Animal Farm- Themes / Language and Meaning free essay sample

Themes Language and Meaning In Animal Farm, his allegory of the Soviet Revolution, Orwell examines the use of language and the subversion of the meaning of words by showing how the powerful manipulate words for their own benefit. As a journalist, Orwell knew the power of words to serve whichever side the writer backed. In the novel, Snowball is a quick talker who can always explain his way out of any situation. When the birds object to the maxim, Four legs good, two legs bad, that the pig teaches the sheep, he explains that the birds wing is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should therefore be regarded as a leg. The birds do not really understand this explanation, but they accept it. Orwell particularly comments on the abuse of language with his character Squealer, a brilliant talker, who acts as an unofficial head of propaganda for the pigs. Like Joseph Goebbels, who bore the title of Nazi party minister of propaganda and national enlightenment during World War II, Squealer could turn black into white. This is also reminiscent of the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pravda, which was often used to rewrite the past. (Ironically, its title means Truth. ) When a bad winter forces a reduction in food rations to the animals, Squealer calls it a readjustment. In a totalitarian state, language can be used to change even the past. Squealer explains to the animals that Snowball had never—as many of them had believed hitherto—received the order of Animal Hero, First Class. God and Religion In the novel religion is represented by Moses, the tame raven. The clergy is presented as a privileged class tolerated by those in power because of their ability to placate the masses with promises of rewards in the after? life for suffering endured on Earth. Moses is afforded special treatment not available to the other animals. For example, he is the only animal not present at the meeting called by Old Major as the book opens. Later, the reader is told the other animals hate the raven because he does not do any work, in fact, the pigs give him a daily ration of beer. Like Lenin, who roclaimed religion was the opiate of the people, Orwell sees organized religion as another corruptible institution which serves to keep the masses tranquil. Moses preaches the existence of a mysterious country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died; in that distant land it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. Human Rights In Animal Farm, Orwell comme nts on those who corrupt the idea of human rights by showing how the animals deal with the issue of equality. In chapter one, Old Major interrupts his speech appealing to the animals for a Rebellion against the humans by asking for a vote on whether wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits should be included in the statement All animals are comrades. Although at this point, the animals vote to accept the rats, later distinctions between different types of animals become so commonplace that the seventh commandment of Animalism is officially changed to read, All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. A number of societies have historically voted that portions of their populations were not equal because of their faith, their skin color, or their ancestry. Class Conflict Orwell saw first? hand how being a member of a lower class singled him out for abuse at St. Cyprians, a school which attracted most of its students from the British upper class. He had also seen how the British ruling class in Burma had abused the native population. In Animal Farm the animals begin by proclaimi ng the equality of all animals. The classless society soon becomes divided as preferential treatment is given to the pigs. First, they alone are allowed to consume the milk and the apples which Squealer claims they do not really want to take, but must to preserve their strength. Later, the other animals are told that they must stand aside if they meet a pig coming down a path, and that all pigs had the privilege of wearing green ribbons on their tails on Sundays. By this time, not even an explanation from Squealer is necessary; the hierarchy in thesociety is well? established. A pointed remark by Mr. Pilkington of Foxwood, who represents Great Britain in Orwells satire, puts the authors distaste for classes in perspective. When Mr. Pilkington and other farmers meet with Napoleon in the novels last scene, Pilkington chokes with amusement as he says to the pigs, If you have your lower animals to contend with, we have our lower classes. Orwell knew that with power came the abuse of power and only a vigilant citizenry could prevent such abuses. Politics Orwell uses Animal Farm to express his deeply held political convictions. He stated in his 1946 essay, Why I Write, every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for Democratic socialism Although the novel is written in direct response to his bitter disappointment that the Russian Revolution, instead of establishing a peoples republic, established an essentially totalitarian state, its continued relevance is possible because his criticism stands against any and all totalitarian regimes. The only protection the average citizen has against a similar tyranny developing in his own country is his refusal to blindly follow the crowd (like the sheep), the repudiation of all spurious explanations by propaganda sources (like Squealer), and diligent attention to all government activity, instead of faithfully following those in power (like Boxer). Truth and Falsehood In the novel, the animals are often forced to examine the meaning of truth in their society. Again and again, truth becomes simply what Snowball, and later Squealer, tells them. Any questions about past events that do not seem to match the pigs version of those events are either discounted or explained away. For example, when some of the animals are executed after they confess to various crimes against Napoleon, some of those left alive remember that the Sixth Commandment of Animalism was No animal shall kill any other animal. When Clover asks Muriel to read the commandment, however, it is discovered that it