George Orwell's Animal Farm

Many may ask why one would write a book about human-like animals on a farm. The answer is simple. The animals are used as an analogy to represent something as seen in the book Animal Farm. The author, George Orwell, lived during the time in which Britain looked to Russia as inspiration to make their country better. He wrote this book in order to help his fellow British citizens understand that their adoration towards Russia is disguising the faults of the Communist regime. He believed that in order for a country to change, the country should not use other countries as inspiration. Because George Orwell’s analogy of a farm represents leaders and events in the Russian Revolution, he makes it clear that it is possible to have a social transformation

One relation that Orwell shows throughout the book are the animals and the citizens of Britain. All the animals except the pigs represent hope for change as seen through the quote, “[b]etween the men who act like pigs and the pigs who become like men, there is precious little room for the animals who dreamt of revolution—or for the imagination that dreamt that dream” (Rai 50). The animals represent the hope for change that the British citizens possess, despite the fact that using Russia as a model is ineffective in having a social transformation. Another relation Orwell portrays in the book are the characters Napoleon and Snowball. Napoleon represents Stalin, whereas Snowball symbolizes Trotsky. Napoleon supporting Snowball’s idea of building a windmill represents Stalin supporting Trotsky’s idea of the Five-Year Plan (Moss 16). Also, the constant struggle between the two leaders, Napoleon and Snowball, represent the struggle between the Russian leaders, Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky was exiled from the Soviet Union as Snowball was chased out of Animal Farm (Moss 18). This relation portrays how corrupt these leaders, that the British use as inspiration, are by proving that their main goal was to gain power as seen through the competition to suspend each other. Additionally, Old Major symbolizes Karl Marx through their similar ideas and speeches. Old Major’s speech consists of references to Karl Marx’s notion of estranged labor. Old major states, “Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labor is stolen from us by human beings,” which relates to Marx’s statement of “the worker is related to the product of his labor as to an alien object” (Moss 18). This quote along with the following list of