ORWELL, George (1903-50).

As a journalist and writer of autobiographical narratives, George Orwell was outstanding. But he will be remembered primarily for two works of fiction that have become 20th-century classics: 'Animal Farm', published in 1944, and 'Nineteen Eighty-four' (l949).

George Orwell is a pen name. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair, and he was born in 1903 at Montihari in Bengal, India, where his father was a minor British official. His family had social status but little money, a fact that influenced Orwell's later attitude toward the English class system and the empire's treatment of its subject peoples. In about 1911 the family returned to England. Blair was sent to school in Sussex, where he was distinguished both by his poverty and his intelligence. He later wrote of his miserable school years in 'Such, Such Were the Joys' (1953). He attended Eton in the years 1917 to 1921 but decided against going on to a university. Instead he went to Burma (now Myanmar) as a member of the British imperial police.

His own poverty, plus his growing aversion to Britain's imperial policies, led him to resign from the government in 1928 and spend several years among the poor and outcast of Europe and among the unemployed miners in the north of England. These experiences were recounted in 'Down and Out in Paris and London' (1933) and 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937). Then Orwell went to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War. His experiences in Spain were described in 'Homage to Catalonia' (1938), one of his best books.

During World War II Orwell wrote for the British Broadcasting Company and worked as a literary editor for the London Tribune. The success of 'Animal Farm' in 1944 allowed him to devote himself to writing. He bought a house on the island of Jura, where he wrote 'Nineteen Eighty-four'. By the time it was published, Orwell was already ill from the tuberculosis from which he died on Jan. 21, 1950, in London.

Orwell's reputation as a writer rests largely on his novels, but his gifts are not those of a novelist, and, if the novel had not happened to be the prevailing literary form during the twenty years when he was writing, he would probably never have little understanding of human relationships; his sympathy was with humanity in general rather than with individual human beings.

His gifts were an inspired wary refusal to be taken in by attitudes and catchwords; the courage of the lonely man who is not afraid of being lonely and has learned, in his loneliness, o regard himself with some detachment. These, however, would have made Orwell no more than an unusual citizen in the tradition of English individuality, a tradition which, happily, still survives despite the pressure exerted by both the main political parties - a pressure toward convention and conformity from the Right, and pressure toward levelling that these gifts in his case were supported by a talent for writing nervous, flexible, and lucid prose: so deeply indeed was writing a part of Orwell's nature that qualities are manifest in his work which did not reveal themselves in his life.

All Orwell's novels are masterpieces. But they include all solitary characters, each in one way or another an expression of Orwell's himself, seen against backgrounds that are taken from his own experience.

11

Other Books by Orwell

Orwell experiences in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma were reflected in his first novel Burmese Days (1934); he resigned to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man’s dominion over man; as he later put it, and returned to Europe where he worked in Paris and London in a series of ill-paid jobs in a state of ‘fairly severe poverty’, struggling with rejection of his work. His second novel, A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), describes the adventures of Dorothy, who through loss of memory briefly escapes from her narrow spinster’s life to join the tramps an hop-pickers; in style it somewhat uneasily mixes realism with Joycean experiment. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), which he wrote while working in a Hampstead bookshop, recounts the literary aspirations, financial humiliations, and shotgun wedding of Gordon Constook, bookseller’s assistant.

In 1938 it was published Homage to Catalonia. He also wrote Coming up for Air in 1939, which deals with suburban frustration and Georgian nostalgia in the person of insurance man George Bowling. Orwell also wrote some essays: Inside the Whale (1940), Critical Essays (1946), Shooting an Elephant (1950).

But his most popular works were undoubtedly his political satires: Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949).

A.- Introduction
B.- The Real Spanish Civil War: My criticism
C.- Spanish Civil War: A historical reference
D.- Some criticism

It is Homage to Catalonia (1938) one of his novels, where Orwell is the main character. It is his experience living a war, together with his deep sense of reality. It is his concentration on the present, the belief that historic moment is now, led Orwell - backed by his uncommon courage - to do at any point in life the thing that seemed to him most important. If fear of poverty is the enemy, the thing to do is to face it, reducing oneself to the lowest state. If on the Spanish Civil War hangs the hope of human freedom, then the inevitable step is to take part: the fact that one may be an incompetent soldier, and then one will certainly come under the suspicion of authority for the rest of one's life for having done so, can be neither here nor there. It is also the poverty, cold and hungry, soldiers had to overcome what made the Spanish Civil War an unuseful one.

