Toevolution

Animal Farm is an allegorical novel by George Orwell, first published in England on August 17, 1945. The book tells the story of a group of farm animals that rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where animals can be equal, free, and happy. Finally, however, the rebellion is betrayed and the farm ends in a state as bad as before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.

According to Orwell, the fable reflects the events that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then to the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Stalinism led by Moscow, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. He believed that the Soviet Union had become a brutal dictatorship, built on a cult of personality and forced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("a conte satirique contre Staline"), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), he wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in the that he tried, with full awareness of what he was doing, "to merge the political purpose and the artistic purpose into a whole."

The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, but American publishers left the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's life kept it. Other headline variations include subtitles such as "A satire" and "A contemporary satire." Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animal for the French translation, which abbreviates URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. He also played with the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the United Kingdom was in its war alliance with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and the British people and the intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon that Orwell hated. The manuscript was initially rejected by several British and American publishers, including one of Orwell's, Victor Gollancz, who delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it appeared in part because international relations were transformed as the war alliance gave way to the Cold War.

Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005); It also appeared in the number 31 in the List of the best novels of the twentieth-century of the Modern Library. He won a retrospective award from Hugo in 1996 and is included in the Great Books of the Western World selection.

Book Summary

The poor farm Manor Farm, near Willingdon, England, is ripe for the rebellion of its animal population by negligence at the hands of the irresponsible and alcoholic farmer Mr. Jones. One night, the exalted wild boar Old Major organizes a meeting, in which he calls for the overthrow of humans and teaches animals a revolutionary song called "Beasts of England". When Old Major dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, take over and organize a revolt, expelling Mr. Jones from the farm and renaming the "Animal Farm" property. They adopt the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is "All animals are equal." The decree is painted with large letters on one side of the barn. Snowball teaches animals to read and write, while Napoleon educates puppies about the principles of Animalism. The food is plentiful and the farm runs smoothly. Pigs rise to leadership positions and reserve special foods, apparently for their personal health. After a failed attempt by Mr. Jones and his associates to retake the farm (later called "Battle of the Stable"), Snowball announces his plans to modernize the farm by building a windmill. Napoleon argues against this idea and comes up with issues that culminate in the persecution of his dogs by Snowball and he declares himself leader.

Napoleon promulgates changes in the farm's governance structure, replacing meetings with a pig committee that will manage the farm. Through a young pig named Squealer, Napoleon claims the credit for the idea of ​​the windmill, saying that Snowball was really just trying to win animals by his side. Animals work harder with the promise of an easier life with the windmill. When the animals find that the windmill collapsed after a violent storm, Napoleon and Squealer convince the animals that Snowball is trying to sabotage their project, and begin to purge the animal farm that Napoleon accuses of associating with his former rival. When some animals remember the Battle of the stable, Napoleon (who was nowhere during the battle) gradually stains Snowball to the point of saying that he as a collaborator with Mr. Jones, even dismisses the fact that Snowball received an award of courage while falsely representing himself as the main hero of the battle. "Beasts of England" is replaced by a hymn that glorifies Napoleon, who seems to be adopting the lifestyle of a man. Many animals that later claim to be helping Snowball in the plots are executed by Napoleon's dogs, which worries the rest of the animals. Despite their difficulties, the animals are easily placated by Napoleon's response that they are better than they were under Mr. Jones, as well as by the singing of the sheep of "Four good legs, two bad legs."

Mr. Frederick, a neighboring farmer, attacks the farm, using blasting dust to blow up the restored mill. Although animals win the battle, they do so at great cost, since many, including Boxer, the workhorse, are injured. Although he recovers from this, Boxer finally collapses while working at the windmill (at that time he was almost 12 years old). Boxer is taken in a knacker's van, but Squealer quickly assures the animals that the van had been purchased from the knacker by an animal hospital and that the sign of the previous owner had not been repainted. Subsequently, Squealer reports Boxer's death and martyrizes him with a festival the next day. However, the truth is that Napoleon had designed the sale of Boxer for the knacker, allowing Napoleon and his inner circle to acquire money to buy whiskey for them.

