Animal Farm - George Orwell

ANIMAL FARM – GEORGE ORWELL

The writer

George Orwell was born Eric Blair in 1903 in Bengal and grew up in England. He excelled academically and received a scholarship to a preparatory school - which he hated - and then to Eton. The experience of working for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma taught him to detest imperialism and he soon resigned and returned to England. In 1933 he chose a pen name that stressed his deep, lifelong affection for English tradition and landscape. George is the patron saint of England, and the River Orwell in Suffolk was one of his most beloved places.

Orwell lived for several years in poverty, sometimes homeless, sometimes doing itinerant work, and suffered from ill health from this point onwards. Soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he volunteered to fight for the Republicans and subsequently wrote Homage to Catalonia. During World War II he was a member of the Home Guard. In 1941 he began work for the BBC Eastern Service and in 1943 became literary editor of Tribune, the left-wing weekly paper.

In 1944 Orwell finished Animal Farm. From 1945 Orwell was The Observer's war correspondent and later contributed regularly to the Manchester Evening News. In 1949 his best-known work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was published. He died soon afterwards of tuberculosis, aged just 46.

Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a dystopia which satirizes Stalinism in the period leading up to World War II, using groups of animals to symbolize the various players involved and often making direct reference to specific historical events.

Just before his death, Old Major, a prize-winning boar, tells the animals of Manor Farm of a dream he has had- in which all animals live together with no human beings to oppress or control them. Late one night, the animals manage to rout the farmer Mr. Jones, running him off the land and renaming the farm Animal Farm.

At first, Animal Farm prospers. As time passes, however, the leading pigs Napoleon and Snowball begin to compete over the future of the farm. Napoleon ousts Snowball and assumes control, declaring that the pigs alone will make all decisions—for the good of every animal. With no challenge to his leadership, Napoleon begins expanding his powers, rewriting history and using the absent Snowball as his scapegoat.

Napoleon also begins to act more and more like a human being. Squealer, Napoleon’s propagandist, justifies every action to the other animals, convincing them that Napoleon is a great leader and is making things better for everyone—despite the fact that the common animals are as cold, hungry, and overworked as they ever were under Farmer Jones.

The pigs become more and more like human beings—walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothes. Eventually, the seven initial principles of Animalism become reduced to the single principle: “all animals are equal¨- but now¨¨some animals are more equal than others.” The novel closes with a startling image that says everything about how power corrupts.

Questions to think about while reading:

Orwell struggled to find a publisher for Animal Farm because Stalin´s regime was a crucial wartime ally of the UK and the US. Orwell protested at the self-censorship of supposedly democratic countries. Is it ever right to censor the truth, no matter how politically inconvenient?

Why did Orwell write Animal Farm the way he did using animals instead of people? The original subtitle was ´a fairy story´ - what did he mean by this?

Many of the characters and situations in the novel refer directly to the Soviet Union at particular moments in history. Is it necessary to know this? Are the observations of the novel about the abuse of power and individual responsibility still relevant?

Orwell was obsessed with the misuse of language as a tool to mislead, oppress and indoctrinate. To what extent do those who control the language control the reality in Animal Farm?