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"The Real Spanish Civil War"

Homage to Catalonia was published in 1938. It is written in past, and it is near to what Orwell, the writer, lived the previous year in Spain.
Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. As his father, he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. It was then when Orwell learnt discipline and everything he had to know about being at an Army. He was a teacher, and contributed reviews and articles to a number of periodicals.

Orwell’s ideas and beliefs made him to come to Spain in order to write about the Civil War and defend the democracy. But before he came to Spain , he had already experienced poverty, shyness, satisfaction, and everything you can imagine about a person who was a great thinker. A depression was covering the European continent and the early triumphs of Fascism, together with all the people who followed this idea, were enjoying the first victories …

It was in 1937 when Orwell, who was a revolutionary romantic, decided to live by himself all the events that Spain was supporting in order to write about it. He had read newspapers and chronicles about what was happening in this country, Spain; maybe it was his enthusiasm , and his spiritual need for patriotism and military virtues what made that this fantastic writer could came and write a book which reflects the cruelty and the realistic war that we, young people, are not able to see through the eyes of history books , because they are just historical events.

Orwell could experienced during his short living in Spain (6 months) the little revolutionary acts which did that a Civil War broke out throughout 3 years.

In Spain, around 1936, the initial plan of the ‘nationalists’ was to occupy Madrid in order to finishing the war quickly. But the idea of revolutionaries which Orwell defend to, was the contrary. Orwell came to fight , go to war, and live all revolutionary acts.

" Above all there was a belief in the revolution, and the future,a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom "

He begins his book describing a man, an Italian man, to whom Orwell sees as the typical ‘friend’ that comes to Spain in order to quarrel against anybody, doesn’t matter who it is, and defend his friends above all. You can see the happiness he feels reading his first lines. And also you are supposed to interpret that Orwell’s political ideas are in favour of anarquysts, because he talks about Italian’s political idea with an idealistic way:

"It was the face of a man would commit murder and throw away his life for a friend, the kind of face you would expect in an Anarchist, though as likely as not he was a Communist" (page 1)

Barcelona, when he came, was plenty of different military groups, there was a lot of flags of each one . The city showed a different perspective from England, he describes it as ‘something startling and overwhelming’:

As he suggests, at first everything had a good image. Everyone were workers, and the smell of a revolution was spreading through the environment. Any way, Orwell seems not to be talking about a war, but it was. He extols that kind of heroism taking a mediocre poet of middle-age to a poet who learns to love and defends his beliefs with such a courage and sentimental value that you become surprised. Intellectual writers of this period are worried about the proletarian feelings and Orwell not only reflected it with his words, but also with the act of fighting against what he considered it was against his convictions.

When Orwell came to Spain it was in order to write about Spanish Civil War, but as I have said, his impetuosity made him to become a soldier. He tells his first days here with certain humour, but always with a special and unique way of looking the war. Even he jokes about what was thought relating to his nationality ! :

"As an Englishman I was something of a curiosity …" (page 9)

But not only jokes about his nationality, but also about the topics he could observe about Spanish people which, in my humble opinion, are still remaining in our culture:

"The answer was always a harassed smile and a promise that there should be machine gun instruction mañana" (page 9)

After being a few days in Barcelona, he was sent to the Aragon front . At first he was quite excited, but when he was in trench warfare during some days he realised that all the enthusiastic ideas that he had about a war were the wrong ones:

"Now that that I had seen the front I was profoundly disgusted. They called this war ! " (page 21)

What you feel when you read everything about soldiers had to support, you see that the worst things they could live were the fact you were waiting at the trenches where an enemy could come and kill you, and even more, that you were suffering from the misery which there was invading our country. In his words you can observe the deep sense of all the horrible things they had to overcome: misery, hunger, cold, and even the bites of all kind of insects:

I think, it’s natural that Orwell was a man who wanted to fight, and that he was a revolutionary communist at first, it was the most convincing idea that foreign observers had about Spanish Civil War, because of his simple common sense. His idea was a particular one, he wanted to defend democracy against the fascists. Maybe, after when the war will be finished, he could think about political and social problems (he was anarchist) . Although, later Orwell realised that the war or revolution wasn’t anything, because Spanish people didn’t fight and die for a future democracy, and that the war was mainly a political one. We can think that his idea was too much idealistic, but Orwell with his simple way of thinking and telling events saw it as the right way of looking at a war.

