An Analysis Of George Orwell's Animal Farm As A Fairy Tale

Animal Farm was categorized as a fairy tale in 1945, but was removed as a fairy tale in 1946. However, I do not believe that Animal Farm was intended to be a fairy tale. There are multiple reasons to why I think Animal Farm was not intended to be thought of as a fairy tale. A fairy tale is usually a light-hearted story involving unrealistic beings or magic. They typically have a hero and a villain along with a message or moral for the reader. The hero usually does something to overcome the villain or someone gives “gifts” to help the hero defeat evil. Let me explain why I don’t consider Animal Farm a fairy tale.

To start off, the whole book seemed to be dreary and not light-hearted whatsoever. Old Major dies three nights later, after giving his speech about taking over the farm. The animals instantly turned to the pigs because they were the cleverest of all the animals. Though the animals do chase Mr. Jones out of the Manor Farm, they ended up in a worse situation than they started in. Napoleon ended up taking over as the commander. All of the animals followed him without realizing that he was being an overall unfair and unjust leader. The animals didn’t even doubt that Napoleon and the pigs were violating laws. And Squealer, being the persuasive pig, was able to make the animals think they

were being treated fairly.

Besides the talking animals, there was no magic included in the story. “Magic should always play a part in a fairy tale, whether it be pixie dust, a magic wand or any other form of magic you want to include.” (Conventions of Fairy Tales) Professor Bill Gray says “With a bit of supernatural help, maybe in the form of a talking fox or fairy god mother you can get by.” ("An Introduction to Fairy Tales - the Origins, the Characters and Its Enduring Popularity.") There was no magical fairy to help any of the animals on the farm and there wasn’t a gift to help the hero. Throughout the story, the reader’s prediction of the story changes and soon enough most realize that there will be no miracle to save the hard working animals on the farm and will be dissatisfied with how the story ends. Boxer didn’t get a happy ending, Napoleon didn’t receive the punishment he deserved for his actions, and Snowball never returned to save all of the animals on the farm.

I do not think that there was a hero in this book. Though, if I had to pick an animal to be the hero, I would choose Boxer. Boxer ended up getting sent to the glue factory by Napoleon, which I considered the villain. Napoleon would be the villain because he was basically the one in charge and he chased Snowball away and was the reason for Boxer’s death. In a fairy tale, the hero beats the villain. In this case, Boxer (the hero) ended up being defeated by Napoleon (the villain). Also, the hero usually gets rewarded for their good doings. Boxer got sold away to a glue factory as his reward. There was no magical character to help Boxer out. He worked long and hard to build the first windmill then right after had to start building the second one.

So the real question is, why did George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) name Animal Farm a fairy tale if it was never intended to be one?

Perhaps he labeled it as a fairy tale so it would get published. What better way to publish a book during a difficult time than to label it something that sounded childish and entertaining? Most of Propp’s functions didn’t really apply to Animal Farm like “victory”("Propp's Functions of Folk Tales.") In Animal Farm’s case, the hero doesn’t beat the villain. I think that the book is more of a fable than a fairy tale. In conclusion, with the information in this essay, I do not believe that Animal Farm is or was meant to be a fairy

tale.