di Stefania Gubitosa - Istituto Orazio Flacco di Castellaneta

1. George
Orwell
Animal
Farm

2. Life and works
• George Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Blair, born in India in 1903, son of a minor colonial
official,he was taken to England by his mother when he was a child
• He was first educated at St Cyprian’s then at Eton where he began to develop an
independent-minded personality, indifference to accepted values and professed atheism and
socialism
• In December 1936 he went to Barcelona with his wife to report Spanish Civil War and he
joined the militia of POUM ( Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification )
• He decided to begin publishing his works with the pseudonym of George Orwell because
“George” suggested common sense and “ Orwell ” was the name of a river he was fond of
• When the Second World War broke out, he moved to London and in between 1941 and 1943
worked on propaganda for the BBC
• In 1943 he began to write “ Animal Farm” which was published in 1945 when the Iron Curtain
was beginning to fall and this gave him popularity in Europe
• In 1949 he published “Nineteen Eighty-Four” his most original book which became a best-
seller.
• He died of tuberculosis in 1950

3. ANIMAL FARM 1984

4. Social Themes
• Orwell was a political journalist, critic and book-reviewer in
the tradition of Swift and Defoe
• He used a realistic and factual language
• He represented a vision of human fraternity and misery
because of poverty and depravation
• He supported ideals of tolerance justice and equality between
people
• He fought against any form of totalitarianism and violation of
liberty
• He addressed his readers to refuse tyranny in all its forms

5. The historical background
• During Stalin’s tyranny 3 million of people who opposed him
lost their lives in Purge
• In 1939 Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler which
allowed him to invade Polonia and Czechoslavakia
• Orwell’s indignation and reaction moved him to write
“Animal Farm”
• He expressed his disillusionment with Stalinism and
Totalitarianism in general in the form of an animal fable near
to Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” in the comparison between men
and animals

6. Animal Farm:the plot
In a somewhere farm in England, animals
capable of reason and speech and
encouraged by Old Major’s teachings
which dies three days after made his
speech, overcome their cruel master Mr
Jones and installed a revolutionary
governement. At the beginning animal’s
life is guided by Seven Commandements
based on equality,but then pigs lead and
among them stand out Snowball and
Napoleon who have different ideas on
how to organize farm. The pigs supervise
the enterprise under Napoleon’s
leadership which is able to chase Snowball
believing him responsible for all the
troubles which happended in the farm and
established a dictatorship supported by
other pigs. Gradually pigs altered
commandements and exploited other
animals, arrogating to themselves
privileges previously exercised by humans.

7. 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy
2. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a
friend
3. No animal shall wear clothes
4. No animal shall sleep in a bad
5. No animal shall drink alcohol
6. No animal shall kill any other animal
7. All animals are equal

8. That becames three:
• No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
• No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
• No animal shall kill any other animal without
cause.

9. Finally just one commandement only:

10. Comparisons
All the animals can be compared with a character of Russian
Revolution:
• Old Major represents
both Marx and Lenin,
the founders of
communism which
gave teachings to
people but did’t took
part in Revolution
because they died
before

11. • Farmer Jones is Czar Nicolas
the second : he is a very
heavy drinker and the
animals revolt against him
after he drinks so much that
he does not feed or take
care of them. The attempt
by Jones and his farmhands
to recapture the farm is
failed in the Battle of the
Cowshed. So he was
replaced by Napoleon in his
dictatorship

12. • Snowball represents Leon Trotsky.He
wins over most animals and gains
their trust by leading a very
successful first harvest, but is driven
out of the farm by Napoleon.
Snowball genuinely works for the
good of the farm and the animals,
and devises plans to help the animals
achieve their vision of an egalitarian
society, but Napoleon and his dogs
eventually chase him from the farm.
Thereafter, Napoleon spreads
rumours to make him seem evil and
corrupt, even claiming that he
secretly sabotaged the animals'
efforts to improve the farm.

13. • Napoleon is obviously Stalin, the
main villain of Animal Farm. He
begins gradually to build up his
power surrounding himself by
dogs, whom he uses as his secret
police. After driving Snowball off
the farm, Napoleon usurps full
power, using false propaganda from
Squealer and threats and
intimidation from the dogs to keep
the other animals in line. Among
other things, he gradually changes
the Commandments for his benefit.
By the end of the book, Napoleon
and his fellow pigs have learned to
walk upright and started to behave
much like the humans against
whom they originally revolted.

14. • The character of Boxer stands for the loyal,hard-working man who follows
Animalism faithfully without understanding its more intricate details
completely and finally he is deceived by Napoleon. His name came from Boxer
Rebellion in China which is linked to the rise of communism in China
• Dogs represente the Terror State which Stalin created in Russia as a means to
keeping order and crushing political opposition
• the Battle of the Windmill represents the Great Patriotic War( Second World
War), especially the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Moscow. During the
battle, Fredrick drills a hole and places explosives inside, and it is followed by
"All the animals, except Napoleon" took cover; Orwell had the publisher alter
this from "All the animals, including Napoleon" in recognition of Joseph
Stalin's decision to remain in Moscow during the German advance
• The Battle of the Cowshed represents the allied invasion of the Sovier Russia
in 1918, and the defeat of the White Russians in the Russian Civil War.
All the other animals symbolise something and all the
events narrated represent an event of Russian History:

16. Some Orwell’s aphorism