Consequently he felt a little bit sad about this, but anyway he went on with the war:

"I suppose there is no one who spent more than a few weeks in Spain without being in some degree disillusioned "

During the time he was in the Aragon front he felt that the Civil War was just a "joke". There wasn't any clear idea about which was the political party they belonged to. He says that they were fighting against something but he didn't know against what. In Spain, the Civil War, was plenty of political parties, and everyone had a different aspect from one to another. And their error was this. They didn't realise that they (anarchists, communists, etc.) should have been together in order to defeat fascists.

"Politically conscious people were far more aware of the internecine struggle between Anarchist and Communistthan of the fight against Franco". (p.91)

And maybe when the war will be finished they could decide which was the right solution to bringing up the country. Orwell begins to doubt about the seriousness of the war.:

"They thought they were Anarchists, but were not quite certain; perhaps they were Communists." (page 80)

Besides this, Orwell, together with thousand of soldiers, as I have remarked before, were suffering from a lack of weapons , hygiene, and everything a human being needs to survive in these moments.:

"...the mosquitoes (just beginning to be active) and the rats, which were a public nuisance and would even devour leather belts and cartridge pouches". (p.81)

"There are rats, rats, Rats as big as cats, In the ... " (p.85)

After being four months at the trenches without having any kind of intervention he began to change his ideas as I predicted in the beginning of the paper. His thoughts were changing and his depressed feelings began to emerge:

"Those first three or four months that I spent in the line were less futile than I then thought. They formed a kind of interregnum in my life, quite different from anything that had gone before and perhaps from anything that is to come,and they taught me things that I could no have learned in any other way". (p.82)

After five months in the Aragon front he got a leave. He came back to Barcelona, but it wasn't the revolutionary city it was at first. He wanted to change of political movement, serve the anarchists, and go to the Madrid front, but his health was weak and he decided to wait.:

"As far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists". (p.96)

After eight days it spreaded out a rebellion in Barcelona, it was the first of May. His happiness was clear.:

"They were exchanging shots with someone in a tall octagonal tower - a church, I think - that commanded the side-street. I thoughtinstantly: 'It's started!' " (page 101)

Anyway, the third of May, anarchists, trotskists and POUM who had been storing armaments during some time went out and occupied the Telephone Exchange. During 4 or 5 days the Ramblas were plenty of different movements which were fighting one's against others, but actually nobody knew what was happening.

The Popular Front was getting more and more victories, and meanwhile these little political groups fought against 'themselves' and giving more possibilities to the fascists who were taking places steadily. The Ramblas were empty of people; Assault Guards had seized buildings and were controlling everything. And Political Groups were protecting themselves against attacks and trying to keep safety measures of their political buildings. Orwell was hidden in a hotel during these days. The Assault Guards had achieved the victory and the feeling of people was ...:

It was the Valencian Assault Guards who were everywhere walking the streets like conquerors. Consequently, now all the communists were in trouble.

All the members of POUM were accused of fascists and Orwell was surprised when this new arrived to his knowledge:

Meanwhile, the jails were packed of innocent people, and numerous foreigners with doubtful political records were on the run, in constant fear of denunciation. And Orwell was included in this list. He could not understand how it could be possible. He didn’t look at himself as a murderer, but Spanish people, in his point of view, are always taking profit of the rest of men. And I think it’s what always people do. It’s amazing when you hear a foreigner man talking about it and even more how fantastic is his way of doing it.

At that time, Orwell was called to return to the Front. The Caballero Government fell and was replaced by a more Right-wing Government with a stronger Communist influence. But international prestige of Fascism was getting power. The present Government was anxious and suspicious about letting anyone out of Spain. Because it could be contradicted the 'official version' of the war. So the frontiers and everywhere was strictly controlled.

