Animal Farm

Animal Farm

File:Animalfarm2.jpg
Author	George Orwell
Cover artist	Christopher Corr
Language	English
Genre	Satire
Publisher	Secker and Warburg
Publication date	August 17, 1945
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	112 p. (UK paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0140126708 (UK paperback edition)

Animal Farm: A Fairy Story is a satirical novella (which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm they live on and run it themselves, only to have it degenerate into a brutal tyranny on its own. It was written during World War II and published in 1945, although it was not widely successful until the late 1950s. If your name is Georgia, you suck at reading this book.

Plot introduction

Animal Farm is a thinly veiled critique and satire of Soviet totalitarianism and to a lesser extent capitalism. Many events in the book are based on events from the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Orwell, though a leftist — he was for many years a member of the Independent Labour Party — was a critic of Stalin and suspicious of Moscow-directed communism after his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.

Plot summary

When the farm's prize-winning pig, Old Major, calls a meeting of all the animals of Manor Farm, he tells them that he has had a dream in which mankind is gone, and animals are free to live in peace and harmony. His ideals can be compared to anarchocommunism. He compares the humans to parasites, and then proceeds to teach the animals a revolutionary song, "Beasts of England". The other animals begin to hope and dream for the revolution of such a day.

When Old Major dies, a mere three days later, two pigs -- Snowball (who teaches the animals to read), and Napoleon-- assume command, and turn his dream into a full-fledged philosophy. One night, the starved animals suddenly revolt and drive the farmer Mr. Jones, his wife, and his pet raven off the farm and take control. The farm is renamed "Animal Farm" as the animals work towards a future utopia. The Seven Commandments of the new philosophy of Animalism are written on the wall of a barn for all to read, the seventh and most important of which is that "all animals are equal". All animals work, but the workhorse Boxer does more than his fair share and adopts a maxim of his own — "I will work harder."

Animal Farm is off to a great start. Snowball teaches the other animals to read and write (though few animals besides the pigs learn to read well), food is plentiful due to a good harvest, and the entire Farm is organized and running smoothly. Even when Mr. Jones tries his last-ditch effort to retake control of the farm, the animals easily defeat him at what they later call the "Battle of the Cowshed". Soon, however, things begin to unravel as Napoleon and Snowball begin an epic power struggle over the farm. When Snowball announces his idea for a windmill, Napoleon quickly opposes it. A meeting is held, and when Snowball makes his passionate and articulate speech in favour of the windmill, Napoleon only makes a brief retort and then makes a strange noise to call in nine attack dogs. They burst in and chase Snowball off of the farm. In his absence, Napoleon declares himself the leader of the farm and makes instant changes. He announces that meetings will no longer be held as before, and a committee of pigs alone will decide what happens with the farm.

Napoleon changes his mind about the windmill, claiming (through Squealer, Napoleon's mouth-piece) that Snowball stole the idea from him, and the animals begin to work. After a violent storm, the animals wake to find the fruit of their months of labour utterly annihilated. Though neighbouring farmers scoff at the thin walls, Napoleon and Squealer convince everyone that Snowball destroyed it. Napoleon begins to purge the farm, killing many animals he accuses of consorting with Snowball. In the meantime, Boxer takes a second mantra, "Napoleon is always right."

Napoleon begins to abuse his powers even more and life on the farm becomes harder and harder for the rest of the animals. The pigs impose more and more controls on them while reserving privileges for themselves. History is rewritten to villainise Snowball and glorify Napoleon even further. Each step of this development is justified by the pig, Squealer, who on several occasions alters the Seven Commandments on the barn in the dead of night ("No animal shall drink alcohol" becomes "No animal shall drink alcohol in excess", for example). The song "Beasts of England" is banned as inappropriate now that the dream of Animal Farm has been realised, and is replaced by an anthem glorifying Napoleon who begins to live more and more like a human. The animals, though cold, starving, and overworked, remain convinced that they are still better off than when they were ruled by a man named Jones.

Mr. Frederick, one of the two neighbouring farmers, swindles Napoleon by paying with forged banknotes, and then attacks the farm and uses blasting powder to blow up the recently restored windmill. Though the animals of Animal Farm eventually win the battle, they do so at a great cost, as many of the animals, including Boxer, are wounded. However, Boxer continues to work harder and harder, until he finally collapses while working on the windmill. Napoleon sends for a van to come and take Boxer to the veterinarian, but

File:Napoleon.gif

Napoleon evolves into a human

as Boxer is loaded up and the van drives away, the animals read what is written on the side of the van: "Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler." Squealer quickly reports that the van with the old writing has been purchased by the hospital, and later that Boxer has died in the hospital, in spite of the best medical care.