Years go by, the windmill is rebuilt and another windmill is built, which makes the farm a good amount of income. However, the ideals discussed by Snowball, including posts with electric lighting, heating, and running water, are forgotten, and Napoleon defends that the happiest animals live simple lives. In addition to Boxer, many of the animals that participated in the rebellion are dead or old. Mr. Jones, who moved after giving up claiming his farm, also died. Pigs begin to resemble humans, as they walk upright, carry whips, drink alcohol and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are summed up in one sentence: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." and the maxim "Four good legs, two bad legs." It changes to "Four legs well, two legs better." Napoleon celebrates a dinner for pigs and local farmers, with whom he celebrates a new alliance. He abolished the practice of revolutionary traditions and restores the name of "The Manor Farm." Men and pigs start playing cards, flatter and praise each other while cheating in the game. Both Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington, one of the farmers, play the Ace of Spades at the same time and both sides start fighting out loud about who cheated first. When outside animals look at pigs and men, they can no longer distinguish between the two.

Book Club Questions

Book Review

Orwell has developed his theme with simplicity, wit, and dryness close to La Fontaine and Gay, and has written in a prose so simple and sober, so admirably proportionate to its purpose, that Animal Farm even seems very credible if we compare it with Voltaire and Swift.

Characters

Pigs

Older Old Man: An old, middle white boar provides the inspiration that fuels the rebellion. It is also called Willingdon Beauty when displayed. It is an allegorical combination of Karl Marx, one of the creators of communism, and Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader of the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet nation, in which he elaborates the principles of the revolution. His publicly displayed skull is reminiscent of Lenin, the whose embalmed body was displayed. At the end of the book, the skull is reburied.
Napoleon - "A rather fierce-looking large Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not very talkative, but with a reputation for getting his way. An allegory of Joseph Stalin, Napoleon is the leader of Animal Farm.
Snowball - Napoleon's rival and the original head of the farm after Jones' overthrow. His life parallels that of Leon Trotsky, but he can also combine elements of Lenin.
Screamer - A small, white, fat pig who serves as Napoleon's second-in-command and minister of propaganda, occupying a position similar to that of Vyacheslav Molotov.
Minimus - A poetic pig who writes the second and third national anthems for Animal Farm after the singing of "Beasts of England" is banned. Rodden compares him to the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.
The piglets: it is hinted that they are the children of Napoleon and are the first generation of animals subjected to his idea of ​​animal inequality.
The Young Pigs: Four pigs who complain about Napoleon's takeover of the farm, but are quickly silenced and then executed, the first animals killed in Napoleon's farm purge. Probably based on the Great Purge by Grigori Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin, and Alexei Rykov.
Pinkeye - A minor pig that is mentioned only once; he is the taste tester who tests Napoleon's food to make sure it is not poisoned, in response to rumors about an assassination attempt on Napoleon.

Humans

Mr. Jones - A heavy drinker who is the original owner of the Manor Farm, a dilapidated farm with laborers who often hang around at work. It is an allegory of Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who abdicated after the February 1917 Revolution and was assassinated, along with the rest of his family, by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. The Animal Revolt after Jones drinks so much you don't care for them.
Mr. Frederick - The tough owner of Pinchfield Farm, a small but well-kept neighboring farm, who briefly joins an alliance with Napoleon. Animal Farm shares the boundaries of the land with Pinchfield on one side and Foxwood on the other, making Animal Farm a "buffer zone" between the two disputed farmers. The animals at Animal Farm are terrified of Frederick, as rumors abound that he abuses his animals and entertains himself with cockfighting (a likely allegory of Adolf Hitler's human rights abuses). Napoleon teams up with Frederick to sell the scrap wood that Pilkington was also looking for but is enraged to learn that Frederick paid him with fake money. Shortly after the scam, Frederick and his men invade Animal Farm, killing many animals and destroying the windmill. The brief alliance and subsequent invasion may allude to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Operation Barbarossa.
Mr. Pilkington - The quiet but cunning and well-to-do owner of Foxwood Farm, a large overgrown neighboring farm. Pilkington is richer than Frederick and owns more land, but his farm needs care unlike Frederick's farm, which is smaller but more efficiently managed. Although on bad terms with Frederick, Pilkington is also concerned about the animal revolution that deposed Jones and worries that this could happen to him as well.
Mr. Whymper: a man hired by Napoleon to act as a liaison between Animal Farm and human society. At first, he is used to acquiring basic necessities that cannot be produced on the farm, such as dog biscuits and paraffin wax, but later he acquires luxuries like alcohol for pigs.

