 Allegory in Animal Farm

Layers of Meaning  Literal level.  A children’s story about an animal rebellion that goes wrong.

Layers of Meaning  The second layer  The book is a satirical (it uses humor and exaggeration to expose stupidity and vices) allegory

What is an allegory?  from the Greek allegorein, which means ‘to speak as if to imply something other.’  A story, poem or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a political or moral meaning  Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian revolution and Stalin’s rule of the Soviet Union

Layers of meaning  Third layer: Political treatise  Treatise: a systematic treatment of a subject in writing  Not ONLY Stalin’s Russia  Power, tyranny (cruel and oppressive government or rule), and revolution.  It has a wider message

Layers of meaning  Fourth layer: Beast Fable  A classical genre dating from Greek times, starting with Aesop in the 5 th century B.C.  In a beast fable, the behaviour of animals points out human weaknesses.  This level transcends (goes beyond limits) Russia and history and is a warning about universal human failings.

Thus a simple story becomes:  A moral warning against the abuse of power;  A story of disillusionment with the Russian revolution;  An exposure of Stalin’s evils;  A fable of human strengths and weaknesses.

Why Orwell wrote the book  He was a democratic socialist  He was disgusted by Stalin’s betrayal of the ideals of the Russian Revolution  He wanted to teach us:  Power corrupts;  Revolutions come full circle and devour their people;  Even good people are vulnerable to power hungry leaders if they don’t question what they’re told.

Now…  I will outline the people involved in the Russian Revolution  As I speak, make sure to complete your table with names and notes

Marx/Lenin  A combination of Marx and Lenin  dream of abolishing class distinctions and redistribution of land and resources  philosophical belief in the possibility of a utopian society based on equality and work sharing

Leon Trotsky  an intellectual and Lenin’s “right hand” man  much more practical than Lenin, more aware of the daily struggles of the population  conceives of the notion of the Five Year Plan that Stalin later adopts

Josef Stalin  totalitarian ruler of Russia after Lenin  expels Leon Trotsky from the Party and then adopts many of Trotsky’s financial and political plans  iron-fisted dictator

The Bolsheviks  Russians: largely peasants with some formal education  on an intellectual level, this population embraces the Revolution enthusiastically because of the promise of food and work  Bolsheviks (or "the Majority") were an organization of professional revolutionaries who considered themselves as a vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat (workers) professional revolutionariesproletariat  beliefs and practices were often referred to as Bolshevism.  party was founded by Vladimir Lenin, who also led it in the October RevolutionVladimir Lenin

Stakhanovites  The Stakhanovites (Working Class)  poor Russian populace with little to no formal education

The Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches  under Marxism, the “church” has no official role  Marx comments that “The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness.”

White Russians (Belarusian)  under the Czar, these Russians were land owners with a certain degree of influence  before the Revolution, White Russians own serfs and control distribution of wealth in “the bread basket” of Russia (Ukraine, Belarus)  resented by the general population as members of the elitist (class) system that exists before the Revolution

Winston Churchill  close diplomatic ties with Lenin in order to defeat Hitler and the Nazis during World War II  Churchill had reservations about socialism but overlooked them in order to manage what he saw as a greater threat to England and Western Europe: fascism

Propagandists (Pravda—Russian for “correct”)  Russian newspaper, state-run  Pravda was well-known in the West for its pronouncements as the official voice of Soviet CommunismWest  Propaganda personified

Secret Police  NKVD (later the KGB) come to be regarded with great fear by the Russians was responsible for political repression during the Stalinist era political repressionStalinist  conducted mass extrajudicial executions, ran the Gulag system of forced labor, conducted mass deportations of nationalities and peasants labeled as "Kulaks" to unpopulated regions of the country, guarded state borders, conducted espionage and political assassinations abroad, was responsible for subversion of foreign governments, and enforced Stalinist policy within Communist movements in other countriesextrajudicial executions Gulagforced labormass deportations of nationalitiesKulaks guarded state bordersespionage political assassinations subversion Stalinist policy  also known for its Main Directorate for State Security, which eventually became the Committee for State Security (KGB)Main Directorate for State SecurityKGB

Hitler  Originally an ally of Stalin at the beginning of World war Two  Stalin betrayed him and formed an alliance with the British and Americans instead  (He went from the Axis powers to the Allied powers)

Plot parallels Can you work with a partner to match the events of the Russian Revolution to events in the book?

Plot parallels  October revolution: The animals’ rebellion  Civil War: The Battle of the Cowshed led by Snowball  Kronstadt rebellion: The mutiny of the hens  Trotsky & Industry: Snowball and the Windmill  Stalin & Agriculture: Napoleon’s opposition to the windmill  Trotsky’s permanent revolution: Snowball wants to send pigeons to nearby farms  Stalin’s socialism in one country: Napoleon opposes pigeons  Trotsky’s exile: Snowball is defeated and driven away  Failure of the 5 year plan: The windmill is demolished  Ukraine Famine: Starvation  Purge trials: Confessions and executions of animals  Nazi-Soviet Pact: Deal with Frederick  German Invasion: Battle with Frederick

Finally  The Tehran Conference: Pigs indistinguishable form men.  Perhaps the most shocking moment of all: it implies that Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill are all as bad as each other.