religion as a drug that kept workers calm so that capitalists could take advantage of them. The Bolsheviks declared the separation of the church and state for the first time in Russian history in 1917. The Soviets actively persecuted religion and religious authorities. Priests were executed; churches were defiled. When Stalin was attempting to stir patriotic support for the war effort against Germany in 1941, he re-instituted the Church.
Stalin invents a conspiracy against him, and uses it as an excuse to torture and execute his enemies. This involved trails (Moscow and Show) and purges. when is this done in animal farm
Chapter 7 showed Napoleon’s exploitation of the chickens by selling their eggs, which Old Major specifically spoke out against as an act of cruelty by Jones. Napoleon forces confessions from several animals and his dogs purge those who protested by killing them.
