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Themes in Animal Farm by George Orwell
Themes in Animal Farm by George Orwell
Themes in Animal Farm by George Orwell
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The story would definitely be a very historical throwback when the world was in a war specifically World War 2. First the animals taken over the farm from the humans. Second would be when Old Major rose to power like Joseph Stalin becoming a military leader in the soviet union. Before the animals had taken over the farm they have called for an emergency meeting with all the animals of the farm. While Old Major is talking to the animals he’s saying “Animal kind was born into a miserable, laborious, and salt existence.” [The Animal Farm 1999 Version] Which this quote he could be trying to get the animals on his side to overthrow the humans, so the remaining animals that live on after Old Major passes away could live a better life than he has in the past. With that said that could also go back to the history books in which Hitler rose to power at the …show more content…
To go along with the Hitler idea Old Major says “if we remove man and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever” [animal farm 1999 version] that kind of goes along with saying with Hitler if we removed all jews the world would be a better place, since he believed that jews were a nuisance to Germany during its depression. He claimed that the soul reason behind the depression was because of the jews and they wouldn’t let Germany recover from its depression. Something also caught my attention when Old Major says “All animals are friends, and All humans are enemies” [Animal farm 1999 version] which kind of reminded me of Hitler again since he did have that mindset when it came to anyone who wasn’t German, that any other kind of person was imperfect. With the death of Old Major the eldest Pig everyone gathered around his death
Animal Farm is made up of different animals that are lead by Mr. Jones, who ends up being drunk all the time when going to bed and forgets to close up some of the cages. While Mr. Jones was going to sleep in the bed, the animals on the farm was having their own meeting led by, Major, the pig. In the meeting, they talked about who are their enemies and who are their friends, and who are the comrades. While having all ears on Major, he started to say how “Man” was the cause of their problem because with Man, all animals would be free without having to be slaves for anyone. With this being said, Major and all the other animals were singing a song with excitement when it quickly ended by Mr. Jones, who proceeded to
At the beginning of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, an aging pig named Old Major gives a speech to the rest of the animals. In his speech, he explains to them how awful their lives are in order to shows them that the Rebellion against Man, their one true enemy, will come soon. Old Major appeals to the animal’s emotions by using rhetorical questions and fear to effectively persuade the animals of the coming Rebellion.
It was was a dark night, all the animals huddled around Old Major to hear what he had to say about his dream. It turns out Old Major talks about rebelling against man so that all animals can have a better life. Ironically, after Rebellion, no one except Napoleon has a better life and he makes their lives even harsher. This is a story of communism, this is the story of Animal Farm.
The actions of the pigs express this theme by starting with good intentions, but slowly becoming more and more like what they were trying to avoid. In the beginning of the story Old Major gives a speech to the animals on the farm, and in this speech he mentions how cruel the humans are. During his speech Old Major uses Boxer the horse as an example when he says “You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds.” (Orwell 11). He then proceeds to tell the animals that once they revolt the cruelty will end, and at first it does, but soon the pigs begin to act more like humans. The pi...
In today’s world, people have always strived to create a utopian society. In the novel ANIMAL FARM written by George Orwell, the animals strive to create their own utopian society based on equality and prosperity. Animalism was created to, as like the Ten Commandments, Animalism’s Seven Commandments were rules for the animals to live by. However, similar to God’s rules, Animalism was a difficult concept for all the animals to follow and live by. Secondly, the collapse of Animal Farm was due to the animal’s own intelligence and their ability to fully understand how the farm was being run. Finally, the failure of Animal Farm was due to in large part by the pigs power over the other animals and the greed and desires that the pigs wanted to achieve. Therefore, the collapse of Animal Farm had to do with Animalism itself, the animals, and the corruption of the pigs.
One of the main characters of Animal Farm is the heartless and merciless leader Napoleon. Napoleon is a leader that prefers to have things his way and not cooperate with others, in other words really obnoxious. For example “He declared himself against the windmill from the start. One day, however, he arrived unexpectedly to examine the plan. He walked heavily round the sled, looked closely at every detail of the plans and snuffed at them once or twice, then stood for a little while contemplating them out of the corner of his eye; then suddenly lifted his leg, urinated over the plans and walked out without uttering a word.”(Page 33, chapter5) Thus, this proves that Napoleon is an obnoxious pig because just because he was against Snowball’s windmill idea he urinated all over his work so he could get his way.
There is a substantial amount of conflicts that occur in this satirical story. Often these conflicts are between the pigs and the rest of the animals. Only a minute portion of the animals didn’t really have some sort of conflict with Snowball, Napoleon, Squealer, or the rest of the dominating pigs. Overall, Snowball was a better leader than Napoleon, yet the animals reacted differently to Napoleon than to Snowball.
