Who Is George Orwell Personify Communism In Animal Farm

By looking at Animal Farm, one can see that George Orwell personified Communism in this allegory because of his fear of Communism/Stalinism after World War II. This book goes deeper than simple political views; it shows the reader the connection between Blair and this book, and throughout this you can see it symbolizes much of his life.

Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), was born in India, on June 25, 1903. His father was stationed in India, which explains his birthplace. One year after his birth, his mother and Orwell moved to England to Henley-on-Thames. Unfortunately, his father stayed in India, and almost never visited. Orwell had always been a writer and began as young as four years old, with his first piece, a poem. Orwell had a lot of time to write due to being sick with bronchitis and the flu fairly

often; being considered as an oddball by other kids when he attended school also contributed to him having a vast amount of time for his works.

Orwell felt isolated from the other children and felt lonely, often making imaginary conversations. His very first literary success was at age eleven when he had a poem published in the newspaper. Orwell’s literary ambitions were derived from the feelings of being isolated and undervalued. In 1911, Orwell attended the boarding school St. Cyprian in East Bourne in which he had a full scholarship for. George was in no way rich, and noticed that the rich kids were treated better than the poorer ones. This angered Orwell, and this little event is considered the first spark of Orwell being interested in politics. Orwell found comfort in his books and in studying. He received a full scholarship to Wellington College and Eton College (Bio.com). It was around this time that Orwell started to get to know his father, because of his father’s retirement in 1912. Sadly, Orwell

