Animal Farm Rhetorical Analysis

Orwell's Animal Farm is a novel written and consequently used to show the weaknesses of Communism. Orwell speaks about tyranny, and all the side effects that this type of dictatorship evolves. He was worried about repression of the human rights and the injustice of the rulers. As an allegorical tale it shows the dangers of tyranny, using the story of Napoleon, Snowball, and Boxer as a form of rhetoric. What is the meaning of those two words? On one hand, allegoric is a figurative representation conveying a meaning other than the literal. It can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. It can be a poem, tale, or story written to teach a moral or reveal a hidden meaning.

On the other hand, rhetoric means

the use of language to persuade an audience of a belief or point of view.

George Orwell wrote this novel in 1945.

Animal Farm is the story of an animal revolution of the residents in Manor Farm. As a fact, the pig, Old Major, decides and motivates the other animals to change their “miserable, laborious, and short” lives. They dethrone Mr. Jones, their master, and put themselves in charge of the administration and direction of the farm. As he is a cruel human leader the animals decide to stop his mandatory, but thinking of a better way to live they took bad decisions and fall under the rule of a more tyrannical leader, Pig Napoleon. Napoleon and his committee of pigs constitute a dictatorship system that has to be obeyed by the animals on the farm to feel freedom from cruel leaderships like Mr. Jones'. Absurdly, Napoleon handles the laws to his benefit forcing the animals to work until their deaths, being more dictator than Mr.

Jones.

Consequently, instead of living under the shade of their human master, the animals of Manor Farm decide that to take control of the job, working for the best of the farm and each animal part of it. This is an allegory of the Russian Revolution in 1917, where there was an economic breakdown, and a deep regret of the dictatorial system of government. People were tired of the war and wanted this tyranny to reach the end. Furthermore, liberals and moderate socialists were fighting to get the power, but their wrong policies led to the Communist Bolsheviks to the victory. Their history goes through moments of a good socialism governments, mixed economy and diversity of cultures of the 1920s, to the repressions of the Joseph Stalin dictatorship. From its first years, the Soviet Union was based on only one-party named the Communist Party.

Many of the characters in Animal Farm perform historical figures. Each of the characters in the story is representative of players in the historical narrative the story represents. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" shows that all violent revolutions expelling repressive totalitarian regimes are based on human behaviors of deception after short idealistic periods turned into totalitarian and repressive regimes. As a matter of fact, the animals and the incidents represent the characters and incidents of the Russian Revolution. For instance, Old Major represents either Karl Marx who was the author of the "Communist Manifesto" or Lenin who spread his ideas in Russia removing the last Czar Nicholas II who is represented by Mr.Jones in this interesting novel. Napoleon is Josef Stalin the most terrible dictator who killed his friend and fought with Leon Trotsky for winning the rule of Russia. Thus, Snowball represents Trotsky who had to leave Russia. Squealer represents the "Pravda" which means the propaganda organ of the totalitarian Communist State of Russia. Mr. Pilkington refers to England and her allies while Frederick represents Germany. It is very important to consider the incidents associated to the building of the windmill which coincides to Lenin's ambitious plans for the complete electrification of Russia.

Orwell tries to persuade the audience to see or understand what really is happening in that politic regimen using the analogy of the farm and the roles of the different animals.

For instance, the pigs take control showing a dangerous totalitarian system of government. Orwell thinks that the Russian Revolution of 1917 which finished the tsarist regime to claim the Bolshevik power into a government which concentrates total power in the hands of the autocrats. He wishes to persuade the audience to understand the complexity of Communism. It refers to a dream society under equality bases provided by one powerful ruler will lead to corruption manipulating misinformed and uneducated citizens most of the time. In the tale, the pigs seem to be highly educated using complicated and confused language to manipulate the animals. One can notice this aspect in this sentence where they switch a few words: "whatever goes upon four legs is a friend" to "whatever goes upon two legs, or has wings is a friend" to convince the distracted birds that their rights are secured under that kind of government. For example, the pigs are the only animals allowed to drink milk because they convince the rest of the animals that milk is absolutely necessary for them for avoiding Mr. Jones to come back. Napoleon uses the fear to control everything as using violent dogs to secure his leadership and uses Snowball as his scapegoat to route anger and responsibility away from

him.

Orwell advises his audience against repressive governments and totalitarianism, suggesting that in a totalitarian government rights are taken away from the workers to benefit the political leaders. As a fact, Stalin killed more than 20 million citizens for opposing his ideas. He selects a characteristic language using the technique of foreshadowing to emit doubt of a victorious revolution. In addition, using animals is a way to represent people or ideas as the Russian Revolution, Stalin, and Trotsky. The novel shows Boxer acting as a persuasive argument against tyranny by showing that no matter he is the most loyal worker of the farm, he will be betrayed and killed by Napoleon. This story shows that dictatorships only care about their own wellbeing instead of rule to give a good life to the worker class.

Finally, I can conclude that the author use of allegory rhetorically techniques are successfully. His satire succeeds in showing the absurd of communism. As an English writer he reaches the point using all kind of techniques. He sets an ironic tone showing the idea of pig-like leaders who eventually become oppressors. Through humor and parallelism, he succeeds in reaching his objective. It is also worth mention that Orwell is not a fanatic of capitalism.