Animal farm - an allegory
Animal Farm – An Allegory
Characters and events that are interesting
The characters
Old Major
Mr. Jones
Napoleon
Snowball
Boxer
Mollie
the nine dogs
Squealer
Benjamin
the sheep
The events
the pre-rebellion meeting
the rebellion
the principles of Animalism (seven commandments)
leadership (Napoleon « Snowball)
Napoleon’s nine dogs
neighbour farms have fear and there are unrests
Jones try to recapture the farm
Snowball’s ideas (example: put their dung directly into the field)
power struggle (Napoleon « Snowball)
putsch (Napoleon becomes dictator)
the building of the windmill
suppression (Napoleon!)
Execution of the ‘criminal’ Animals
Our results
We came to the result, that this story describes the happenings in USSR after 1917.
Who could the characters be in reality?
Old Major
We think Old Major is the personification of Karl Marx and Lenin. Marx was the first who had the idea of communism. Lenin is like the father for the Russians. He spread his idea of the new world to the other people.
(Just as Old Major did.)
Mr. Jones
Jones represents the old imperial power, the lost czar, who had to abdicate the throne.
Snowball
Snowball must be Trotsky, the intellectual, gifted leader. With all his plans and new ideas for a better life.
Napoleon
Napoleon reflects the iron man – J.
Stalin – who expelled Trotsky (Snowball) from the farm respectively from the party. He’s a clever and determined organizer. He’s the military type of leader.
Boxer
We don’t think that Boxer only stands for one (wo)man. He could stand for the whole working class – the ”untiring proletariat”. Like that, it makes more sense.
Mollie
She could represent that part of the people which already had had a nice life before the revolution and – because of that – preferred to escape.
The nine dogs
The dogs – Napoleon‘s proper army – stand for the red army which defends Stalin from his enemies.
Squealer
He could stand for the general manipulation of facts with the help of the media and the whole propaganda of the Bolsheviks. He is a sort of Radio in the story, isn’t he? He always turns black to white and persuades all the others.
Benjamin
Benjamin could represent the old, resigned and experienced part of the people.
The sheep
We think the sheep stand for a less intelligent part of the people.
They can be easily manipulated to Napoleon’s (Stalin’s) advantage. They are in one way a tool for him.
What about the events on the farm?
The pre-rebellion meeting
It means the general unhappiness of the people influenced by the pressure of the opposition parties which predicated the inefficiency of the government.
The rebellion
Because of all the previous reasons and because of the food shortage (in the book: Jones doesn’t feed the animals) the rebellion happened in USSR (October revolution).
A new organization
A new government was formed after the rebellion. The leader was Lenin.
He called Stalin and Trotsky to his side. (This is a point where our ”Animal Farm” is incorrect: Lenin alias Old Major was already dead in the story – but not in history!)
They made a constitution (the seven commandments). Everything became nationalised (industry, banks,...).
Now the reconstruction began (in Animal Farm: the assembly of all the animals and the work schedule). The Bolsheviks could count on the help of the devoted and euphoric working class (ðanimals were happy, it was better than before, nobody stole, they were happy to work), the real revolutionaries. So the nationalism became more and more stronger (ðAssembly: the animals hoist the flag and sing ”beasts of England”). The most of them (especially the working class) saw only that communists were good and all the others bad (ðthe sheep’s maximum).
Jones try to recapture the farm
Where were the big landowners, who saw their own land shared to the workers? (ðJones’ farm was now the animal’s farm) They’d had time to organize several troops and tried – supported by France and England – to reconquer the power. Their try didn’t succeed.
(ðthe ”battle of the cowshed”)
Improvements
The economic revolution could now go further. The USSR began to commerce with other countries (ðMr. Whymper!), and it was also finally acknowledged by the others (ðThe farmers called now the farm ”Animal Farm”)
A new economy began in 1928 with the inauguration of the first Five-year plan. The plan wanted to convert the USSR from an agricultural country to a leading industrial power. (This whole process is shown in the idea of the windmill in our story.) But Lenin died and the power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky began.
(ðNapoleon « Snowball)
The power struggle and the putsch
Trotsky dreamed of a worldwide revolution – Stalin wanted this only in one country (ðSnowball was the one who sent the pigeons to the other farms to spread the ideology of Animalism).
Stalin didn’t want to have a bilateral government. He wanted to be the one and only leader. In the end he expelled Trotsky and became the leader.
His power was guaranteed by the red army (ðthe nine dogs). Helped by it, he suppressed every kind of revolts and unrests.
The purge
The middle of the 1930s were marked by a drastic purge from the Communist party and the government of all elements alleged to be in opposition to the policies of Stalin. (ðThe executions of the ‘criminal’ animals by Napoleon’s dogs)
The farms around ”Animal Farm”
We guess the two neighboured farms (ð”Foxwood” and ”Pinchfield”) show the two states Great Britain and France. They are “not best friends”. (Like in the book!) Both of them were afraid because of communism.
Statement
The described story in “Animal Farm” is very complex. There are a lot of parallels between the story and the history.
The fact that not every animal stands for one single person and not every happening describes exactly one in history makes it very interesting to search a solution or an explanation for them. We think that there are further parallels in the story which we haven’t noticed. Also there will be more in the rest of the book.
Martin Schaad, Christian Pacek, Nils Link, Vito Piraino, Simon Schlachter
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