Animal farm - Orwell

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

FARM

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ANIMAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

George Orwell

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

INDEX

01

04

07

Introduction

Legacy

Style

02

Music

Plot

05

Themes

Movies

Videogame

03

Characters

06

Symbols

Theatre

Social activism

INTRODUCTION

Published: 17th August 1945, England

Length: 10 chapters

Genre: beast fable

Author: George Orwell

Historical influence: Spanish Civil War

satirical allegorical novella

Literary influences: Aesop

Phaedrus

Swift

PLOT

Published: 17th August 1945, England

Length: 10 chapters

Genre: beast fable

Author: George Orwell

Historical influence: Spanish Civil War

satirical allegorical novella

Literary influences: Aesop

Phaedrus

Swift

PLOT

PLOT

PLOT

Old Major tells the animals of the Manor Farm about a dream he has had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them.

PLOT

PLOT

When he dies, three younger pigs (Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer) formulate his main principles into a philosophy called Animalism and defeat the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle.

PLOT

PLOT

As time passes, Napoleon and Snowball increasingly struggle with each other for power among the other animals. Snowball proposes to build a windmill, but Napoleon solidly opposes the plan.

PLOT

PLOT

At the meeting to vote, nine attack dogs chase Snowball from the farm. Napoleon assumes leadership of Animal Farm and declares that there will be no more meetings.

PLOT

PLOT

Napoleon changes his mind about the windmill and begins to act like a human being. Among the animals, Boxer devotes his efforts to completing it, but after he falls while working, he disappears. Napoleon has sold his most loyal worker to get money for whisky.

PLOT

PLOT

Years pass on Animal Farm, the pigs become like human beings and the seven principles of Animalism become reduced to a single principle reading “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.

CHARACTERS

Snowball

Old Major

Benjamin

Squealer

Napoleon

Muriel

Mr Frederick

Mr Jones

Mr Pilkington

Mr Whymper

Moses

Boxer

Mollie

Clover

OLD MAJOR

The prize-winning boar whose vision of a socialist utopia serves as the inspiration for the Rebellion. Three days after describing the vision and teaching the animals the song “Beasts of England".

All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.

Major dies, leaving Snowball and Napoleon to struggle for control of his legacy.

OLD MAJOR

Marx

Lenin

Orwell based Old Major on both the German political economist Karl Marx and the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilych Lenin.

NAPOLEON

The "large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar” who is “not much of a talker” and has “a reputation for getting his own way”. He seems to be a sincere follower of Old Major’s ideology of Animalism, along with Snowball.

The truest happiness lay in working hard and living frugally

When the revolution is successful, he slyly assumes himself leader of the Farm.

NAPOLEON

He is most directly modeled on the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Napoleon represents the political tyrants that have emerged throughout human history, particularly during the 20th-century.

In his behaviour, one can detect the lying and bullying tactics of totalitarian leaders.

SNOWBALL

He is in contrast with Napoleon for the rule of the Farm. He believes in a continued revolution. Unlike Napoleon, he truly wants the best for animals.

The only good human being is a dead one

He brings literacy to the farm so that the animals can follow the Seven Commandments. When he was turned away from the farm by Napoleon as a scapegoat, all he had done before was the cause of problems for the farm.

SNOWBALL

He symbolised Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Red Army.

Like Trotsky, Snowball helped the working animals to get more free time from work, which they can spend in reading and conversing.

"Jones saw him coming, raised his gun, and fired. The pellets scored bloody streaks along Snowball’s back...”.

SQUEALER

He is Napoleon's second in command and propagandist. Like Snowball, he is clever and a good orator. In addition, he is excellent at persuading other animals.

But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, and then where should we be?

Using his smartness, he propagates Napoleon’s orders and choices and tells lies to support him.

SQUEALER

Orwell has set Squealer’s character in the representation of the "Pravda".

Squealer abuses language to justify Napoleon’s actions and policies to the proletariat by whatever means seem necessary.

Stalin hid behind a wall of propaganda; similarly, in the novel, Napoleon hid behind Squealer.

JONES

Mr. Jones, the owner of the Manor Farm, is modelled after Tsar Nicholas II.

He is represented as an unsympathetic master who makes the animals work but never takes care of their needs.

