ANIMAL FARM
GEORGE ORWELL
“Animal Farm was the first book in
which I tried, with full consciousness
of what I was doing, to fuse political
purpose and artistic purpose into one
whole.”
-- George Orwell
Unit Questions
• #1 How does an author’s background
influence his/her works?
• #2 How do the stylistic techniques
of an author impact the message of
the work?
• #3 What causes the disintegration
of a civilization?
George Orwell Biography
“I do not think one can assess a
writer’s motives without knowing
something of his early development.
Before he ever begins to write he will
have acquired an emotional attitude
from which he will never completely
escape.” George Orwell, “Why I Write”
• One of the best-known political
writers of the 20th century
• Given Name: Eric Arthur Blair
• Born in India, 1903
• Attended school in England
• Returned to India and served as a
policeman in the Indian Imperial
Police
• Returned to England in 1927 to
become a full-time writer
• Lived in poverty
• 1937 went to Spain to fight fascism
• Wrote Animal Farm in 1943-1944 in
London (published in 1946)
• Finished writing 1984 in 1948
• Died of complications from
tuberculosis in 1950
LITERARY
TECHNIQUES
• Allegory
• Fable
• Symbolism
ALLEGORY
• Definition: a representation of an
abstract or spiritual meaning through
concrete or material forms;
figurative treatment of one subject
under the guise of another.
• Concrete Level: a story about animals
on a farm in England
• Abstract Level: a commentary on
Soviet Russia
• More General Level: commentary on
humankind overall
FABLE
• Definition: a short tale to teach a
moral lesson, often with animals or
inanimate objects as characters
• One of the oldest literary forms
(older than the novel or short story)
• Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories are
a modern example of the fable
• Orwell admired Kipling; his stories
most likely influenced Orwell
• Orwell took the short animal fable
and extended it to a short novel
SYMBOLISM
• Definition: a person, place, thing or
event that stands both for itself and
for something beyond itself.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Farmer Jones = Russian Czar Nicolas II
Humans = capitalists / communists
Old Major = Karl Marx / (Vladimir Lenin)
Snowball = Leon Trotsky / (Vladimir Lenin)
Napoleon = Joseph Stalin
Squealer = Pravda (Russian newspaper)
•
•
•
•
•
Pigs = Communist Party loyalists
Dogs = KGB
Boxer & Clover = proletariat
Moses = religion
Windmill = Russian industry
Dramatic Irony / Satire
• Dramatic Irony = irony that occurs
when the meaning of the situation is
understood by the audience but not
by the characters
• Satire = making fun of human folly