Animal Farm

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11. Having set up these political ideals and convinced the animals of the necessity of revolution, Major now tells them of his dream and more particularly of a song his dream reminded him of. Allegorically, the song is the equivalent of the rousing “internationale” the battle cry of communist revolutionists the world over. The song exposes the yearning for an ideal golden age when the animals will be free and able to enjoy the products of their labour. The song promises a future golden time when man has been overthrown. It expresses all the idealism of the revolution. The song will encourage the animals when events go against them. Eventually, the pigs will decree that it should no more be sung.

Chapter 2

- Though Old Major dies, his ideas live on. The pigs, the more intelligent of the animals take the leading part in establishing his teaching. The pigs represent the Bolshevik revolutionaries who worked hard and in secret to make sure that the Russian Revolution will be a success when it came.

- In the first chapter, Orwell introduced the pigs without naming them. Now the pigs in particular, emerge as characters in their own rights: Napoleon and Snowball. The names are significant; Napoleon represents the Russian tyrant Stalin; yet Napoleon himself was a French Emperor who began a revolutionary and became a tyrant. Napoleon the pig will do just the same. Similarly, Stalin came to power as a man representing the political system designed to give justice to working people everywhere but became a tyrant of unbelievable cruelty and ruthlessness. What Orwell seems to be suggesting here is something basic to his whole way of thinking in Animal Farm; the idea that all revolutions begin in idealism but end in tyranny. Orwell did not believe in revolutions. The dream of freedom on Animal Farm rapidly degenerates into a nightmare.

- Snowball represents Stalin’s greatest rival: the communist thinker Trotsky. His name has a symbolic meaning. Snow melts away and is seen no more. Just so, Snowball disintegrates before the power of Napoleon and is eventually driven away from the farm. Snowball is lively and quick witted yet he lacks Napoleon’s depth of character. Napoleon is fierce and careful of his words but he has “a reputation of getting his own way.” As the novel develops, those traits become more and more sinister. As Napoleon begins to assume absolute power over the other animals.

- Squealer is responsible for the propaganda. He is the figure who will persuade the animals that regardless of what happens, the pigs are always right. He uses lies and distortions to do this and phoney arguments, threats, anything to justify his master’s actions. He is wholly indifferent to the truth and will twist facts and language in any way he can. Orwell as a writer was deeply aware of how immoral this use of language. He also knew how easily a quick witted and fast talking politician could deceive people with a few well-chosen lies. Orwell passionately care about language and the fact that it should clearly and fairly represent the truth. Squealer’s propaganda is revolting to Orwell. Through Animal Farm, he is concerned to show the effects of lies and propaganda on the lives of ordinary working people.

- These three pigs are the driving force behind the revolution. They have worked hard at reducing Major’s teachings to a number of simple rules; these they called “The principles of Animalism.” But many of the animals are either too stupid or too lazy to understand the true nature of the revolution. They seem to think that the injustice inflicted by Jones is part of the natural order of things and that they would starve to death if he were removed. Others ask why they should bother about the revolution if it is going to take place after their death and will come about whether they work for it or not.

- The support for animalism is neither uniform nor unanimous. Just as the Bolsheviks in Russia had to work very hard to educate the ordinary people into some degree of political awareness, so the pigs have to work constantly to make the animals aware of the true nature of the revolution. Even so, they do not always succeed just as the Bolsheviks failed to convert the White Russians to their way of thinking, so the pigs failed to persuade Mollie that the revolution will be to her advantage.

- The pigs have a third enemy in the form of Moses, the tame raven. Like Mollie, Moses is one of Jones’s pets; in other words he is on the side of the capitalists rather than the ordinary working people (the proletariat). Allegorically, Moses represents the Russian Orthodox Church. His constant thought of Sugar-candy Mountain which allegorically represents heaven, suggests how the Russian church tried to persuade people that after their hard lives they would go to heaven. The Bolsheviks saw such thought as very dangerous to their cause. They saw the church as an enemy to the revolution. They were atheists; they did not believe in either God or heaven. Rather, they believed that man must put matters right in this world and not wait for the lights of the afterlife. Marx in particular believed that Religion stopped people thinking and wanting to change things. Moses is a satire on Religion and the clergy like his biblical namesake, he speaks of the promised-land.

- The pigs are successful in converting Boxer and Clover who became their devoted followers. Orwell shows how dangerous such unthinking loyalty is. He has already told us that Boxer and Clover are not particularly intelligent. He now reminds us of this and shows how they accept everything they are told without question. They represent the proletariat: the ordinary working people, trapped in the deceits of their Communist Masters. Such unthinking loyalty is potentially very dangerous. They become the dukes of the pigs. It is their unquestioning loyalty and willingness to work hard that allows the pigs to become the tyrants of Animal Farm. The revolution is betrayed partly because of the limitations of the creatures it was designed to serve (those representing the working classes). This is one of the grimmest political points Orwell makes in this novel.

- Suddenly and quite unexpectedly, the Farm belongs to the animals. In terms of the political allegory, the animals’ revolt corresponds to the ordinary Russian people’s actions, when in 1917, faced with starvation, they rose up against Tsar Nicholas and expelled him. What happened in Communist Russia will now be shown to happen on a smaller scale in Animal Farm.

- Just as the Bolshevik revolutionaries were amazed at the wealth that they saw when they stormed the palace of the Russian Tsar so the animals can scarcely believe the luxury in which Mr and Mrs