Animal Farm Compared To The Ru Essay, Research Paper
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm compared to the Russian Revolution
All of the characters in Animal farm have counterparts in real life. This
book was based on the Russian Revolution, and all the important populace
of the revolution are symbolized. Some of the animals represent
individuals in the Russian Revolution, and some types of animals
represent different types of Russian citizens. The book carries out much
like the actual revolution. It starts out with hopes of an empire where
all are equal and the unfair unjust leader is thrown out. Then it moves
on to where some individuals begin to take more power than is rightfully
theirs. At the end the rulers have completely taken over and the kingdom
is as it was under the original rulers. I will compare the animals from
top of the social class to the bottom. At the top were the pigs. Each pig
represented someone different in the revolution. Old Major is compared to
Lenin. He was an ideologist who dreamed up a wonderful government where
all the animals were equal and the humans, or the czars, were pushed out.
Unfortunately his dream would never materialize. Then we are left with
his predecessors. The first is Snowball. Snowball believed one hundred
percent in Old Majors ideals. He wanted all the things Old Major wanted,
such as the welfare of the animals. In the Russian Revolution his
counterpart would be Trotsky. Trotsky believed and wanted the same things
as Lenin, and wanted to continue what Lenin had started. Then comes
Napoleon. Napoleon was selfish and greedy. He did not want to share the
power or the decision making with any other individual. This was the same
for Stalin. At first Napoleon and Snowball shared the decision making and
had debates about what course of action they would take. This worked for
awhile. Then Napoleon grew weary of long debates, and he thought he could
make the decision by himself. He then forced Snowball out of the farm and
started to spread lies about Snowball to get the entire farm against him.
Stalin did the same thing against Trotsky and forced Trotsky into hiding
into Mexico, where he was eventually assassinated. Both Stalin and
Napoleon ruined any hopes of equal and fare government and instead set up
dictatorships. Then comes the final important pig, Squealer. Squealer did
not make the decisions in the government but acted more like the
controlled media as in the Russian government. His job was to influence
the people by exaggerating and re-writing history and sometimes telling
plain lies all together. The people would listen to him, and he would
always listen to Napoleon. Other animals were the worker class type
citizens. The types of citizens range from hard working to selfish and
lazy. Molly, for instance, only cared about her ribbons, and wasn t much
of a thinker. All she wanted to do was eat sugar, and look pretty.
Benjamin was a critic who always said I ve seen that before and It ll
never work. The cat was just plain lazy, and was always disappearing
whenever work had to be done. The ducks were weak and did not get much
done. Then there were other donkey s which worked much harder and never
thought of their own needs. The pigeons acted as message carriers
spreading propaganda between farms, spreading Napoleon s words from farm
to farm, or in the actual Russian Revolution, country to country.
Although all these animals are very different, they all shared one common
trait. They were all weak. They all let Napoleon take over without much
resistance. Just like Stalin took over Russia. These animals were too
weak, too scared, or just lacked the intelligence required to do
something about it. This is where it is the fault of the people. They
should have stood up to Napoleon for what they fought for in the first
place. The people must stand up to those who would destroy the system or
else all is lost. I think that this story was a good representation of
the actual Russian Revolution. But it is even more than that. It shows
how people can let certain individuals get away with anything just
because they do not feel like standing up to them. If you tried, this
story could also be compared to other times in history when the people
let dictatorships form in their own country. I enjoyed this book a lot
but I do not think that it should be just compared to the Russian
Revolution.