What kind of book is Animal Farm?
This book is an unusual
one. It is an animal story written for adults, most of the animals have
many of the characteristics of humans. The most important thing about Animal
Farm is that it is an allegory, an allegory is similar to a fable or a
parable. In that the story has two levels of meaning, this allegory has
to be read and enjoyed for its surface meaning as well as for its more
significant underlying meaning. This is a simple tale of rebellion on a
farm into a complex story with a powerful message.
What is the allegory about?
If it is not just a story
about animals rebelling against the farmer and setting up their own farm,
what is it about? It is about the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the history
of that country in the half century following. It is about political ideals
and what can happen to them. It is about what happens to ordinary people
when other people have power over them. And it is also about what happens
to people when they get complete power over others.
Why did Orwell choose to write about
this subject?
I think that all these
events are clearly important, but why write an allegory about the history
of the Soviet Union? The reason Orwell choose this subject was because
of its importance to all politicians and thinkers, indeed to anyone who
was interesed in what went on in the world.
The Soviet Union was
seen therefore as an example. People who believed in Socialism wanted
to believe that what happened in the SovietUnion was good. People who did
not like the ideas of Socialism wanted to believe that everything that
happened there was bad. Orwell was a Socialist but he was also aware that
what was happening in the Soviet Union was not good. He wanted to make
people aware of this and to shake them out of their rigid ideas. So he
wrote Animal Farm to show that the ideals of the original founders
of the Revolution had been betrayed and that the workers and peasants were
being as cruelly treated by the Communist government as they had been by
the Tsar. In some ways it was worse, because maybe the Communist government
was more efficient and its power reached into every aspect of life.
Other important issues in the Book
Another idea which belongs
very much to the twentieth century is summed up by the word ´totalitariasm´.
It is used to describe a political system where a government has so much
power over its citizens that it can be said to control them totally. Before
this century many rulers may have wished for this kind of power but they
had been unable to achieve it. The technological changes of the twentieth
century have made it easier to acchieve. Efficient communications mean
that all parts of a country can be reached quickly. Radio, TV and newspapers
-controlled by government- can be used by those in power to influence what
people know of what is going on, and therefore what they believe.
Everything, then,
can be quickly controlled by a government. The first signs of this became
apparent in the 1930s, not just in the Soviet Union, but also in Fascist
states such as Italy and Germany. You will be able to think of present-day
examples: even in countries thought of as " free", it is clear that governments
have wider powers than we like to think. Most countries have political
prisioners, that is, people in prison not for doing something criminal,
but sometimes for expresing the "wrong" views.
How far a government
can really achieve total power over people`s thoughts and beliefs is a
much argued point. By the time Animal Farm was written the world
knew about techniques of brainwashing, whereby people were put under psychological
pressure to alter their views until they were in line with what the government
wanted. This is dealt with in detail by Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four
and by Arthur Koestler in his book Darkness at Noon.
People`s minds can
be changed - but it also seems that it is very hard, if not impossible,
to change the thoughts and feelings of whole populations, whole countries.
Is Animal Farm still
relevant?
It is now many years
since the Russin Revolution and even since the publication in 1945 of Animal
Farm. Unfortunately, the issues raised by Orwell are still with us.
Can we rely on political leaders to carry out the ideals with which they
came to power? Will all governments tend to be corrupt? There are two good
questions that I have ask myself. The message seems to be that we have
to be always careful, always vigilant or our freedoms can be stolen by
governments who find it inconvenient to be criticised. Animal Farm also
suggest that we may have to be rather cautious about how far we can expect
any political change to bring a better life.
What did Orwell believe in ?
Orwell was always interested
in politics, though his independent attitude prevented him from joining
any particular party. He believed in a Socialism which should be built
on the triple foundations of liberty, justice and common decency. Many
people who did not know Orwell or who read the book in a shallow way thought
that Orwell was against Socialism - nor even succsessful outcome of any
revolution. He remained uncertain about whether revolutions were bound
to end the same way that the one in Animal Farm had done - betrayed by
its leaders.
He was, then, in favour
of Socialism but perhaps more strongly against tyranny. And when tyranny
took the form of tyrants pretending to be Socialists, he became very angry
indeed.
Finally I want to show
an interesting correlation that I discovered between events in history
and events in the book :
- 1. Karl
Marx writes the Communist Manifiesto ...
Old Major writes his one on the farm
- 2. Russian
Revolution 1917
... Rebellion on the farm
- 3. The
Civil War
... Farm Revolution
- 4. Stalin´s
dictatorship
... Napoleon´s dictatorship
- 5. The
exile of Trotsky
... The exile of Snowball
- 6. Famine
... Napoleon restricts the food
- 7. The
collectivisation of farms
... Each animal works for the others
- 8. Stalin´s
drive to industrialise
... Contacts with the humans
- 9. The
Show Trials
... The Same
- 10.The
Soviet-German Non-Aggressive Pact
... A similar Pact
- 11.The
invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany ...
Invasion of the humans
- 12.The
defeat of Germany
... The defeat
of humans
© Ivan Torrijos Alvarez
Universitat de València Press
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