Eng103 Research Paper

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Analysis of Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm is perhaps one of the most popular political allegories of all time. The book has received numerous accolades and attracted a wide range of audiences since its publication. Animal Farm is a book that has consistently been reviewed with the aim of understanding its underlying themes and the way they resonate with the governance styles of the modern age. George Orwell, the author of the book, delved into the political trends of the past and those of his time with a precision that is continually receiving accolades from all the major stakeholders of the world today. The current paper analyzes the way the book explains the political and economic events of the Russian Empire, which later changed to be The Soviet Union, and the larger European and global powers of the time described in the book. The book will also analyze the representations that the animal characters in the book depict while also giving explanations the reasons behind Orwell’s characterizations.
In the early sections of his book, Orwell describes Manor Farm where animals live happily together with their human owners. Old Major, the boar of the farm, incites other animals to revolt against the leadership of humans in the Manor Farm. Effectively, Old Major teaches other animals the revolutionary songs, including the Beasts of England, which they use to indicate their opposition towards the human leadership. As the days move on, the Old Major dies and two pigs Snowball and Napoleon emerge to take the leadership mantle in the Manor Farm (McHugh).

They make it a priority to prepare for the rebellion against the Human leadership, a cause they commit to and help influence all the animals to join it. Eventually, the animals manage to eliminate the farm attendant, Mr. Jones, and rename the Manor Farm to just the Animal Farm. In their new farm, the animals develop the motto of ‘All Animals are Equal’ to govern all their activities.
From the initial plot summary described above, it is clear that Orwell aimed at linking the political events in the Russian Empire. The Manor Farm represented the Russian Empire; its name was changed to the Animal Farm, which represented the change in the Soviet Union. Clearly, Orwell depicts the trends that took place in Russia in a precise way, with Old Major representing both Lenin and Karl Marx, who were once among the most influential leaders in the economic and political spectrums of the Russian Empire. The two pigs who took over after the death of Old Major, Napoleon, and Snowball, represent Josef Stalin and Trotsky. The two leaders were in the forefront of the push to change the country to be a communist state, an ambitious undertaking that they successfully managed to accomplish. However, upon Stalin taking over, the motor of all animals being equal seemed not to hold as some animals realized that the pigs were taking advantage of the rest of the animals.
Orwell narrates the way the other animals, specifically the donkeys, worked in the fields only for the pigs to keep getting fatter than the rest of the animals. The depiction in is that the pigs were going against the agreement for all animals to remain equals as they lived in the Animal Farm. From the widely available literature, it has been agreed that the pigs represent the leaders who emerged immediately after the Russian revolution. The political leaders championed the calls for change, but they failed to lead with the example of equality that they were calling for. Instead of ensuring equality in the way the resources of the nation were shared, the leaders adopted dictatorial tendencies and ended up defrauding the rest of the citizens of their hard-earned resources (Clarke). The Russian revolution aimed to eliminate the dictatorial tendencies of the leaders who were at the helm back then. However, upon the end of the revolution, the leaders who took over the Soviet Union that emerged got even worse than the earlier dictators who led the pre-revolution Russian empire.
The issues of the working class citizens are well documented in the Animal Farm dystopian. From the way the description of other animals working hard only for the pigs keeping on getting fat, it is a clear message that some classes of people were taking advantage of the working people (Rodden). Apparently, the working class is one of the most ignored class in any nation. It was even worse in the years that followed the Russian revolution and during the years of then Second World War. The Soviet Union had been rated as one of the richest nations in the world then, but most of its people were living in poverty. Despite its abundance of resources, only the political class was benefiting from the resources that were vastly available in Russia. The dictators who were at the helm of leadership were not considering the welfare of the millions of workers who were working to develop the nation. Instead of helping them get out of poverty, the Soviet Union dictators were swindling public resources and getting rich every other day, a depiction that Orwell links to the pigs getting fatter by every other day.
The issues of the police and the army are also addressed in the Animal Farm. The puppies and Moses are depicted as the security forces, and the spies that were used in the enforcement of dictatorial polices in the Soviet Union. The puppies were ruthless, a depiction of the way the army and police that Staling commanded acted against any individual who exhibited dissent to the established policies. Historical records have it that Stalin, through his security forces, was able to kill several thousands of people who objected his policies (Thagard 133). Stalin also used spies to monitor and infiltrate the public, an aspect that led to the collection of intelligence information that aided the elimination of any opposition in the governance of the Soviet Union. From the book Animal Farm, it is clear that the pigs, puppies and Moses, the raven, maintained the closest bonds in the farm. With their union, the rest of the animals could not raise any issue regarding the failure to observe the motto of all animals being equal.
Orwell is also clear of the public support that dictatorial regimes keep getting despite their clear ruthlessness in the implementation of their policies. Orwell develops sheep as characters in his book. The sheep are meek animals that follow and support the pigs that incite them to join the revolution against Mr. Jones (Letemendia 130). The sheep blindly applaud the rhetoric held in the speeches from the new leaders of the Animal Farm. Just like the larger public, the sheep are not worried whether the information they receive is factual or just the normal lies from leaders. Cows and hens are also promised to be protected if they join the revolution to eliminate Mr. Jones. The cows are promised that their milk will not be stolen from them but used to raise their calves. However, the pigs later use the milk to mash up their foods, a luxury that other animals are denied. The hens also have their eggs stolen from them just as it was the case during the reign of Mr. Jones. From this context, it is clear that Orwell was raising awareness regarding the lies that politicians and the ruling elite propagate and their actual deeds once they get to their positions of leadership.
From the above analysis, it is apparent that Animal Farms is an effective political allegory that resonates with the realities of the world. Despite receiving quite significant levels of criticisms regarding its use of basic language and structure, Animal Farm remains one of the best dystopian to be ever written. George Orwell can link the complex political realities with the ways animals behave in a small farm that represents the public in various countries. The political trends during and after the Russian revolution are well elaborated in Animal Farm in a way that criticizes the failures that the ruling initiated that have affected the people to date. In conclusion, Animal Farm is a book that requires further studies to decode the inner meaning that it holds with the aim of solving the various political and economic issues that the world faces today.

Works Cited
Clarke, Ben. “George Orwell, Jack Hilton, and the Working Class.” The Review of English Studies (2016): hgw014.
Letemendia, Veronica Claire. “Revolution on animal farm: Orwell’s neglected commentary.” Journal of Modern Literature 18.1 (1992): 127-137.
McHugh, Susan. “Animal farm’s lessons for literary (and) animal studies.” Humanimalia: a journal of human/animal interface studies 1.2009 (2009): 1.
Rodden, John. “Appreciating animal farm in the new millennium.” Modern Age45.1 (2003): 67.
Thagard, Paul. “The brain is wider than the sky: Analogy, emotion, and allegory.” Metaphor and Symbol 26.2 (2011): 131-142.