Many years pass, and the pigs learn to walk upright, carry whips, and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon holds a dinner party for the pigs, and the humans of the area (in the adjacent Foxwood Farm run by Mr. Pilkington). He announces his alliance with the humans against the labouring classes of both "worlds".

The animals discover this when they overhear Napoleon's conversations and finally realize that a change has come over the ruling pigs. During a poker match, an argument breaks out between Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington when they both play an Ace of Spades, and the animals realise how they cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the humans.

The pigs walked on two feet and they adopted many of Mr. Jones' customs and principles. The pigs have violated every one of the rules set out in the beginning. This is when we come to the theme of this book: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Characters in "Animal Farm"

The events and characters in Animal Farm are all carefully drawn to represent the history of the Soviet Union; Orwell makes this explicit in the case of Napoleon, whom he directly connects to Stalin in a letter of 17 March 1945 to the publisher.

..when the windmill is blown up, I wrote 'all the animals including Napoleon flung themselves on their faces'. I would like to alter it to 'all the animals except Napoleon'. If that has been printed it's not worth bothering about, but I just thought the alteration would be fair to JS [Joseph Stalin], as he did stay in Moscow during the German advance.

The other characters have their analogies in the real world, but care should be taken with these comparisons as they do not always match history exactly and often simply represent generalised concepts.

The Pigs

• Napoleon — The pig who becomes the leader of Animal Farm post-Rebellion. Created based on the actions of Joseph Stalin, he uses his military (of nine attack dogs) to cement his power through fear. Napoleon uses forces to drive out his opponent, Snowball. He takes the role of a dictator over the farm and causes injustice within the animal society.
• Snowball — The pig who fights Napoleon for control post-Rebellion. Inspired by Leon Trotsky, Snowball is a passionate intellectual and is far more honest about his motives than Napoleon. Snowball easily wins the loyalty of most of the animals. He is driven out by Napoleon's attack dogs. (Trotsky was driven into exile in Mexico, where he was assassinated.) Another possibility is the connection to Lenin.
• Squealer — The pig who serves as public speaker. Inspired by Vyacheslav Molotov and the Russian paper Pravda, Squealer twists and abuses the language to excuse, justify and extol Napoleon's actions, no matter how egregious. All his life, George Orwell made it a point to show how politicians used language. Squealer limits the debate by complicating it, and he confuses and disorients, making claims that the pigs need the extra luxury they are taking in order to function properly.
• Minimus — A poet pig who writes a song about Napoleon, representing admirers of Stalin both inside and outside the USSR such as Maxim Gorky.
• Old Major — As a fellow socialist, Orwell agreed with some of Karl Marx's politics, and respected Vladimir Lenin. In fact, the satire in Animal Farm is not of Marxism, or Lenin's revolution, but of the corruption that occurred later. Major, who is based upon both Lenin and Marx, is the inspiration which fuels the rest of the book. Though it is a positive image, Orwell does slip some flaws in Old Major, such as how during his complaints about the abuse of animals he admits that he has been largely free from those terrors.
• Pinkeye — A small piglet who tastes Napoleon's food for poisoning.
• Piglets — While not truly noted in the novel, these piglets are hinted to be the children of Napoleon, and are the first generation of animals to actually be subjugated to his idea of animal inequality.
• Rebel Pigs - Pigs who complain against Napoleon's takeover of the farm, but are quickly silenced, and later executed.

The Humans

• Mr. Jones — The original owner of Manor Farm. He is probably based on Czar Nicholas II. There are also several implications that he represents an incompetent and autocratic capitalist.
• Mr. Frederick — The tough owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept neighbouring farm. He represents Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler.
• Mr. Pilkington — The easy-going but crafty owner of Foxwood, a neighbouring farm. He represents the western powers, such as Britain and the U.S. The card game at the very end of the novel is a metaphor for the Tehran Conference, where the parties flatter each other, all the while cheating at the game.
• Mr. Whymper — A human whom Napoleon hires to represent Animal Farm in human society. He is loosely based on George Bernard Shaw who visited the USSR in 1931 and praised what he found.