Orwell thought that the war was a waste of time, Fascists only let fly at them with a rifle-grenade from time to time and it was quite absurd. He was fighting against something he didn’t believe in. In Spain, most of people were suffering from the consequences of a war, and losing a lot of money while people were dying without getting any benefit. And a lot of families were broken, and lost the majority of their properties. You know, it’s so ridiculous that, after knowing about the real Spanish Civil War, I can not believe it yet.

Anyway, going back to the events Orwell wrote, I should say that relating to the period he was at the Aragon front, Orwell says that it was a waste of time. Although what marks an important point about his Spanish experience is when he was hurt. It was one day at five o'clock in the morning when in the changing of the Guard, Orwell received a shoot. A ballet went through his neck and it made him to think about the senseless of the war. His thought was for his wife and also for a violent resentment of having to leave the world without having done everything he had to accomplish.

He is a human being and it is demonstrated when you read that a man, who is in the throes of death, tries to think about the things he loves, feels, and has to carry out before dying. He just wants to what everyone wants: to live. It is amazing when you go through his beautiful and simple words and look a man shocked not only for his physical pain but also for the possible loss of his life, how expressive he is when he writes it. he explains it with a deep feeling:

"Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the centre of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and blindingflash of light all round me, and I felt a tremendous shock -no pain,only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal;with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shrivelled up to nothing". (page 137)

After that he was sent to Lérida to a hospital where after a few days he was able to get up and walk. Being there, he heard that men in his ward were being sent to Barcelona and he sent a letter to his wife telling her about everything had happened to him. He went from Lérida to the Hospital of Tarragona where he stayed during four days. There’s not so much events to talk about these days. He just spent a few quiet time trying to think about all the events had been occurred during his Spanish experiences. But always he does it wonderfully. You assume that a man who had the luck of living is now reorganising his life. The only sequelae of his illness was that for about two months he could not speak much above a whisper.

After this, he came back to Barcelona but the enjoying feeling that at first was around the city now it was finished, he saw that in Barcelona there was … :

"an atmosphere of suspicion, fear, uncertainty, and veiled hatred. The may fighting had left ineradicable after-effects behind it".(page 148)

And the dangerous environment of the POUM party had been broken out. The jails were still crammed with prisoners left over from the May fighting, and others, but now the situation was worse than before. Definitely, the war was a disaster, a senseless war :

"The POUM’s been suppressed. They’ve seized all the buildings. Practically everyone’s in prison. And they say they’re shooting people already". (page 159)

Government declared the POUM was an illegal organisation and each member was being looked for because they were supposed to be ‘Fascists’". It is incredible, you see what he had to overcome, he was innocent, and you feel impotent by the fact he just defended his ideas and you can do nothing. He was a foreigner volunteer, no more than that and he was considered ‘rubbish’.
When he arrived to the hotel where his wife took refuge, she tried to explain him about the situation.:

"My wife began telling me what had happened to our various friends.Some of the English and other foreigners had got across the frontier." (p.163)

His wife had an important role in this period. Women had to live hard times because men were in trench and they had to get money in order to eat and, summarising, to live. And Orwell’s wife was one of them. She is named sometimes, and you see the typical wife who cares about his husband and suffers from everything also. After knowing he was being looked for by the ‘police’, he and his wife decided :

Orwell had been wasting a lot of time in Spain. He had come to enjoy the war and he had now to go away for not being jailed. He was disillusioned about what Spain had offered him, because it was not what he expected from Spanish Civil War. And the war had given him horrible impressions of Spanish habits and culture.

He could get a letter of the British Consulate, and after being hidden a few days he could cross the frontier.:

Going out of Spain, now he looked it with other eyes. It was incredible. There was a war and out of the country you didn’t realise about it.

Homage to Catalonia should be considered one of the best historical books that Spain has in his history. Anyone can collect some events and put them together in order to relate them. But if it is told by a person who lived it, you should believe in as if it was the Bible. I mean, it is a real fact, it is something that we can not have any experience. We are told by our grandparents, or parents that we have a lot of things and we don’t appreciate them, and it is certain. They had to live a period of poverty, hunger, and a lack of everything. Now we have everything we want, and we don’t realise it. Orwell, with his practical language, tried to show us how it was. It is his simple way of doing it what makes this masterpiece one of the best literature books of our century. With my paper I just tried to give a simple interpretation of what was, summarising, The Real Spanish Civil War.

This paper has been based on:

Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia. 1937. London: Penguin Books, 1989.

