George Orwell's Animal Farm: The Political Side
In the August 01, 2005 issue of History Today, Robert Pearce cites George Orwell's description of his book Animal Farm, which he was completing in February 1944 (Pearce). Orwell said the book was "a little squib which might amuse you...There's a farm, and the animals get fed up with the way the farmer runs it...so they chuck him out and try to run it for themselves. But they run it just as badly as the farmer and become tyrants like him" (Pearce). Pearce declares that seldom can an author have so misrepresent the passionate intensity invested in his work, or have made a novel seem such a poor publishing proposition (Pearce). In his novel, Animal Farm, Orwell depicts the eternal search for a utopia, and how that search inevitably creates an anti-utopia. Indeed, several publisher did reject the work, however their rejection was not because the book was banal, it was because the "little squib" seemed most certainly an attack on Britain's wartime ally, the Soviet Union, and thus was surely to be political dynamite (Pearce). Yet, Frederic Warburg published it in 1945, against opposition from his sales manager, who could not believe that Russia was not a socialist state, and even against opposition from his wife, who was acutely
One day Squealer appeared, walking on his two hind legs, and then the farmhouse door opened and out came a "long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs," followed by Napoleon, who "carried a whip in his trotter" (Orwell Ch.10). There was deadly silence, until the sheep began to bleat, "Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better" (Orwell Ch.10). The Seven Commandments had been changed to "All Animals are Equal But Some Animals are More Equal than Others" (Orwell Ch.10). As the animals watched Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington play cards, they 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" (Orwell Ch.10). Utopia had never full materialized, and now was simply another version of past reality. Orwell begins his story by describing a prophetic vision, thus introducing the notion that utopians are conceived by visions, that spiritual inspiration that makes all things seem possible (Pearce). He begins, "Word had gone round during the day that old Major, the prize Middle White boar, had had a strange dream on the previous nigh and wished to communicate it to the other animals" (Orwell Ch.1). The animals agreed that as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way, they would meet in the big barn (Orwell Ch.1). Old Major was highly regarded on the farm, thus everyone was more than willing to "lose an hour's sleep in order to hear what he had to say" (Orwell Ch.1). Basically, Orwell introduces Old Major as a bit of a sage, deserving the respect of the others due to his wisdom, thus the reader gets the impression that his words are taken as gospel among the other animals. However, there is no denying that political passion lies at the heart of Animal Farm (Pearce). In 1946, Orwell wrote that when he lacked a political purpose, he produced "lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally" (Pearce). Thus, the purpose of his novel was to expose the "Soviet myth" of utopian propaganda for British readers (Pearce). There are many unmistakable parallels between Russian history and the revolution at Manor Farm (Pearce). Pearce writes, "Old Major represents Marx, Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky, Pilkington is Britain, Frederick Germany, the dogs are the OGPU/NKVD" (Pearce). The cowshed battle represents the Allied invasion of 1918, the battle of the windmill represents the Nazi invasion of 1941, "while the windmill itself represents the Five Year Plans" (Pearce). According to Pearce, there is little reason to believe that Orwell was critical of Old Major's call revolution, or to doubt Orwell's praise of the immediate post-revolution period, when "everyone worked to his capacity," no one stole and the animals were "happy as they had never conceived it possible to be" (Pearce). Pearce notes however, that the key to the success of Animal Farm lies in the fact that it was not just a political novel, that the really important things in Orwell's life were private not political (Pearce
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ch1 Major, Orwell Ch1, Pearce Orwell, Orwell Ch10, Animal Farm, Ch1 Major's, Frederic Warburg, Farm Pearce, Basically Orwell, Orwell Ch2, orwell ch1, orwell ch10, animal farm, orwell ch1 major, ch1 major, legs legs, legs legs legs, pearce orwell, pearce pearce, animals equal, cold war, orwell ch1 animals, hind legs, orwell ch10 animals, nazi invasion 1941,
Approximate Word count = 2107
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
