Animal Farm

1. Animal Farm An allegory by George Orwell

2. Animal Farm: Background Animal Farm is an allegory—a story that can be read on two levels. One level is literal: a pig is a pig. The other level is figurative—something represents something else. A pig is a political leader.

3. Animal Farm: Background Events and characters in an allegory are used by a writer to convey a moral message. Orwell’s story seems to be about barnyard animals. But what is the story really about?

4. Animal Farm: Background George Orwell uses his novel to comment on events in Russian history, Communism, and revolutions. • Russian Revolution • the peasants’ revolt • rise of totalitarianism • the Moscow purge trials

5. Many of the characters in Animal Farm represent the political leaders of the Russian Revolution • Czar Nicholas II =Mr. Jones • Mr. Jones and humans he represents are the only animals who consume without producing. The aristocracy he represents collected $$ and goods from the peasants without actually laboring. The Czar fell to the communists, like Mr. Jones falls to the animals. • Karl Marx = Old Major • Old Major is the originator of the idea that becomes the basis of the animal rebellion. Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto encouraged the Russian Revolution, a rebellion against the corrupt czars of Russia.

6. Joseph Stalin = Napoleon • Example of the tyranny that overtakes all humans when they accumulate too much power. His greed for more power and wealth overtakes any ideals he may have initially had- much as it did with Stalin, who is ultimately connected to the deaths of millions of his own fellow citizens. • Leon Trotsky = Snowball • Leon Trotsky escaped from the Soviet Union after losing a power struggle with Stalin. Trotsky went into exile in Mexico, where he was later murdered by Stalin’s agents.

7. Prediction? • Based on historical background, can you make a prediction about a major theme that may emerge in Animal Farm? ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!