George Orwell Genre: Allegory, Satire, Fable Animal Farm George Orwell Genre: Allegory, Satire, Fable

George Orwell British Author and Journalist Best known for two novels Animal Farm 1984

1984 Written in 1948, the novel takes place in 1984 and presents an imaginary future where a totalitarian state controls every aspect of life, even people’s thoughts. The state is ruled by a group known as the Party; its leader is known as Big Brother

Orwell’s Beliefs Had a reputation for standing apart and even made a virtue of his detachment He viewed socialists, communists, and fascists as repressive and self-serving He was skeptical of governments and their willingness to forsake ideas in favor of power.

Why Animals? In explaining how he came to write Animal Farm, Orwell says he once saw a little boy whipping a horse and later he wrote, “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 was as the rich exploit the worker.”

What is Animal Farm? A masterpiece of political satire A tale of oppressed individuals who long for freedom but ultimately are corrupted by assuming the very power that had originally oppressed them. Viewed as Orwell’s critique of the communist system in the former Soviet Union.

Significance Today Soviet Communism has fallen, the Cold War is over So why does Animal Farm deserve our attention? Allegorical fables require us to make comparisons and connections that can be meaningful to any reader in any historical period Animal Farm has lessons to teach us about the ways people abuse power and manipulate others Tyranny and corruption are still relevant today

Children’s Book? - NO Published in 1945 Orwell was horrified to see it on children’s shelves

The Fable One of the oldest literary forms Usually short and conveys a clear moral or message Most popular animal fables- Just So Stories (1902) by Rudyard Kipling These fables were adapted by Disney in the movie The Jungle Book Orwell admitted Kipling

Allegory Any type of fiction that has two levels of meaning is an allegory On the surface, Animal Farm is about Animals, but the way the animals interact says something about the nature of people Each animal also serves as a symbol. Orwell also carefully critiques Soviet Russia

The Pigs They not only represent specific tyrannical soviet leaders, they are also symbols for tyranny in general They also represent all leaders who rely on repression and manipulation

Satire In a satire, the writer attacks a serious issue by presenting it in a ridiculous light or otherwise poking fun at it Orwell uses satire to expose what he saw as the myth of Soviet socialism

Irony When there is a disparity between what an audience would expect and what really happens Orwell uses dramatic irony The audience can recognize corruption without the narrator pointing things out directly The other characters cannot see the pigs are corrupt

When History and Literature Merge The Russian Revolution In the early 1900s, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II faced a very unhappy population Many Russian peasants were struggling to survive under an oppressive government By 1917 a revolution began The Czar’s government was overthrown and replaced by the leadership of Vladimir Lenin When Lenin died in 1924, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin struggled for power Stalin won and he deported Trotsky into permanent exile

Joseph Stalin Stalin moved the Soviet Union into the modern industrial age His government seized land in order to create collective farms and modernize Soviet industry When peasants refused to give up their land, Stalin used vicious military tactics Rigged trials led to executions of an estimated 20 million government officials and ordinary citizens The government controlled the flow of content and information to the people

Totalitarianism Aim= to make people less and less conscious, less able to make distinctions between truth and falsehood The farm stands for Russia and the characters symbolize people and events in the Russian Revolution Censorship and Propaganda – methods of controlling the proletariat and convincing them they are on the right path while those in other political systems are fools.

The hammer and sickle (☭) are a part of communist symbolism This symbol features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them together symbolizes the unity between industrial and agricultural workers. Utopia= perfect society

Propaganda The manipulation and control of language

Pravda Russian political newspaper associated with Communism Leading newspaper of the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution of 1917 Censorship and propaganda are essential methods of controlling the proletariat Proletariat= working class Bourgeoise- middle class

Building a Dictatorship Euphemism- use of words to soften the true meaning Oversimplification- Simplification covers the true meaning – “Made from recycled paper.” (only 10%) Bandwagon- Do something everyone else is doing Begging the question- avoid answering the question by skirting the issue; often used by politicians at press conferences

What is Needed Supporters: the masses must be behind the leader and feel that his or her new ideas will make a difference Ignorance of the followers: It’s important that the followers and supporters not be too educated. They must follow blindly without question Scapegoat: There must be someone or something to blame for all the bad conditions the leader wants to eradicate. Later, any problems which arise can be blamed on the scapegoat.