Like the Tsar, he was outcast by the animals out of the Farm.

FREDERICK

Mr. Frederick, a farmer of a neighbouring farm, is based on Adolf Hitler with his cruelty to his animals, being a metaphor for the Holocaust.

The dynamic between him and Napoleon is similar to that between Hitler and Stalin, who signed a peace pact which was violated when Hitler invaded the URSS.

WHYMPER

Mr Whymper is the solicitor whom Napoleon hires as “an intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world”. He is the first human the pigs come in contact with after the Rebellion.

His character represents the capitalists who got rich doing business with the USSR.

PILKINGTON

Mr Pilkington is pictured as “an easy-going gentleman farmer” who is more interested in doing what he enjoys than in running his farm.

He represents the British ruling class. Animal Farm, thus, suggests that soviet totalitarianism and British capitalism are essentially the same.

BOXER

He is a big and hardworking cart horse but naive and ignorant. He is shown as the farm’s most dedicated and loyal laborer. He was sent to be slaughtered when no longer of use.

I will work harder!

If observed closely, he is the strongest animal and could easily fight off the pigs and dogs, but he never does or thinks so.

BOXER

Boxer represents the peasant workers of Russia, who were exploited by Tsar Nicholas II and led into starvation under the rule of Stalin.

Through Boxer’s death, Orwell relates his idea of the exploitation of the working classes as well as the death of idealism.

STYLE

• The style of Animal Farm is simple and factual.

• The novella’s language is delivered in short sentences.

• The clarity of the novella’s style contrasts with the way Animal Farm’s characters use language to deceive or to distort the truth.

• George Orwell’s novel is based on real-life events.

• In the story it’s noticeable an escalating situation until the climax at the very end.

Language

• It is characteristic of a tale.

• It is written in a childish way with a lot of dialogue, and is mostly in active voice.

• George Orwell uses figurative language and personification is the most prominent stylistic element.

• Despite the tale’s childish appearance, adults are the target audience.

Passive

• The use of the passive voice emphasizes the animals’ helplessness: events occur without any particular animals’ action, creating the impression that things happen without the animals’ consent.

• The passive voice also helps to show the power of rumor and false information in an oppressive society.

• When no one knows exactly who said, did or “noticed” something, it’s easy to modify the story.

Social Sensitivity

• George Orwell doesn’t try to be social sensitive regarding his audience: the book is all about exposure and criticism!

• Social sensitivity helps the reader to connect with the author and his writing, instead Orwell’s criticism places a wall between him and the reader.

Tone

• The tone of Animal Farm is initially playful and lighthearted, but it becomes bitter at the end of the story.

• The tone suggests the reader is embarking on a superficially silly story.

• Orwell anthropomorphizes the animals, giving them human qualities and concerns.

• The progression from playfulness to bitterness warns readers that society can easily collapse into horror.

Point of view

• The story is told from a collective limited third-person point of view known as “village voice.”

• The narrator knows everything the animals do as a group, but does not know what the pigs say and do when they are apart from the other animals.

• The collective point of view shows how easily collective memory can be manipulated and creates deep ironies.

• Animal Farm’s irony serves a direct political purpose. By emphasizing the gap between what the Farm’s inhabitants and the readers see, the book invites readers to look at their own society with outsiders’ eyes.

01

The allegory of the Soviet Union

02

Class stratification

03

A naïve working class

04

Corruption

05

Language as power

THEMES

06

The failure of Intellect

The allegory of the Soviet Union

Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Stalin

Much like the Soviet intelligentsia, the pigs establish themselves as the ruling class in the new society after overthrowing the human oppressor Mr. Jones .

The struggle for preeminence between Trotsky and Stalin emerges in the rivalry between Snowball and Napoleon. In both cases, the idealistic but politically less powerful figure is expelled by the usurper of power.

The allegory of the Soviet Union

The purges and show trials with which Stalin eliminated his enemies find expression in Animal Farm as the false confessions and executions of animals whom Napoleon distrusts.

The novel fictionalizes the historical events that characterized the Stalinist period of the Soviet Union.

The novella critiques the violence of the Stalinist regime

Class stratification

Animal Farm offers commentary on the development of class tyranny and the human tendency to maintain class structures.