reads, No animal shall kill any other animal without cause. Somehow or other, the narrator comments, the last two words had slipped out of the animals memory. Similarly, when the pigs get into a case of whiskey and get drunk, Muriel looks up at the barn wall where the Seven Commandments had been written and sees that the Fifth Commandment reads, No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. She thinks the animals must have forgotten the last two words of this commandment as well. She comes to believe that the original event of the writing of the commandmen ts on the wall did not happen the way she and other animals remember it. With this theme Orwell challenges the Soviet states—and any totalitarian states—method of controlling public opinion by manipulating the truth and, in particular, rewriting history. Animal Farm Style Point of View The third? person point of view traditionally used for fables and fairy tales is the one Orwell chooses for Animal Farm, his tale of an animal rebellion against humans in which the pigs become the powerful elite. The storyteller in this case, as is also typical of the fable, tells the reader only what is needed to follow the story and the bare minimum about each character, without overt commentary. Orwell focuses on the bewilderment of the simple beasts—the horses, birds, and sheep—in the face of their manipulation by the pigs, eliciting sympathy from the reader. Setting Animal Farm takes place at an unspecified time on a British farm near Willingdon, a town that is mentioned only in passing. The farm is first called Manor Farm, later renamed Animal Farm and, finally, Manor Farm once more. Manor— which can mean the land overseen by a lord, the house of a lord, or a mansion—associates the farm with the upper, or ruling, class. Orwell focuses entirely on activities taking place at the farm, except for a brief scene in Willingdon when Jones asks his neighbors to help him. By keeping a narrow focus, Orwell makes the location in England unimportant. Narrator The narrator in the novel functions as a storyteller, telling a fable Orwell gives the fable ironic overtones by using a naive narrator, one who refuses to comment on events in the novel that the reader understands to be false. After Muriel tells Clover that the fourth commandment of Animalism reads, No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets, the narrator declares: Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so. Both the reader and the narrator know the truth of the matter—that the words of the commandment have been changed—but the narrator does not admit it. The tension between what the narrator knows but does not say and what the reader knows is dramatic irony. Dramatic Irony With dramatic irony an audience, or reader, understands the difference between the truth of a situation and what the characters know about it, while the characters remain ignorant of the discrepancy. For instance, Squealer explains that the van in which Boxer was taken to the hospital formerly belonged to a horse slaughterer. He further explains that the veterinarian who now uses it did not have the time to paint over the horse slaughterers sign on its side, so the animals should not worry. The narrator says: The animals were enormously relieved to hear this. The reader, who assumed the truth when the van originally appeared to carry the horse away, feels doubly outraged by Squealers explanation Fairy Tales The fairy story, or fairy tale, is a type of folk literature found all over the world. It involves a highly imaginative narrative told in a simple manner easily understood and enjoyed even by children. While they do not have a moral, fairy tales instruct by placing their character s in situations that they have to overcome; children who hear the tales can imagine what they would do in a similar situation. Fairy tales, also, often involve animals that can talk. Orwell gave his work the subtitle A Fairy Story. The reader can surmise that the story told in Animal Farm is universal, with implications for every culture or country, and that it will be easily understood. Using fairy story to describe his novel is another bit of irony, because the political story behind the tale is far from the light entertainment the term implies. Satire A work that uses humor to criticize a weakness or defect is called a satire. The satirist makes whatever he is criticizing look ridiculous by a variety of methods, often through irony or other types of biting humor. eNotes. com. The satirist hopes to change the behavior he is satirizing. Orwell ridicules the so? called achievements of the Russian revolution in a number of ways: by comparing its proponents to animals, by developing irony through the use of the naive narrator, and by allowing each animal or group of animals to stand for one human trait or tendency that he criticizes. Fable A fable is a short, imag inative narrative, usually with animal characters, that illustrates a moral. The characters often embody a specific human trait, like jealousy, to make fun of humans who act similarly. Orwell uses details to make his animal characters seem like real animals: the cat vanishes for hours at a lime; Molly the mare likes to have her nose stroked. The animals also represent human traits or characteristics: the pigs are selfish power? grabbers, the sheep are dim? witted yes? men, and the horses are stout? hearted workers. Animal Farm, like the traditional fable, is told in a simple, straightforward style. Allegory In an allegory, characters and events stand for something else. In this case, the characters in the novel standfor significant figures in twentieth? entury Russian history. Orwell makes the characters easily identifiable for those who know the historic parallels, because he gives each one a trait, or has them perform certain tasks, that are like that of a historical figure. Old Major is identified with Karl Marx because, just as Old Major develops the teachings that fuel the Animal Rebellion, Marx formulated the ideas that spawned the Russian revolution. Napoleo n and Snowball, both pigs, stand for Russian leaders Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Stalin and Trotsky had a falling out much like Napoleon and