Animal Farm
George Orwell
Character Analysis: Snowball
In contrast to Napoleon, Snowball is characterised as a young boar who is “quicker in speech and more inventive,” foregrounding his qualities of pragmatism and charisma. Despite being one of the leaders of the farm, his ongoing tensions with Napoleon eventuate with his expulsion from the farm.
Snowball has a more pro-active leadership role on the farm in comparison to Napoleon. He is the organiser of various committees dedicated to improving the farm: “He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades’ Re-education Committee.” Additionally, Snowball is shown to be a master strategist, indicated by his prowess in directing the animals in the Battle of Cowshed. His goals are different to that of Napoleon, in that he endeavours to improve society through education and the development of new inventions, such as the windmill. Through his eloquent speeches, he is able to garner the animals’ support for his vision of the farm’s future, but is later chased away by Napoleon’s dogs, effectively removing him from power. However, throughout the story, Snowball is shown to have a role as an invisible saboteur, allegedly taking many measures to uproot the dictatorship of Napoleon
Snowball allegorically represents Leon Trotsky in his struggle for power with Stalin. As one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party and a Commissar of War, Trotsky played an active role as leader of the Red Army. He was in constant contention with Stalin’s policies, as a proponent of the internationalist communist ideology ‘Permanent Revolution’ – the antithesis of Stalin’s more nationalist ‘Socialism-In-One-Country.’ Following Lenin’s death, Stalin eventually gained enough support to rise as leader (despite Trotsky being the assumed successor by most in the party), and Trotsky was subsequently exiled. Despite being banished, Trotsky continued to speak out against Stalin, writing an autobiography titled My Life that publicly condemned Stalin’s lack of insight as a leader. Although not included in the novella, Trotsky was later assassinated by Ramón Mercader, an NKVD agent under Stalin’s command. As such, Orwell uses the plight of Trotsky to convey the dangerous nature of tyrants such as Stalin who sought to terminate anyone who opposed to their control.
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Animal Farm
Sample Essay
Animal Farm captures the events of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In February 1917, the oppressive and autocratic Tsarist government was overthrown and replaced with the unpopular Provisional Government, which later, in October,
was also overthrown, this time by the communist Bolshevik Party. The aftermath of this rebellion is reincarnated in the form of a fable, the events of which reflect the hostile political landscape of Orwell’s context and ensuing social injustice.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm begins in Manor farm, where it is revealed that the drunken farmer Mr Jones has been continually mistreating his animals. Old Major, a wise and esteemed boar now approaching his final days, calls together a meeting, where he tells the other animals of his dream – a utopian society, where the farm animals are free to live a life without the burden of slavery by mankind. In this speech, Major declares rebellion to be the key in achieving this idealistic society and patriotically accentuates his speech with the anthem “Beasts of England,” which becomes a symbol of the animals’ freedom and integrity. Shortly after, Major dies, leaving his dream behind for the other farm animals to achieve.
Plans of rebellion are made, with the pigs establishing themselves as leaders of the coup. With a united effort, the animals are able to drive Mr Jones away from the farm and soon find themselves revelling in freedom. Without the control of Mr Jones, the farm flourishes and the animals experience freedom for the first time in a long time. However, the future of the farm shortly becomes a point of conflict between the established leaders, Snowball and Napoleon, as the two pigs have differing aspirations for the farm. The struggle for power culminates in Snowball eventually being driven away, giving Napoleon total unopposed control over the farm. With Napoleon at the helm, the ideals of equality on the farm seem to quickly vanish, with the pigs slowly establishing control through false claims of altruism. Through rhetoric and propaganda, the other animals are compelled to follow the pigs’ leadership.
Life on the farm for all the other animals except the pigs becomes inevitably worse under the rule of Napoleon. The rewards of labour on the farm are used to ensure a luxurious lifestyle for the pigs, subsequently subverting the concept of an equal society once proposed by Major. In fact, life on the farm seems to be worse than it had been under the control of Mr Jones. This is symbolically exemplified in the conclusion of the novella, where the other farm animals witness the transformation of the pigs as they begin to walk on two legs and play cards, eerily resembling the humans who oppressed the animals in the first place.
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