George Orwell's novel Animal Farm does an excellent job of drawing

parallels from the Russian Revolution of 1917. Animal Farm is a satire that uses its characters to symbolize leaders of the Russian Revolution. The animals of Manor Farm, the setting of this novel, which symbolizes Russia, overthrow their master after years of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for their human master, Farmer Jones. Slowly over time the pigs gain power and take advantage of the other animals. They gain so much power that they become just as power hungry and corrupt as their human master. The theme of the novel is "Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts completely." This is a good theme for the novel Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution because it proves that even the ones you think you can trust are corrupted by the power they possess.

Old Major is a boar who helps point out to the animals that no animal in England is free. He continues to tell the animals that everything they produce is stolen by man, who does not produce but only consumes. The animals in

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." (ch. X, Animal Farm) "None of you has ever seen a dead donkey."

Another item that is similar in both Animal Farm and Russia are the dogs and the KGB. Napoleon trained his dogs when they were puppies to guard him and to obey his every command. They chased Snowball away much like how Stalin exiled Trotsky out of USSR and was later killed by a Stalinist agent. Stalin trained his secret police to do his bidding whenever he issued an order. This parallels to when Napoleon kills animals for doing nothing but are forced to admit to breaking one of the seven commandments. "Trotsky and the "man of steel," Stalin jockeyed for power."(Russian Rev., members.aol.com)

is similar to the Czar Nicholas II who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his animals and was "a poor leader at best, compared to western kings"(Animal Farm,www.globalserve.net). The animal rebellion on the farm was started because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care of the

In conclusion George Orwell excellently portrayed the Russian Revolution by using animals and symbolism to get his point across. I believe the novel had two major points. The first being communism doesn't work, and the second being power corrupts but absolute power corrupts completely. I found it amusing how George compared Russian politicians to pigs.

Another parallel represented in the book is Farmer Jones. His character

return get near nothing, just enough to keep them away from starvation. Old Major gave many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started even though he died before it actually began. Old Major's role compares to Karl Marx whose ideas sparked the communist revolution. Like Old Major, Marx wrote essays and gave speeches to the working class poor. Th

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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)