Animal Farm Russian Revolution Analysis

Last Updated: 23 Mar 2023
Essay type: Analysis
Pages: 2 Views: 593

Image a brutal Communist Soviet revolution. Now imagine a group of barnyard animals who free themselves from humans in an effort to be free, and rule themselves. In the well-renowned fable Animal Farm by George Orwell the Old Major’s Dream, the construction(s) of the windmill and Napoleon himself are all symbolic representations of the Russian Revolution. Old Major’s Dream blatantly represents Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Orwell simplified the basic ideas of Marx’s Manifesto into Major’s dream.

Major states that humans are the only species that consume without producing and animals must overthrow them which is relevant to Marx’s main idea, that capitalists collected all the profit from the worker’s profit, and he suggested they overthrow the capitalists if they wanted to be more successful. Old Major’s dream also represents the Manifesto the way he ends his speech. Marx ends the Manifesto with commanding the workers to unite, while Old Major ends his speech with commanding his comrades to rebel, both were advocating change.

Orwell clearly portrayed Marx’s Manifesto in the story by allegorizing through Old Major’s dream. Another even that directly represented the Russian Revolution was the construction(S) of the windmill, and it represented the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky wanted to continue to spread the revolution, while Stalin wanted to focus on establishing communism in the newly attained Russian countries. This dispute really caused a division, with people following certain sides.

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In Animal Farm Napoleon felt it was unnecessary to build the windmill and suppressed it, while Snowball promoted it, which divided the Farm. Once Napoleon realized that Snowball’s promotion could have an impact, he exiled him from the farm, as did Stalin to Trotsky. Once their rival had been exiled, they continued to build the windmill and Communism. The decision whether or not to build the windmill represented the decision whether or not to spread Communism, the windmill symbolized Communism. In Animal Farm, the character Napoleon symbolizes Stalin himself.

Napoleon acted as an allegory of Stalin, mirroring many of the actions he made. For example, Stalin exiled Trotsky and Napoleon got rid of Snowball, Stalin removed many other opponents and then adopted some of their ideas similarly Napoleon who eliminated Snowball but took his idea of building the windmill, both had a serious of purges where they murdered many traders and such, both were very harsh to their workers with Stalin and collectivization which lead to a huge famine and Napoleon with reduced rations, and they both were deceived, Stalin by Germany and Napoleon by Mr. Federick. Orwell adequately portrayed Stalin as Napoleon which is evident due to all these similarities. Old Major’s dream represented the Communist Manifesto, the construction of the windmill represented the feud amongst Trotsky and Stalin, and Napoleon represents Stalin. The author brilliantly allegorized features of the Russian Revolution into a fable consisting of barn animals, and each individual animal’s supposed personality fit well. “Animal Farm” is a direct symbol of the Russian Revolution.

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Animal Farm Russian Revolution Analysis. (2017, Jan 08). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/animal-farm-russian-revolution-analysis/

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