Equines

Boxer - A loyal, kind, dedicated, extremely strong, hardworking, and respectable carriage horse, though quite naive and gullible. Boxer does a large part of the physical work on the farm. He is shown to hold the belief that "Napoleon is always right". At one point, he had challenged Squealer's statement that Snowball was always against the welfare of the farm, earning him an attack from Napoleon's dogs. But Boxer's immense strength repels the attack, worrying the pigs that his authority may be challenged. Boxer has been compared to Alexey Stakhanov, a diligent and enthusiastic role model of the Stakhanovite movement. He has been described as "faithful and strong"; He believes that any problem can be solved if he works harder. When Boxer is injured, Napoleon sells him to a local assassin to buy a whiskey, and Squealer gives a moving account, faking Boxer's death.
Mollie - A self-centered, indulgent, and vain young white mare who quickly leaves for another farm after the revolution, in a similar way to those who left Russia after the fall of the Tsar. She only mentions it to him again once.
Clover - A kind and loving mare, who cares especially for Boxer, who often tries too hard. Clover can read all the letters of the alphabet, but cannot "put words together." She seems to pick up on the cunning plans and tricks laid out by Napoleon and Squealer.
Benjamin: a donkey, one of the oldest and wisest animals on the farm and one of the few who can read correctly. He is skeptical, temperamental, and cynical: the most frequent observation of him is: "Life will go on, as usual, that is, badly." Scholar Morris Dickstein has suggested that there is "a touch of Orwell himself in this creature's timeless skepticism" and, indeed, his friends named Orwell "Donkey George," "after his growling donkey Benjamin, at Animal Farm. ".

Other animals

Muriel - A wise old goat who is friends with all the animals on the farm. Like Benjamin, Muriel is one of the few farm animals who are not a pig but can read.
The Cubs: Descendants of Jessie and Bluebell, the cubs were born at birth by Napoleon and raised by him to serve as his powerful security force.
Moses - The Raven, "Mr. Jones's special pet, was a spy and a gossip, but he was also a clever talker." Initially following Mrs. Jones into exile, he reappears several years later and reprises his role of speaking but not working. He gifts the people of Animal Farm with stories of a wonderful place beyond the clouds called "Sugarcandy Mountain, that happy country where we poor animals will rest forever from our work." Orwell portrays established religion as "the black raven of priestly art: promise cake in heaven when you die and faithfully serve whoever is in power." His preaching to the animals encourages them, and Napoleon allows Moses to reside on the farm "with a serving of beer a day," similar to how Stalin brought back the Russian Orthodox Church during World War II.
The Sheep - They show a limited understanding of animalism and the political atmosphere of the farm, yet they are the voice of blind conformity as he bleats his support for Napoleon's ideals with jingles during his speeches and meetings with Snowball. His constant bleating of "four good legs, two bad legs" was used as a device to drown out any opposition or alternative views of Snowball, just as Stalin used hysterical crowds to drown Trotsky. Towards the last section of the book, Squealer (the propagandist) trains the sheep to modify his motto to "four legs good, two legs better," which they do diligently.
Chickens - Chickens are promised at the beginning of the revolution that they will keep their eggs, which were stolen from them under Mr. Jones. However, their eggs are soon taken from them under the premise of buying products from outside Animal Farm. Chickens are among the first to rebel, albeit unsuccessfully, against Napoleon.
Cows: Cows are lured into the revolution with promises that their milk will not be stolen, but that they can use it to raise their own calves. Then the pigs steal their milk, which they learn to milk them. Milk is mixed into the pigs' puree every day, while the other animals are denied such luxuries.
The Cat-Never was seen to do any work, the cat is absent for long periods and is forgiven because his excuses are so convincing and he "purred so fondly that it was impossible not to believe his good intentions." She has no interest in farm politics, and the only time it is recorded that she participated in an election, she was found that she actually "voted on both sides".

About The Author:

Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903 - January 21, 1950), better known by his pseudonym George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and the open support of democratic socialism. Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction, and controversial journalism. He is best known for the allegorical novel Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), which documents his experience of working-class life in northern England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Civil War Spanish, are widely acclaimed, as are their essays on politics, literature, language, and culture. In 2008, The Times placed him second in a list of "The 50 best British writers since 1945". Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the Orwellian term - descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices - has entered the language with many of its neologisms, including Big Brother, Thought Police, Room 101, memory hole, newspeak, doublethink, proles, unperson, and thoughtcrime.

Buy From Amazon