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Apart from the two world wars, the Spanish Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in the first half of the 20th century. It lasted two years and 254 days from July 17, 1936, until March 28, 1939. During that time about 1 million people perished. Of those million, approximately 600,000 were battle-related deaths more than in the American Civil War, which lasted longer.

The conflict in Spain has been called a dress rehearsal for World War II. Germany and Italy both sent weapons, and some troops, to aid the Spanish Nationalists under Francisco Franco's leadership. The Spanish Republicans received extensive aid from the Soviet Union. Both sides, but especially the Republicans, were assisted by foreign nationals who volunteered to fight in a group called the International Brigades. Many of these volunteers were motivated by hatred for fascism, as exemplified in the governments of Germany and Italy, as well as by an idealistic admiration for communism. Volunteers from the United States made up the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Between World War I and 1936, Spain had become almost ungovernable. There were so many factions and divisions in the country that no political party could cater to all of them. Besides the numerous political parties, ranging from the Communists on the left to the Fascists on the right, there were organizations of workers that wanted to overthrow the government and establish a new economy under the control of the workers. There was a very strong pro-Catholic party facing powerful elements who wanted to destroy the church. Regional and ethnic loyalties especially among the Basques and the Catalans urged a large degree of independence.

In April 1931, faced with the possibility of civil war, King Alfonso XIII left Spain for exile. His reign was succeeded by the Second Republic, which went from crisis to crisis for five years. In February 1936 a Popular Front government came to power. It consisted of a group of parties that had banded together to ensure a victory for the left. The government received support from Communists, anarchists, and syndicalists (labor union members who wanted to overthrow the capitalist system and replace it with a workers' economy). With the Popular Front in place, violence erupted throughout Spain. There were 113 general and 218 partial strikes. Arsonists set fire to 170 churches, 69 clubs, and ten newspapers.

As with World War I, the spark that ignited the conflict was an assassination. In revenge for the murder of a Communist lieutenant, the former finance minister of Spain, Jose Calvo Sotelo, was arrested and killed on July 13, 1936, by men in officers' uniforms. Four days later an army mutiny, led by Franco, broke out in Spanish Morocco. Within 48 hours army units all over Spain had joined the revolt against political instability and the forces of the left.

Garrisons throughout Spain revolted. In the south, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Cadiz immediately fell to rebel hands. In the north all of Galicia, most of Leon, and part of Asturias came to the army's, or Nationalist, side. The failure of the rebels to take Madrid and Barcelona, the principal cities, prolonged the conflict.

The Nationalists, with the army on their side, were well armed and trained. The Popular Front (Republicans) were forced to rely mostly on untrained volunteers and on arms that the syndicalist unions had been storing for their own use. Before the end of the first month, however, foreign intervention had already started. Franco's forces received troops, technicians, and large supplies of weapons from Italy and Germany.

The Republicans sought and received funding and weapons from the Soviet Union and Mexico. Volunteers from many nations began arriving to form the International Brigades. The Western powers, led by France and Great Britain, voted for neutrality, but intervention by Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union continued to the end of the war.

By August 1936 the Nationalists had united their southern and northern territories by capturing Badajoz. They immediately headed for Madrid, but a short detour to Toledo delayed them. The International Brigades had time to form a defensive position around the capital, and Madrid was forced to undergo a siege lasting 28 months. The government meanwhile moved to Valencia on the east coast.

The Republicans were hampered in their efforts by internal divisions. Fierce differences of opinion raged among them and occasionally led to violence. A small civil war within the overall conflict was caused by a rising of anarcho-syndicalists in Barcelona from May 3 to 10, 1937.

They were subsequently driven from the government. The Communists suppression of dissent in areas they controlled was ruthless especially in Barcelona and resulted in many deaths.

Franco became the undisputed leader of the Nationalists on Oct. 1, 1936. Military activity dragged on slowly through the next winter. Malaga was taken in February 1937. The Basque capital of Bilbao endured a two-month siege until June 19. Santander fell on August 25. After a year of war, Franco's forces controlled 35 of the 50 provincial capitals, and the Republicans were still struggling to put together an army. The last significant military gain for the Republicans was the capture of Teruel in Aragon on Jan. 9, 1938, but they lost the city on February 22.

