1. Animal Farm Fable, Symbol, Allegory, and Satire

2. Fable  Fable = brief tale told to point to a moral. Beast fable (characters are animals) Aesop’s fables (Greek slave, 600 B.C.)  Orwell subtitled Animal Farm a fairy story (fairy tale).  All the animals talk and act like humans, especially the humans (or types) that each animal represents in the allegory.  For example, dumb, hard-working Boxer the horse can’t learn to read and is a mind controlled by the pig Napoleon, just like the proletariat (workers) in USSR who blindly followed Stalin.  While most fables have stated messages, Animal Farm’s message is an inferred political warning.

3.  Red = valor  White = purity  Blue = color of the chief  Stars = heavens/states  Stripes = rays of light

4. Symbolism  A symbol is something that is itself and yet stands for or suggests or means something else. Universal = flowing water suggests time, eternity, the journey a dovean applegreena sword

5. Cultural Symbols :-)

6. So if each of these mean something different given the circumstance, what can you say is true of symbolism in literature?

7. Symbolism in Animal Farm  “Beasts of England”  Animalism and the 7 Commandments  Symbols of Man: ribbons, the hand, the whip  Religion  Medals  Firing the gun  The flag  The animals themselves  Lots, lots more, but you get the idea

8. Symbolism in Allegory “The flag was green, Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof and thorn signified the future Republic of the Animals which would arise when the human race had been finally overthrown.” What do the symbols mean on the Russian Flag? Red = blood of workers Hammer = industrial workers Sickle = agricultural workers Star = 5 fingers/ communist rule

9. Allegory - A process of double signification An allegory is a story in which the characters, action, and setting have both a literal and symbolic level. It is a structure controlling the entire work by making symbolic use of actions, characters, and ideas. Historical and political allegory has characters and events which represent actual events and real people. Other examples of allegory include Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Aslan’s story is also the story of Jesus dying to save mankind) and Alice in Wonderland (Alice’s adventures represent struggles of an adolescent in a strange, grown-up world).

10. Allegory compared to Symbolism  What does allegory mean in Animal Farm? That there’s an entire level of meaning beyond the narrative it tells.  What’s being represented? The Russian Revolution and turn to communism.  George Orwell intended his little story of animals revolting from mistreatment and taking over the farm from Mr. Jones to directly represent the workers in Russia revolting against Tsar Nicholas II and establishing the Soviet Union.

11. Parallels - Characters  Before we begin, understand that Orwell did NOT intend a perfect chronology of Russia’s revolution/turn to communism.  The parallels Pigs = Bolsheviks Old Major = Marx/Lenin Napoleon = Stalin Snowball = Trotsky Squealer = Pravda Boxer = Proleteriat

12.  Moses = Greek Orthodox Church  Mr. and Mrs. Jones = Czar Nicholas and Alexandra  Frederick/Pinchfield = Hitler/Germany  Pilkington/Foxwood = Churchill/England  Mollie = White Russians  Pigs = Duma  Farm House = Kremlin  Dogs = Secret Police  Hoof and Horn = Hammer and Sickle  Order of Green Banner = Order of Lenin

13. Parallels - Events  Battle of the Cowshed = October Revolution  Hen’s Revolt = Collectivization of Farms  Spontaneous Demonstrations = May Day  Animal Executions = Purge Trials  Non-aggression pact with Germany = Forged bank notes  Windmill = 5-year Plan, industry  Battle of the Windmill = Battle of Stalingrad  Card Game = the Yalta Conference

14. Fable, Allegory... to what purpose?  Funny... but to what purpose? SATIRE!  The aim of satire is didactic = it makes fun of something in order to teach a lesson and bring about a change in its target.

15. Popular examples of satire  Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update…flaws related to entertainment and politics  Scary Movie…horror movies  Austin Powers…1960s detective movies  Political cartoons…makes fun of the flaws of politicians or policy.

16. So what’s being made fun of?  Russian achievements: Animal Farm satirizes the Communist Party (and Stalin) as hypocritical leaders who take control of the Soviet Union and use their power for their own benefit.  Human traits wickedness indifference Ignorance: other animals are satirized as the workers who blindly follow their leaders without thinking (“Baker viii). greed  Illusion of progress  Nature of politics and power  The entire book is a political tract “satire on human folly, a loud hee-haw at all who yearn for Utopia.”

17. So put it all together...  Animal Farm is a Fable, and Allegory, and a Satire. How do these function together to create multiple layers/multiple meanings in the text?