and his father never formed a strong bond; he found his father dull and conservative. After finishing school in Eton, he joined the Imperial Force in 1922 in Burma to try and fund his education for a university (Bio.com). After five years in Burma, Orwell resigned. Orwell’s dream was writing, not fighting, which is why he returned to England.
After leaving the Imperial Force, Orwell struggled with finding literary success. He found himself doing odd jobs just to make ends meet. His struggle with finding work and literary success lead him to move to London in 1927, with help of his friend Ruth Pitter (Bio.com). Orwell roamed towards East London where he witnessed the poverty, and the down-and-outers. Orwell continued to go on little trips around London where he witnessed more and more of these down-and-outers. During this time he had been meeting his old writing tutor, who was helping him improve his craft. Orwell’s little trips around London inspired him to write a book about the poverty, which he would later call Down and Out in Paris. George finally received his first break with Down and Out in Paris in 1933. After he had gotten his foot in the door with this book, he decided to write his overseas experience in Burma, which he called Burmese Days. Burmese Days was about the dark side of British colonialism in India, and a part of the Indian Empire. Burmese Days reflected the struggle of being poor and living in such a place. Before publishing this book, he wanted to change his name so he wouldn’t embarrass his family. This is where George Orwell was born.
George was no stranger to women, and during his days in Burma he had many girlfriends. Orwell also had a girlfriend in London, Southwold, and England (Bio.com). Once he returned to England, he had met a wonderful woman named Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Unfortunately, Orwell’s womanizing days had not ended during their marriage. He had an affair with Lydia Jackson (Eileen’s good friend), Brenda Salkield, and his secretary. Although many would question his marriage he assured everyone that their marriage is legitimate. He writes to Ann Popham, "I was sometimes unfaithful to Eileen, and I also treated her badly, and I think she treated me badly, too, at times, but it was a real marriage, in the sense that we had been through awful struggles together and she understood all about my work, etc.” (Bio.com). Orwell also told Celia Kirwan that they had both cheated on one another. Despite these bumps in their relationship, it was a well-matched and happy marriage. After Eileen’s death in 1945, Orwell spiraled into depression. His adopted son, Richard Horatio Blair, was sent to his sister’s house because Orwell’s mental health was deteriorating, as well as his physical health. Orwell was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. After hearing the news of his health he became desperate, and married an editor named Sonia Brownell. During this time he had written Animal Farm and 1984, which both were huge successes. He had barely been able to see his fame when he passed. George Orwell had died on January 21, 1950 in London, United Kingdom. After his death V.S Pritchett named him as a “Saint” and the “Conscience of his generation.” Sonia had inherited his estate after Orwell’s death, and had made a career out of managing it.
George’s two most famous books, Animal Farm and 1984, were published towards the end of his life, but made the biggest splash. Before Animal Farm, George was well known for being a literary essayist. After jumping through many hoops to publish Animal Farm, once it was finally published in 1945, it had changed his status from literary essayist to a famous author. His later work, 1984, boosted him from famous author into a legendary literary genius we know today.
Orwell’s most famous book, Animal Farm, is an allegory of the very real problems people faced with Communism during World War II. Animal Farm begins when Old Major gives a speech to the other animals about his dream; freedom from humans. All of the animals agree to these ideals, and are taught a song that reinstates this called “Beasts of England.” After Old Major dies, the other pigs set his ideals in motion. Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer make a plan of overthrowing Mr. Jones, and succeed. They change the name from The Manor to Animal Farm.
It started out great, Snowball works at teaching the animals to read, and Napoleon takes a group of young puppies to educate them in the principles of Animalism. Mr. Jones tries to take over the farm again, but is defeated. After this the pigs slowly begin to fight each other over power. After a heated debate about making a windmill between Napoleon and Snowball, Napoleon runs him off the farm with the pups he had trained. Napoleon attempts to make Snowball a villain after the windmill failed, saying that Snowball came back and wrecked it. Napoleon assumes leadership of Animal Farm and declares that there will be no more meetings. From that point on, he asserts, the pigs alone will make all of the decisions—for the good of every animal. Napoleon becomes drunk with power and becomes the thing he sought out to destroy; he begins sleeping in a bed, drinking whisky, and engaging in trade with neighboring farmers. Napoleon then weeds out any animal who doesn’t believe in his cause, by killing them. While this is happening Squealer is convincing the other animals that Napoleon is a great leader. Mr. Fredrick, a neighboring farmer, destroys the windmill and injures Boxer. Boxer can no longer work, and is sent to a slaughter house for whisky. Squealer convinces everyone Boxer died peacefully in a hospital, praising the rebellion. Years pass, all of the ideals of Old Major are abandoned, and the animals can no longer tell the difference from pig and human (Sparknotes).
This tragic story of false hope and corrupt pigs goes beyond the lines. The very characters within this book represent real people from the Second World War. For example; Mr. Jones represents the last Tsar of Russia (Nicholas II), Mrs. Jones represents the Tsar’s wife, Mr. Pilkington represents the leaders of England, Mr. Frederick represents a composition of German leaders, Mr. Whymper represents Capitalist who did business with the Soviet Union, Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, Squeler represents the Russian media which spreads Stalin’s “truths”, Snowball represents Leo Trotsky, Old Major represents Karl Marx, as well as Vladimir Lenin, Boxer represents the working class, Clover represents Boxer’s female counterpart, Mollie represents Russia’s upper-class, the Dogs represents the military/police, the Birds represents the citizens left out of Socialist Rhetoric, the Cat represents shady members of Russian Society, the Rats and Rabbits represents thieves and beggars, the Fox represents revolutionaries, the Sheep represent the masses at large, Moses represents the Russian Orthodox Church, the Hens represents farmers, the leader of the hens represents the Ukrainians, and the Pigeons represents communist world revolution. The characters weren’t the only thing in this allegory that symbolized something else, such as; the Animal Farm represents the U.S.SR, the Manor Farm represents Russia, Foxwood represents England, Pinchfield represents Germany, Willingdon represents Europe, England represents the Earth, the Farmhouse represents the Czar’s place, the Red Lion represents the Royal Palace in England, Sugar Candy Mountain represents Heaven, Animalism represents Communism, the Animal Committee represents the Soviet, “Beast of England” represents the ideology of Communism, the Windmill represents Stalin’s Five Year Plan, and Alcohol represents the effects of power.
Animal Farm is a powerful satire which uses irony to demonstrate totalitarianism. This Animal Farm had a deep connection with George Orwell. This book allowed Orwell to get his political views across to a vast audience, and it allowed him to show the problems with Communism more crisply thanks to his approach of third person narrative, and personification. He went with this third person narrative to come off as an unbiased voice, and let his readers decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong, rather than spoon feeding them his opinions. In the narrative, he focused more on the “commoners” or more the working class, which Orwell deeply empathized with. This view not only resembled most of the people of Russia, it also symbolized Orwell’s life. George Orwell had experienced many of the hardships people of lower social status had also faced, first hand. Many believe this is why he could capture the commoners so well in this book. Orwell believed that people can become desensitized to touchy subjects, or terrible things in general, which is why he chose an allegorical approach. Animal Farm was published towards the end of World War II, in England in 1945 and the U.S in 1946. George was believed to have written this during the war as a cautionary fable to show everyone the seriousness/dangers posed by Totalitarianism and Stalinism government. As anyone could expect, this book faced many hardships unlike anything else Orwell has ever faced before. During the time of publishing, the support for the Soviet Union was extremely high because of the Allied Forces victory against Germany. Not only was this a problem, but the country in which this book was going to be published in was Pro-Stalin. If this doesn’t already seem overwhelming, Orwell was not very popular before this. Basically, an unknown author was going to publish an extremely controversial book, which can not only endanger his own life but endanger the editor’s life as well. So, as you can imagine, the editor was a little less than enthusiastic to publish such a book. The compromise the editor had made was he would only publish towards the end of World War II. Of course this book was a huge success, selling over 600,000 copies in four years in the U.S alone. I immediately after Orwell published Animal Farm; it became the subject of revisionism. The U.S made an anti-Communist cartoon in which the animals overthrow the pigs, which lead people to believe Orwell was a Capitalist. This confusion gave him the name “the man of contradictions”, when in reality he had no overlapping beliefs. George was a Revolutionary Socialist.
Animal Farm served as an outlet for Orwell’s political views, as well as his personal life. Many of his books were not just books, but warnings, and on this rare occasion, his book symbolized pieces of his life. Initially, after reading Animal Farm one might not think much of it, but if you look between the lines, you can discover things you couldn’t have ever imagined.