When spring came, the Nationalists began nearly simultaneous campaigns one into Catalonia to the northeast and the other southward to the Mediterranean. By then the Republicans appeared to be acknowledging defeat. A temporary Nationalist setback revived their hopes, but by the end of the year the Republican army was exhausted, their people suffering starvation, and their territory filling up with more than 3 million refugees from Nationalist areas.

The last offensive started on Dec. 23, 1938. Barcelona fell on Jan. 26, 1939, after a 34-day assault. Soon Franco controlled all of Catalonia, and refugees poured across the border into France. By spring, Republican internal divisions made their cause hopeless. The Nationalists, 200,000 strong, walked unopposed into a starving Madrid on March 28. The next day the Republicans surrendered everywhere. The 36-year rule of Franco had begun (see Franco, Francisco).

The ruthlessness and violence of the Spanish Civil War shocked the rest of the world. The Republicans banned religious services. Churches were burned or desecrated. Thousands of priests, including ten bishops, were murdered, as were many lay Catholics. The Nationalists organized mass executions.

Vividly remembered even today is the Nationalists' bombing of Guernica on April 26, 1937, commemorated in a painting by Pablo Picasso. The war also became a subject of much literature. The most comprehensive one-volume history is 'The Spanish Civil War' by Hugh Thomas (rev. ed. 1977). 'Blood of Spain' by Ronald Fraser (1979) is an excellent oral history. The most moving nonfiction work is George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' (1938). The best-known novel is Ernest Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (1940).

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Orwell's preoccupation with his own experience and his own duty, besides being a source of strength, served also as a limitation since it prevented his enlarging that experience by a sympathetic understanding of others. Raymond Carr gave a good analysis to this book, which is considered as one of the best testimonies of the Spanish Civil War:

Homage to Catalonia is a piece of reporting, but an objective picture of the Spanish Civil War which had no supporters of either side. Those of the Right preferred stories about the desecration of dead bodies; those of the Left demanded a heroic picture of unity and courage. Of the fifteen hundred copies printed, no more than nine hundred had been sold by the time of Orwell's death; and in America the book was not published until 1952. Its reputation has increased so much that is now rightly regarded as one of his finest books.

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linkshomage.htmlinkshomage.htm

© Ana Roig Guijarro.
Universitat de València. Academic Year 1999.
© a.r.e.a. Dr.Vte. Forés López

Nineteen Eighty-four

A.- Introduction
B.- A Brief Annalysis
c.- Criticism

As its title implies, is Orwell's version of the future awaiting mankind. It was published in 1949. His world of 1984 is the wartime world of 1944 in England, but dirtier and more cruel, and with all the endurance and nobility that mankind shows in times of stress mysteriously drained away. Everyone, by 1984, is to be a coward, a spy, and a betrayer. The war of 1984 is fought with the weapons of 1944, rockets and tommy guns; all that has happened is that they are now less effective than they used to be, and the horror that distorts life in the future is merely the horror that hung over existence in the author's lifetime. In this book there's an intention of foretelling the future. Orwell didn't know how wrong was his idea of 1984, although he wrote a good story, with his fantastic way of do it. Hodgart writes, "Nineteen Eighty-Four contains some of the best pages of satire in English fiction since Dickens." ( qtd. in Gross: 141 )

Animal Farm (1945)

A.- What's about Animal Farm
B.- Summary
C.- A Brief Annalysis of the 'characters'
D.- Criticism
E.- Conclusion

A.- What's about Animal Farm
Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and
the Russian revolution. Because in 1945
Russia, was an allied of England Orwell had
a hard time publishing it.

