Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution
Uploaded by punxtargirl on Feb 12, 2001
George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is a great example of allegory and political satire. The novel was written to criticize totalitarian regimes and particularly Stalin's corrupt rule in Russia. In the first chapter Orwell gives his reasons for writing the story and what he hopes it will accomplish. It also gives reference to the farm and how it relates to the conflicts of the Russian revolution. The characters, settings, and the plot were written to describe the social upheaval during that period of time and also to prove that the good nature of true communism can be turned into something atrocious by an idea as simple as greed. This essay will cover the comparisons between Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution. It will also explain why this novel is a satire and allegory to the Revolution that took place in Russia so long ago.
First and foremost Manor Farm itself represents Russia with its poor conditions and irresponsible leaders. Mr. Jones plays one of those leaders, Nicholas the Second or The Czar as people called him in those days. Mr. Jones beats his animals, forgets to feed them and treats them badly. His actions are portrayals of the actions of The Czar. Old Major is representative of Karl Marx. Marx had a dream of a better Russia and created the doctrine of communism to aid in distribution of wealth, and to bring the people to a place were they would all be equal, but what he didn’t realize was that under the wrong rule the good intentions of communism would become corrupt. Surely if communism and animalism were carried out by the right sorts of people and animals with good and true intentions, their communities would have prospered instead of falling and ultimately being destroyed. He died before getting to see the rise of his creation just as Old Major did.
The rise and fall of Lenin by Stalin is portrayed in Napoleon’s actions toward Snowball. Even though Lenin had some good intentions towards the people of Europe he was still slightly corrupt and susceptible to being overthrown. Stalin took advantage of this. He soon took his position and began his corrupt rule with the people tricked into believing he was a better leader and had the peoples’ issues at heart. After the attack on Jones, (The Czar) Snowball becomes the leader and changes the name of Manor farm to Animal...