The expulsion of Mr. Jones creates a power vacuum, thanks to which the next oppressor assumes totalitarian control.

The natural division between intellectual (pigs) and physical labor (other animals) comes to express itself as a new set of class divisions.

A naïve working class

The story is told from the perspective of the common animals as a whole. This gives a chance to sketch how situations of oppression arise also from the naïveté of the oppressed.

Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability or unwillingness to question authority condemns the working class to suffer the ruling class’s oppression.

When presented with a dilemma, Boxer prefers to repeat to himself “Napoleon is always right.”

Corruption

Animal Farm demonstrates the idea: power always corrupts.

Not only is Napoleon’s rise to power inevitable, but the novella suggests that any other possible ruler would have been just as bad as Napoleon.

Even Old Major is not incorruptible: he lectures the other animals from a raised platform and he seems to have claimed a false brotherhood with the other animals in order to obtain their support.

The allegory of the Soviet Union

One of Orwell’s central concerns is the way in which language can be manipulated as an instrument of control

Right after the rebellion, the pigs turn themselves into an intellectual class referring to themselves as “mindworkers”. It doesn’t take long before the pigs begin to abuse their power.

The pigs gradually twist and distort the rhetoric of the socialist revolution to justify their behavior and to keep the other animals in the dark.

Language as power

By the end of the novel, the main principle of the farm can be openly stated as "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". This abuse of the word “equal” and of the ideal of equality typifies the pigs’ method of oppression.

Other animals’ illiteracy and lack of education are what makes them susceptible to blindly believing misinformation and propaganda.

Animal Farm shows how the extremely uneducated can be manipulated into becoming important tools for spreading propaganda

The failure of Intellect

Animal Farm is deeply skeptical about the value of intellectual activity.

The pigs are identified as the most intelligent animals, but they use their intelligence to manipulate the other animals.

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 novel suggests that intellect is useless—even harmful—when it is combined with a personality that prefers to obey orders rather than question them.

SYMBOLS

THE

BARN

SYMBOLS

The barn at Animal Farm, on whose outside walls the pigs paint the Seven Commandments and their revisions, represents the collective memory of a modern nation. The oppressors, by revising their nation’s conception of its origins and development, gain control of the nation’s very identity.

THE

BARN

THE

WINDMILL

The great windmill symbolizes the pigs’ manipulation of the other animals for their own gain. It also represents the enormous modernisation projects undertaken in Soviet Russia after the Russian Revolution. The collapse of the mill resembles the Reichstag fire in Berlin in 1933.

THE

WINDMILL

THE

FLAG

It is reminiscent of the Soviet flag. The hoof and the horn have a similar shape to that of the hammer and sickle represented in the Communist flag.

THE

FLAG

ANIMAL

FARM

It is an allegory of Russia, which changed its name into USSR. The neighboring farms persist in using the old name, as the Western powers did not initially recognize the new name of the Soviet Union.

ANIMAL

FARM

THE

SONG

Beasts of England has been considered as a reference to the song Internationale, that became a symbol for communists and socialists.

THE

SONG

THE

REBELLION

It symbolises the October Revolution (1917) which resulted in the creation of the USSR.

THE

REBELLION

THE

HENS

The episode of the hens, which initially refuse to deliver their eggs, represents the killing of the Ukrainian kulaki, who opposed the collectivisation.

THE

HENS

THE

BATTLE

The battle of the windmill represents the battle of Stalingrad (1941), in which Stalin defeated Hitler.

THE

BATTLE

THE

DINNER

The dinner with the owners of nearby farms represents the Tehran Conference (1943) in which the three great protagonists of World War II met for the first time.

THE

DINNER

LEGACY

LEGACY

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

Music

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

1977

ANIMALS

by

PINK FLOYD

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

ANIMALS

Pink Floyd's album Animals was partially inspired by Animal Farm. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's Animal Farm. The album cover has an image of Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of 1984. While Animal Farm catalogs the excesses of communism, Animals does the same regarding capitalism.