B.- Summary
     The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. The story is told by
 an all-knowing narrator in the third person. The action of this novel starts when the
 oldest pig, Old Major on the farm calls all animals to a secret meeting. He tells all
 the other animals about his dream of a revolution against the cruel Mr. Jones.
 Three days later Major dies, but the speech gave the more intelligent animals a
 new outlook on life. The pigs, who were considered the most intelligent animals,
 instructed the other ones. During the period of preparation two pigs could
 distinguish themselves, Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon is big, and although he
 isn't a good speaker, he could assert himself. Napoleon is a better speaker, he
 has a lot of ideas and he is very vivid. Together with another pig called Squealer,
 who is a very good speaker, they work out the theory of "Animalism". The rebellion
 starts some months later, as one night Mr Jones comes home drunken, and
 forgets to feed the animals. They break out of the barns and run to the house,
 where the food is stored. As Mr Jones recognises this he takes out his shotgun,
 but it is to late for him, all the animals fall over him and drive him off the farm. The
 animals destroy all whips nose rings, reins, and all other instruments that were
 used to suppress them. The same day the animals celebrate their victory with an
 extra ration of food. The pigs have made up the seven commandments, and they
 have written then above the door of the big barn.
 They run thus:
 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings is a friend.
 3. No animal shall wear clothes.
 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
 5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
 6. No animal shall kill another animal.
 7. All animals are equal.
 The animals also agreed that no animal shall ever enter the farmhouse, and that no
 animal shall have contact with humans. This commandments are summarised in
 the simple phrase: "Four legs good, two legs bad". After some time Jones came
 back with some other men from the village to recapture the farm. The animals fight
 brave, and they manage to defend the farm. Snowball and Boxer received medals
 of honour for defending the farm so bravely. Also Napoleon who had not fought at
 all takes a medal. This is the reason that the two pigs, snowball and Napoleon are
 often arguing. As Snowball one day presented his idea to build a windmill, to
 produce electricity to the other animals, Napoleon calls nine strong dogs. The dogs
 drive off Snowball from the farm, and Napoleon explains that Snowball in fact was
 co-operating with Mr Jones. He also explains that Snowball in realty never had a
 medal of honour, that in Snowball was always trying to cover up that he was fighting
 at the side of Mr Jones. The animals then started with the building of the windmill,
 and as time went on the working-time went up, whereas the food ration went down.
 Although the "common" animals had not enough food, the pigs grow fatter and
 fatter. The pigs tell the animals that they need more food, for they are managing the
 whole farm. Again some time later the pigs explain to the other animals that they
 have to trade with the neighbour farms. The common animals are very upset ,
 because after the revolution, there has been a resolution that no animal shall make
 trade with a human. But the pigs ensured that there never has been such a
 resolution, and that this was a evil lye by Snowball. Short after this decision the
 pigs moved to the farm house. The other animals remembered that there was a
 commandment that forbids sleeping in beds, and so they go to the big barn to look
 at the commandments. As they arrive there they can't believe their eyes, the 4th
 commandment has been changed to: "No animal shall sleep in bed with sheets".
 And also the other commandments were changed: "No animal shall kill another
 animal without reason", or "No animal shall drink alcohol in excess". Some months
 there is a heavy storm that destroys the windmill, that is nearly ready. Napoleon
 accuses Snowball of destroying the mill, and he promises a reward to the animal
 who gets Snowball. The rebuilding of the mill takes two years. Again Jones attacks
 the farm, and although the animals defend the farm the windmill is once again
 destroyed. The pigs decide to build the mill again, and they cut down the food
 ration. And some day Boxer breaks down. He is sold to a butcher, whereas
 Napoleon tells the pigs that Boxer was brought to a hospital where he has died.
 Three years later the mill was finally ready. In this time Napoleon deepens the
 relations with the neighbour farm, and one day Napoleon even invites the owners
 of this farm for an inspection. They sit inside the farmhouse and celebrate the
 efficiency of his farm, where the animals work very hard with the minimum of food.
 During this celebration all the other animals have meet at the window of the farm,
 and as they look inside they can't distinguish between man and animal.
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C.- A brief criticism of the characters
The novel Animal Farm is a satire on the Russian revolution, and therefore full
 of symbolism. General Orwell associates certain real characters with the
 characters of the book. Here is a list of the characters and things and their
 meaning:
Mr Jones: the farmer Mr Jones stands for the Russian Tsar Nicolaii the second
 who was forced to abdicate after the successful February-revolution. But Mr Jones
 also somehow stands for the moral decline of men in a capitalist or feudalist type
 of socierty.
 Old Major: Old major on the one hand represents the workers of the Putilow
 factory, who started the February-revolution, and on the other hand Old Major is
 representing the Russian intelligentsia. But it is also possible that Orwell made Old
 Major a symbol for Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who somehow invented the
 communist ideology. Another possibility is that Old Major represents Wladimir
 Iljitsch Lenin, the leader of the October revolution.
 Napoleon: Without doubt Napoleon stands for Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin, one
 of the most cruel dictators in worlds history.
 Squealer: This pig is an excellent speaker. Squealer convinces all animals to
 follow the revolution. The appearance of this pig can be compared with Goebbels,
 the German minister for propaganda.
 Snowball: Snowball is a symbol for Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzky. In the beginning
 Trotzky participated in the revolution, but later was forced to go to the exile.
Boxer & Clover: These three animals are a sing for the Russian working-class,
 which was convinced of the necessity of the Revolution. The Russian working-class
 then has build up the industry, which was forty years behind the western countries.
 Then this class that has done so much for the prosperity of Russia has been
 betrayed by the Communist party, or in this case the pigs. Orwell also shows up
 that the proles are not very intelligent.
 Pigs: Orwell has chosen the pigs to represent the communist Party. Before and
 short after the revolution the acted like being loyal to the working-class, or common
 animals, but later they have became just like, the tsar family. They just exploit the
 working-class, an they live in luxury and abundance.
 Dogs: The dogs were recruited by the pigs to protect their own power and might.
 The dogs were also used to evict and to intimidate political enemies within their
 own rows (for example: Snowball-Trotzky). So one can say that the cruel dogs
 stand for the army and the secret-police.
 Moses: The raven Moses is a symbol for the orthodox church, that was somehow
 an allied of the Russian Tsar. Moses always told stories of the "Sugar Candy
 Mountain" where all dead animals live on. Moses tries to persuade the animals
 that there is no need for revolution.
 Humans: The humans stand for the capitalists, who exploit the weak.
 Rats & Rabbits: The rats and the rabbits, who are regarded as wild animals,
 somehow represent the socialist movement, the so-called "Menscheviki". In the
 very beginning of the book the animals vote if rats and rabbits should be
 comrades.
 Pigeons: The pigeons, who fly out each day to spread out he message of the
 victory, represent the "Communist World Revolution".
Beast of England: Communist Internationale
 Farm buildings: The farm stabnds for the Kremlin. In the early days of the USSR
 there were sightseeing tours trough the Kremlin. Later it became the residence of
 Stalin.
Windmill: The Windmill for example stands for the Russian industry, that
 has been build up by the working-class (Clover...)
 Fredericks: Stands for Hitler. There also has been an arrangement. (allusion to
 Fritz)
 Foxwood: Foxwood farm is representing England.
Pinchfiled: Pinchfiled symbolises Germany.
Destruction of the Windmill: This destruction is a symbol for the failure of the Five
 Year Plan

