ALLEGORICAL PARALLELS CHART
NAME_________________________
Because Animal Farm is an allegory, many of the characters and events in the story are meant to represent historical
figures and events.
***IMPORTANT***
To be successful on the unit quizzes and tests you must know the connections between the characters, settings, and
events in the story and their historical parallels.
Historical
Figure/Setting
Russia/Soviet Union
Czar Nicolas II
Leon Trotsky
Josef Stalin
Karl Marx/
Vladimir Lenin
Czar’s palace
Religion—Or more
specifically—The
Patriarch of the
Russian Orthodox
Church
Character/Place/
Event in Novel
Describe How This Is A Parallel
The Proletariat—The
laboring or working
class loyal to the party
Pravda—the
newspaper that
worked as the
propaganda machine
of the Party
Russian
bourgeoisie—luxury
class and aristocrats
of the old order
Adolf Hitler
Nazi Germany
Winston Churchill
England
Communist
Internationale—
international
organization of
Communist parties who
spread the movement
Foreigners/Westerners
sympathetic to the
revolution or who
sought to profit from the
upheaval
The Cheka, KGB, or
Secret Police
The October
Revolution—Russian
(Bolshevik)
Revolution
Stalin’s 5-Year Plan to
create economic selfsufficiency and work
the people
The Nazi-Soviet AntiAggression pact
Operation
“Barbarossa”—Battle
of Stalingrad—
German invasion of
Russia during WWII
Lenin’s embalmed
body placed on
display in Red Square
Soviet flag with
hammer and sickle
Stalin’s purges of
1936-38 when
innocent people were
tried and executed
Tehran Conference of
1943 between
Roosevelt, Churchill,
and Stalin making
concessions to the
Soviet Union
Some possible answers: Snowball, Moses, Farmer Jones, Squealer, Pigeons, Boxer, Frederick/Pinchfield Farm, Mollie,
Dogs, Mr. Whymper, Napoleon, Pilkington/Foxwood Farm, 4 pigs, Old Major, Building the windmill
ALLEGORICAL PARALLELS QUESTIONS
1. Why do you think Orwell decided to represent the proletariat with the animal he chose?
2. Why do you think Stalin and Trotsky are represented by the same animal?
3. Why do you think Orwell chose that animal to represent these two men?
4. What internal feud within the Communist party is paralleled in the struggle for power between Napoleon and
Snowball?
5. During the Stalinist period the Communist State repeatedly set industrial and agricultural production goals that were
often difficult or impossible to reach. These goals played a major role in the government’s Five Year Plan and similar
plans. How are these plans represented in Orwell’s story?
6. How does Napoleon respond to criticism or resistance? How does this parallel the behaviors of Soviet leaders of the
time?
7. In the final pages of the story, describe the irony in Napoleon’s behavior, and explain how it corresponds to the
behavior of the elite party members (Stalin) in the Soviet Union and corrupt leaders throughout history and today.