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

1989

ARTHUR'S FARM

by

HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

Arthur's

FARM

Napoleon very pink offered both of them a drink

And everybody sang as loud as they could: “TWO LEGS BAD BUT FOUR LEGS GOOD”

that ‘Beasts of England’ sound Had been ruined by a busy busy bee

2019

TROUBLE IN TOWN

by

COLDPLAY

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

I GET

TROUBLE

IN

NO PEACE

TOWN

Movies

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

John Halas

Adult animated drama film

Joy Batchelor

ANIMAL FARM

19 54

Alan Janes

Political comedy-drama film

Martyn Burke

ANIMAL FARM

19 99

QUOTES

Lost

Sex and the City

Good Luck Charlie

S3 E14

S4 E9

S1 E13

X-Men

Johnny Bravo

S1 E12

“Aunt Katie's farm”

Sex and the City

S4 E9

“Animal Farm, Four legs good, two legs bad”

Lost

S3 E14

“the pigs are walking!”

Good Luck Charlie

S1 E13

“Charlie is a pig!!”

X-Men

S1 E12

“Look at the title Animal Farm”

Johnny Bravo

“Aunt Katie's farm”

“four legs good, two legs bad”

VIDEOGAME

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

Orwell's

Animal

Farm

Orwell's Animal Farm is a narrative game based on Orwell's novel. Throw out exploitative farmers. Found a new Republic. Guide its leaders.

Nerial

10 dec 2020

Liceo Curie - Tradate

The end

CANALI GIOVANNI

CLERICI LAURA

INTRIERI YADE

PANIGADA GIULIA

RINALDI ILENIA

BERGAMINI IRENE

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

MORE EQUAL

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

The dogs represent the secret police called KGB("Committee for State Security")

The Seven Commandments

The sheep symbolise propaganda as they are responsible for spreading the slogan across the farm. "Four legs good, two legs better"

Russia history compared to Animal Farm

Stalin adopts Trotsky's plan

Pact between Russia and Germany

German invasion of Russia

Lenin's April Theses

Trotsky banished

Russian Civil war

Russian Revolution

1929

1939

1941

1917

Napoleon's alliance with Mr Frederick

Mr Federick destroys the windmill

Rebellion against Jones

Napoleon adopts Snowball's idea

Seven Commandments

Battle of Cowshed

Snowball banished

• Moses, Mr Jones’ special pet, is disliked by others animals because he doesn’t work, but many of them believe his stories.

• Moses represents organized religion, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church.

• He symbolizes how communism exploits religion as something with which to pacify the oppressed.

Arthur Askey and Dougie-Wougie Bader went down to the Animal Farm Dougie bored a boar with his stories from the war And explained about the boil on his palm Napoleon very pink offered both of them a drink And a drink and a drink and a drink Come the hour of four they were legless to be sure And not one of them had even had a wink of sleep And everybody sang as loud as they could: “Two legs bad but four legs good” This made the boys feel pretty oppressed Came the new realm, it was A.A. at the helm While Dougers played ‘Luftwaffe’ on the roofs After amputating limbs all the others wrote new hymns And a signpost read ‘Second-hand hooves’ Years passed by, double grazing in the sty It was good, but it was total apathy Everybody arsed around and that ‘Beasts of England’ sound Had been ruined by a busy busy bee

Lyrics

And chants were heard from the East to the West “Four legs good but no legs best” Invalidity reigned supreme And chants were heard from the East to the West “Four legs good but no legs best” One-time visitors were now the regime

• He is an old and cynical donkey, who remains neutral and survives the revolution.

• He is one of the wisest animals on the farm and is able to "read as well as any pig", but he doesn't use his ability to help others.

Riches more than mind can picture Wheat and barley, oats and hay Clover, beans, and mangold wurzels Shall be ours upon that day Bright will shine the fields of England Purer shall its waters be Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes On the day that sets us free For that day we all must labor Though we die before it break Cows and horses, geese and turkeys All must toil for freedom's sake Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland Beasts of ev'ry land and clime Hearken to my joyful tidings Of the golden future time

Beasts of England

Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland Beasts of ev'ry land and clime Hearken to my joyful tidings Of the golden future time Soon or late the day is coming Tyrant man shall lose his throne And the fruitful fields of England Shall be trod by beasts alone Rings shall vanish from our noses And the harness from our back Bit and spur shall rust forever Cruel whips no more shall crack