11

D.- Criticism

It was written in 1945. Animal Farm is the only one of his books that shows not the least sign of having been sweated over, flowing absolutely clear from start to finish, as though the author had needed to do nothing but copy it out. Four publishers refused it on the ground that at the time it was not possible to print a book attacking a military ally. As events turned out, however, the book's appearance could not have been better timed and it was quickly a best-seller; in America its success was even greater than in Britain.

Its plot is about some animals on a farm which are unite against their master. They are successful in getting rid of the tyrant and in managing the practical work of something they had never regarded as a problem: their dealings with each other. Animal Farm is conceived and written in the classic tradition of satire, the tradition of receding planes, which gives it precisely the depth of every reader. T.R. Fivel wrote about this book:

This satire is funny and at the same time it criticise political situation. It is this what makes Animal Farm a book of allegory, which uses metaphors of the present state society and it became as a prophecy, but always with an uncertain condition of the real facts. Matthew Hodgartin his study of this book gives an analysis of the satire genre that Orwell used:

E.- Conclusion

11

linksAnimal.htmlinksAnimal.htm

© Ana Roig Guijarro.
Universitat de València. Academic Year 1999.
© a.r.e.a. Dr.Vte. Forés López

Orwell's works have been studied since he wrote them. Each of his books contains a section of autobiography and we can therefore follow the progress of his life and examine his production as a writer at the same time. Criticism has studied his creations along these years.

'A critic,' Stephen Hazell says, 'if he's good, can offer to show the reader things about novels he might not see for himself. ( qtd. in Hazell: 13 )

We, then, should experience each word that this writer used in order to have the same 'feeling' Orwell's had when he wrote it. Hazell gives an idea about this 'feeling':