Animal Farm Archetypes

In literature, archetypes are devices used by the author in order to portray a deeper meaning though the text. George Orwell utilizes symbols archetypes evidently in order to describe the Russian Revolution in a familiar way. Throughout Orwell’s Animal Farm, there are symbolic archetypes of Light against Darkness along with numerology to illustrate the corruption of Russia’s government at the time.
An important symbol within the novel was the Windmill that Snowball had introduced to the farm. This was an symbol that represented the Light vs. Darkness archetype. Light vs. Darkness suggests there is a conflict between two opposing forces. In this case light would portray intellectual illumination and darkness would be ignorance. At the Sunday

Debate, Snowball had tried to advocate his windmill idea in order to make the farm more productive and easier for everyone. However, Napoleon claimed it was nonsense and that no one should vote for it. Snowball explained how the farm would be with electricity and it seemed like a brilliant idea because everyone will profit from it. Snowball wants to build a windmill, but Napoleon (Stalin) hates the idea so much that he "urinated over the plans and walked out without a word"—and "the whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill" (Orwell 20). This archetype is evident to history because the windmill represented a better government that Trotsky wanted to provide. Napoleon, who represents Stalin, disagreed with Trotsky at some point but had the ability to turn the people on him and give him the power, or in this case, the thought of conducting the windmill. In the end, Light had lost against the Darkness of Napoleon.
Moreover, an additional symbol archetype used was a specific number that has a greater meaning than counting. This symbol is used in literature is a significant number that is brought to the reader’s attention more than a few times. Numerology is the term for having a significant meaning to a number and Orwell accomplished this archetype in Animal Farm. As Snowball was continuing his advocation of his ideas of the windmill at the Meeting on Sunday, Napoleon grew angry towards him. He finally sounded the nine puppies he raised into enormous, vicious dogs. These nine dogs were Napoleon’s security as the story went on. It’s obvious that these nine dogs inflicted fear in all of the animals and it gave Napoleon the upper hand; “[...] with his nine huge dogs frisking round him and uttering growls that sent shivers down all the animals’ spines (Orwell 32)”. In general, the number nine is the largest and last digit correlating “finality” and completeness or even judgment according to the Bible. In many cases, these dogs were the executioners of a plethora of animals on the farm. They represented the end or finality in the lives of these animals and Napoleon was the judge of that.
During Animal Farm, Orwell engages the reader with archetypal symbolism that include Light’s fight with Darkness as well as numerology to display the crookedness of Russia in a certain era. All in all, this novel was successful in translating how deception and demoralization occurred in Russia. At the same time, Orwell’s archetypes had also amplified that it is greater than just a simple farm, but an allegory for something much bigger.