The other Animals

• Boxer — one of the most popular characters, Boxer is the tragic avatar of the working class, or proletariat: loyal, dedicated, and strong. His major flaw, however, is his blind trust of the leaders and his inability to see corruption. He is used and abused by the pigs as much or more than he was by Jones. His death serves to show just how far the pigs are willing to go. A strong and loyal draft horse, Boxer played a huge part in keeping the Farm together prior to his death. Boxer could also represent a Stakhanovite. His name is a reference to the Boxer Rebellion.
• Clover — Boxer's close friend, and also a draft horse. She blames herself for forgetting the original Seven Commandments when Squealer revises them. She represents the middle class educated people who acquiesce to the subversion of principles by the powerful.
• Mollie — A horse who likes wearing ribbons (which represent luxury) and being pampered by humans. She represents upper-class people, the Bourgeoisie who fled from the U.S.S.R after the Russian Revolution.
• Benjamin — A donkey who is cynical about the revolution and just about everything else. In general, he represents the skeptical people in and out of Russia who believed that communism would not help the people of Russia. More specifically, he represents the Jewish population in Russia, who were there before the Revolution and fully expected to be there after the Soviet Union fell (which they were). "None of you have ever seen a dead donkey" is a nicely allegorical way of expressing the Jewish community's attitude towards changes in national politics. His penchant for pessimism and occasional self-deprecation is also in keeping with Jewish forms of humor.
• Moses — A tame raven who spreads stories of Sugarcandy Mountain, the "animal heaven". These beliefs are denounced by the pigs. Moses represents religion (specifically the Russian Orthodox Church), which has always been in conflict with communism. It is interesting to note that, while Moses initially leaves the farm after the rebellion, he later returns and is supported by the pigs. This represents the cynical use of religion by the state to anaesthetise the minds of the masses. Shows some characteristics of Grigori Rasputin. The acceptance of Moses by the pigs could be seen to represent Stalin's relaxed attitude towards the Russian Orthodox church during WWII as the Church was a way to raise funds for the Russian war effort.
• Muriel — A goat who reads the edited commandments. She may represent intelligent labour.
• Jessie and Bluebell — Two dogs who give birth in Chapter III. Their puppies are nurtured by Napoleon to inspire fear, without doubt representing the formation of the NKVD/KGB.
• The Hens — Represent the Kulaks, landed peasants persecuted by Stalin.
• The Dogs — Napoleon's secret police and bodyguards (inspired by Cheka, NKVD, OGPU, MVD)
• The Sheep — The sheep show the dumb animal following of the proletariats in the midst of the Russian Civil War, and the masses during Stalin's reign. (“Four legs good, two legs bad!”).
• The Cat — Shows the unethical, silent rejections of the new order. Unwilling to work and disappears when there is danger.

