Vanessa Galofaro 2/12/13
Animal Farm Essay Section 1

Animal Farm is a novel written by George Orwell. Orwell wrote the novel as a satire on totalitarianism. He created a place known as Animal Farm, which is a play on Stalin’s Soviet Union. Animal Farm was a dictatorship just like Stalin’s leadership of the Soviet Union. Animal Farm is about animals that live on Manor Farm. Manor Farm is led by Mr. Joes, a human in the novel. In the very beginning of the story, a boar named Old Major gives the other animals a speech. He tells them to start a revolutionary rebellion against Mr. Jones. After he died the animals rebelled against Mr. Jones. The rebellion was a success and two pigs named Napoleon and Snowball took charge. Animal Farm is based on the Soviet Union when Joseph Stalin was in charge. In Animal Farm Napoleon is based off of Stalin. They both killed people who opposed them. They also both used propaganda and indoctrination. Napoleon used propaganda by telling Squealer to lie to the animals. Before Napoleon took full control of Animal Farm he was in charge with Snowball. Snowball represents Leon Trotsky. Stalin blamed Trotsky for everything and Napoleon did the same to Snowball. For example, when the original windmill fell Napoleon blamed Snowball. However, it was a storm that caused the windmill to collapse. Before Snowball or Napoleon were in charge Mr. Jones was in charge. Mr. Jones represents Czar Nicholas II. This is because Czar Nicholas II was kicked out of Russia before Stalin took over. Old Major is known as the father of Animalism. Orwell created Old Major to represent Karl Marx. Another character in Animal Farm is Moses the raven. Moses is based off of the Russian Church for being a tattletale. Animal Farm was the result of a successful rebellion. Unfortunately, the joyous idea of a better life came crashing down. Animal Farm became a dictatorship. The pigs took over since they were the most educated animals on the farm. Two of the main leading pigs were Snowball and Napoleon. Napoleon eventually drove Snowball out of Animal Farm. He taught the other animals to think of Snowball as a traitor. This is how Napoleon became leader of Animal Farm. He took control over the animals and was a dictator. One way that he took control of the animals was by using his dogs. Napoleon indoctrinated the dogs so they did what he told them and they thought it was right. Napoleon told the dogs to kill whoever went against him. The animals feared death so they did not go against him. Napoleon also used the totalitarian technique of propaganda. Squealer, one of the pigs in the novel, would lie to the other animals. For example, Squealer lied about what was said on the crate Boxer (one of the horses) was in. This is considered propaganda because Squealer made it seem that Boxer’s death was peaceful. However, it was actually a harsh ending to Boxer’s life. This is how the pigs used propaganda. The literary device of irony is used in the novel a lot. One of the commandments that the animals created was “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.” The animals agreed that they would never be like humans. However, in the end of the novel the pigs had become so much like humans that the other animals could not tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. This is a display of irony because the opposite of what the readers expected to happen happened. The irony occurred after a series of changes the pigs made. The pigs started to wear Mr. Jones’s clothes. They also started to drink alcohol and walk on two legs. They also changed the commandments. For example, the pigs changed the fourth commandment. The commandment originally stated, “No animal shall sleep in a bed.” However,