Old Major, a wise old pig, holds this view of the perfect society for animals, free from human oppression. He gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a meeting in the big barn. He and tells the others about his dream for a better life for all, and says it cannot be reached until Mr. Jones, the owner of Manor Farm, is overthrown, ending his era of cruelty, slavery and mistreatment. He tells them of a dream he has had in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. He tells the animals that they must work toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called “Beasts of England,” in which his dream vision is lyrically described. The animals greet Major’s vision with great enthusiasm. But before this utopia can be created, Old Major dies.
Old Major, a eminent pig on the Jones farm, is regarded as the wise superior by the other animals. He has had a strange dream and calls the other animals together to talk about their disastrous situation. Old major declares: ';Let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious and short';. He declares in Marxist terms that Man is the problem: ';Only get rid of the Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could be rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, comrades. Rebellion!';
but it was also the wish of Napoleon: animals should be totally loyal and obedient to him. Language can be used as a weapon to control others. In the story, after old Major died, the pigs distorted the meaning of his words and twisted the idea of socialism and gradually turned it into totalitarianism. Those pigs knew that other animals were not able to oppose Old Major’s idea, so they used that as an excuse for disobeying the ‘Seven Commandments’ and did whatever they want for their own benefits. They used outrageous terror and abuse of language to keep other animals in dark and finally, they became even greedier and totally destroyed the farm.
As soon as Old Major had died Napoleon took his place as the leader of
As I glanced around me I saw all the animals that I share animal farm with. As the mother to all the geese, all the young geese resided right beside me, as all the other animals were grouped together as well. Napoleon called us here for a meeting, I wondered what important information he has to tell us on such short notice. As we were gathered in the yard, with suspicion running through us, Napoleon strutted out of the farm house. The sight we set our eyes upon was undoubtedly frightening, sending shivers down our backs.
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm we get a glimpse of a strange switch in totalitarian rule. From Mr. Jones a cruel farmer who feeds his animals to little and works them to hard, to Napolean a pig that will have you killed for a bottle of liquor. Through stupidity, narrow mindedness and pure cowardice of some animals we view the inevitable as the farm animals become ruled by pigs. Old Major probably not the first animal to think of as an animal to ruin a utopia for the farm, is in most cases not a favored example to contribute to the pigs takeover. This pig finally near the end of his better than average life chose to create a rebellion against the then in power Mr. Jones. A truly justifiable act executed in a time to late, for Major died to soon to lead the farm. If Old Major had summed up an ounce of courage in his closer to piglet years further and earlier then his dying days the animals might have had a chance of a better life. Old Major can be seen as him being a late coward having what is thought on the farm to be a good life trying to end it a false legend or maybe Old Major was a slow hero wanting to leave a better life for his friends. Still though we should agree that for Old Major’s failing action or neglect was the time he chose to start a rebellion, in the few days before he died.
Old Major, who is a respected animal on the farm, had given a speech to stir the animals emotion into rebellion. He used his power of respect and trust to persuade the others to pursue the vision in his dream. “Old Major was so highly regarded on the farm that everyone was quite ready to lose an hour’s sleep in order to hear what he had to say” (Orwell 15). Old Major’s dream was for the earth to be ruled by animals. Old Major strongly believed that animals have only one adversary. “Man is the only real enemy we have” (19). His oration inspired and energized the listeners. “At this moment there was a tremendous uproar” (21). Old Major had all the power and history has proven that dictatorship does not work, due to the fact that, power leads to corruption in a communism style government. The power Old Major held led his friends into taking action in what he desired to do, which led to rebellion and future tragedies. Power corrupted society and absolute power that is eventually obtained becomes corrupt within. (Lord Acton).
It was the glorious speech from Old Major that made the animals want to rebel so badly. Animal Farm, written by George Orwell is an excellent novel that portrays the need for power. It shows how power can be used for either good or evil. The story begins on Manor Farm, owned by a farmer named Mr. Jones. One of the pigs, named Old Major, gives a speech that motivates the animals to rebel. After a while, the animals ended up rebelling, and managed to kick out Mr. Jones. During the beginning of “Animal Farm’s” reign under Snowball and Napoleon’s (main characters) lead, it brought the animals on Manor Farm together into a peaceful world. However, after this initial stance of power, Snowball and Napoleon began to fight for it. In the end, Napoleon ends up with control of the farm and Snowball is never seen again. Power is a corrupting influence in Animal Farm and both Snowball and Napoleon’s way of leading are very different.