Allusions and references to actual history, geography and current science

• The ousting of the Humans after the farmers forget to feed the animals – Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the removal of the Tsar after a series of famine and poverty.
• The refusal of the Humans to refer to Animal Farm by its new name (still calling it Manor Farm) may be indicative of the diplomatic limbo in which the Soviets existed following their early history.
• Mr. Jones' last ditch effort to re-take the farm (The Battle of the Cowshed) – Russian Civil War in which the western capitalist governments sent soldiers to try to remove the Bolsheviks from power.
• Napoleon's removal of Snowball – Stalin’s removal of Leon Trotsky from power in 1927 and his subsequent expulsion.
• Squealer constantly changing the commandments - This may refer to the constant line of adjustments to the communist theory by the people in power. Also, his lies to animals of past events they cannot remember refers to the revision of history texts to glorify Stalin during his regime.
• After Old Major dies, his skull is placed on display on a tree stump. Similarly, Lenin's (whom Old Major is based on along with Karl Marx) embalmed body was put on display in Lenin's Tomb in Red Square postmortem, where it still remains.
• Napoleon stealing Snowball’s idea for a windmill - The windmill can be considered a symbol of the Soviet Five-Year Plans, a concept developed by Trotsky and adopted by Stalin, who, after banning Trotsky from the Soviet Union, claimed them to be his idea. The failure of the windmill to generate the expected creature comforts and subsequent search for saboteurs is probably a reference to accusations and a show trial against British engineers who were working on electrification projects in the USSR.
• Moses the raven leaving the farm for a while and then returning — Similar to the Russian Orthodox Church going underground and then being brought back to give the workers hope.
• Boxer's motto, "Napoleon is always right" is strikingly similar to "Mussolini is always right" a chant used to hail Benito Mussolini during his rule of Italy from 1922 to 1943.
• During the rise of Napoleon, he ordered the collection of all the hens' eggs. In an act of defiance, the Hens destroyed their eggs rather than give them to Napoleon — During Stalin's collectivization period in the early 1930s, many Ukrainian peasants burned their crops and farms rather than handing them over to the government.
• Napoleon's mass executions, of which many were unfair for the alleged crimes — Stalin executed his political enemies for various crimes after they were tortured and forced to falsely confess.
• The four pigs that go against Napoleon's will a comparable with the purged party members during the Great Purge such as Bukharin, Rykov, Zinoviev, Kamenev and many others.
• Napoleon's replacement of the farm anthem "Beasts of England" with an inane composition by the pig poet Minimus ("Animal Farm, Animal Farm / Never through me / Shall thou come to harm") – In 1943, Stalin replaced the old national anthem "the Internationale" with "the Hymn of the Soviet Union." The old internationale glorified the revolution and "the people." The original version of the Hymn of the Soviet Union glorified Stalin so heavily that after his death in 1953, entire sections of the anthem had to be replaced or removed. Orwell could have also been referring to Napoleon Bonaparte's banning of the French national hymn, La Marseillaise in 1799.
• Napoleon's dealing with Mr. Frederick, who eventually betrays Animal Farm and destroys the windmill. Though Animal Farm repels the human attack, many animals are wounded and killed — Stalin’s Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany in 1939, which was later betrayed in 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Though the Soviet Union won the war, it came at a tremendous price of roughly 8.5-15 million Soviet soldiers (unconfirmed) and many civilians, coming to an incredible estimated 20 million dead, as well as the utter destruction of the Western Soviet Union and its prized collective farms which Stalin had created in the 1930s. The detonation of the windmill and the battle that ensued there could also be a reference to the Battle of Stalingrad.
• Napoleon's later alliance with the humans — Stalin’s non-aggression pact with Hitler in the early years of WWII.
• Napoleon's changing Animal Farm back to Manor — The Red Army’s name was changed from the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" to the "Soviet Army" to appear as a more appealing and professional organization rather than an army of the common people.
• Squealer may be an allegory of the Soviet Newspaper which Stalin often wrote many of the articles anonymously, to give the impression the country was far better off than it was.
• The dogs may be an allegory to the NKVD, the elite police force who ruled by terror under Stalin's hand.

Significance

The book is an allegory about the events following the revolution in the Soviet Union, and in particular the rise of Stalinism and the betrayal of the revolution which basically replaced dictatorship they had under a Monarchy for a dictatorship under communism.

Orwell wrote the book following his experiences during the Spanish Civil War which are described in another of his books, Homage to Catalonia. He intended it to be a strong condemnation of what he saw as the Stalinist corruption of the original socialist ideals, in which he believed and continued to believe after he saw a revolution betrayed, as in Spain. For the preface of a Ukrainian edition he prepared in 1947, Orwell describes what gave him the idea of setting the book on a farm.

..I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge cart-horse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

This Ukrainian edition was an early propaganda use of the book. It was printed to be distributed among the Soviet citizens of Ukraine who were just some of the many millions of displaced persons throughout Europe at the end of the Second World War. The American occupation forces did not appreciate these illegal presses, printing propaganda, and confiscated 1,500 copies of Animal Farm, handing them to the Soviet authorities. The politics in the book also affected Britain, with Orwell reporting that Ernest Bevin was "terrified" that it may cause embarrassment if published before the 1945 general election.

In recent years the book has been used to compare new movements that overthrow heads of a corrupt and undemocratic government or organization, only to become corrupt and oppressive themselves over time as they succumb to the trappings of power and begin using violent and dictatorial methods to keep it. Such analogies have been used for many former African colonies such as Zimbabwe and Democratic Republic of Congo, whose succeeding African-born rulers were thought to be as corrupt or worse than the European colonists they supplanted.

British censorship and suppressed preface

During World War Two it became apparent to Orwell that anti-Russian literature was not something which most major publishing houses would touch — including his regular publisher Gollancz. One publisher he sought to sell his book to rejected it on the grounds of government advice — although the assumed civil servant who gave the order was later found to be a Soviet spy.

Orwell originally prepared a preface which complains about British government suppression of his book, self-imposed British self-censorship and how the British people were suppressing criticism of the USSR, their World War II ally. "The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. ... [Things are] kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact." Somewhat ironically, the preface itself was censored and is not published with most copies of the book.

Film versions

• 1954 animated film - The book was the basis of an animated feature film in 1954 (Britain's first full-length animated movie), directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and quietly commissioned by the American CIA, which softened the theme of the story slightly by reducing the role of Moses, the character representing religion, and adding an epilogue, that occurs immediately after the novel's iconic concluding imagery is depicted, where the other animals successfully revolt against the pigs.

• 1999 live-action film - There was also a live action film directed by John Stephenson, with voices by Kelsey Grammer as Snowball, Patrick Stewart as Napoleon, and Ian Holm as Squealer. Despite a few differences (such as completely different songs), the plot occasionally resembles that of the book. The film diverges from the book with an additional epilogue in which Jesse and several animals escape and return years later to a post-Napoleon era Animal Farm. This is an update which could be seen as an analogy to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Cultural references

• Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals was partially inspired by Animal Farm. It categorises people as pigs, dogs, or sheep. The songs are all deeply linked with Orwell's Animal Farm. The album cover has an image of Battersea Power Station which is also an image used in the film of 1984.
• In an episode of Johnny Bravo ("Aunt Katie's Farm"), Johnny, while dressed in a pig costume, goes crazy and yells, "Four legs good! Two legs bad!" over and over.
• The online game NationStates contains an imaginary pro-bicycle environmental group known as "Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad."
• Rappers Dead Prez released a song called "Animal in Man" off their debut LP, Let's Get Free, re-telling the story.
• A song off Canadian band Protest the Hero's debut CD A Calculated Use of Sound, called "Red Stars Over the Battle of the Cowshed" is presumably a reference to Animal Farm
• Canadian rapper Buck 65 also used "Four legs good, two legs bad" in a remixed version of his song The Centaur, found on the ZeD compilation CD Live Off The Floor......
• Metal band Clutch has a song entitled 'Animal Farm' on their self titled album Clutch.
• The band Oingo Boingo's song No Spill Blood from their Good For Your Soul album (later reprised on Boingo Alive and Farewell) is a reference to the story.
• In a Futurama episode titled Mother's Day, a robotic greeting card tells Bender that "in the glorious robot workers' paradise, there will be no liquor!". This appears to be a reference to Snowball the pig, telling Mollie the horse that there will be no sugar or ribbons after the great animal revolution. Both Mollie and Bender are unconvinced by these statements, and appear to be supporters of the status quo due to the luxury that both of them have in their current arrangements.

External links

• Animal Farm CliffsNotes
• Extensive summary of Animal Farm and list of important quotes (author biography included)
• Slashdoc : Animal Farm Analytical essays of the novel
• Animal Farm — Searchable, indexed etext.
• Animal Farm — Complete Novel — Includes publication data and search feature.
• Animal Farm Summary and Analysis
• Excerpts from Orwell's letters to his agent concerning Animal Farm
• George Orwell Web Ring
• IMDB — Animal Farm (1954 animated film)
• IMDB — Animal Farm (1999 TV film)

ISBN numbers

• ISBN 9966472487 (paperback, 1988, Swahili translation)
• ISBN 0582021731 (paper text, 1989)
• ISBN 0151072558 (hardcover, 1990)
• ISBN 0582060109 (paper text, 1991)
• ISBN 0679420398 (hardcover, 1993)
• ISBN 0606001026 (prebound, 1996)
• ISBN 0151002177 (hardcover, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0452277507 (paperback, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0451526341 (mass market paperback, 1996, Anniversary Edition)
• ISBN 0582530083 (1996)
• ISBN 1560005203 (cloth text, 1998, Large Type Edition)
• ISBN 0791047741 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0451525361 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0764108190 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 082207009X (e-book, 1999)
• ISBN 0758778430 (hardcover, 2002)
• ISBN 0151010269 (hardcover, 2003, with Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• ISBN 0452284244 (paperback, 2003, Centennial Edition)
• ISBN 0848801202 (hardcover)