Allegory in Animal Farm

Layers of Meaning
 Literal level.
 A children’s story about an animal rebellion
that goes wrong.
Layers of Meaning
 The second layer
 The book is a satirical (it uses humor and
exaggeration to expose stupidity and vices)
allegory
What is an allegory?
 from the Greek allegorein, which means ‘to
speak as if to imply something other.’
 A story, poem or picture that can be interpreted
to reveal a political or moral meaning
 Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian
revolution and Stalin’s rule of the Soviet Union
Layers of meaning
 Third layer: Political treatise
 Treatise: a systematic treatment of a subject in
writing
 Not ONLY Stalin’s Russia
 Power, tyranny (cruel and oppressive
government or rule), and revolution.
 It has a wider message
Layers of meaning
 Fourth layer: Beast Fable
 A classical genre dating from Greek times,
starting with Aesop in the 5th century B.C.
 In a beast fable, the behaviour of animals
points out human weaknesses.
 This level transcends (goes beyond limits)
Russia and history and is a warning about
universal human failings.
Thus a simple story becomes:
 A moral warning against the abuse of power;
 A story of disillusionment with the Russian
revolution;
 An exposure of Stalin’s evils;
 A fable of human strengths and weaknesses.
Why Orwell wrote the book
 He was a democratic socialist
 He was disgusted by Stalin’s betrayal of the
ideals of the Russian Revolution
 He wanted to teach us:
 Power corrupts;
 Revolutions come full circle and devour their
people;
 Even good people are vulnerable to power
hungry leaders if they don’t question what
they’re told.
Now…
 I will outline the people involved in the Russian
Revolution
 As I speak, make sure to complete your table
with names and notes
Marx/Lenin
 A combination of Marx and Lenin
 dream of abolishing class distinctions and
redistribution of land and resources
 philosophical belief in the possibility of a
utopian society based on equality and work
sharing
Leon Trotsky
 an intellectual and Lenin’s “right hand” man
 much more practical than Lenin, more aware of
the daily struggles of the population
 conceives of the notion of the Five Year Plan
that Stalin later adopts
Josef Stalin
 totalitarian ruler of Russia after Lenin
 expels Leon Trotsky from the Party and then
adopts many of Trotsky’s financial and political
plans
 iron-fisted dictator
The Bolsheviks

Russians: largely peasants with some formal education

on an intellectual level, this population embraces the
Revolution enthusiastically because of the promise of
food and work

Bolsheviks (or "the Majority") were an organization of
professional revolutionaries who considered themselves
as a vanguard of the revolutionary proletariat (workers)

beliefs and practices were often referred to as
Bolshevism.

party was founded by Vladimir Lenin, who also led it in
the October Revolution
Stakhanovites
 The Stakhanovites (Working Class)
 poor Russian populace with little to no formal
education
The Russian Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Churches
 under Marxism, the “church” has no official
role
 Marx comments that “The abolition of religion
as the illusory happiness of the people is
required for their real happiness.”
White Russians (Belarusian)
 under the Czar, these Russians were land
owners with a certain degree of influence
 before the Revolution, White Russians own
serfs and control distribution of wealth in “the
bread basket” of Russia (Ukraine, Belarus)
 resented by the general population as
members of the elitist (class) system that exists
before the Revolution
Winston Churchill
 close diplomatic ties with Lenin in order to
defeat Hitler and the Nazis during World War II
 Churchill had reservations about socialism but
overlooked them in order to manage what he
saw as a greater threat to England and
Western Europe: fascism
Propagandists (Pravda—Russian for
“correct”)
 Russian newspaper, state-run
 Pravda was well-known in the West for its
pronouncements as the official voice of Soviet
Communism
 Propaganda personified
Secret Police
 NKVD (later the KGB) come to be regarded with
great fear by the Russians was responsible for
political repression during the Stalinist era
 conducted mass extrajudicial executions, ran the
Gulag system of forced labor, conducted mass
deportations of nationalities and peasants labeled
as "Kulaks" to unpopulated regions of the country,
guarded state borders, conducted espionage and
political assassinations abroad, was responsible for
subversion of foreign governments, and enforced
Stalinist policy within Communist movements in
other countries
 also known for its Main Directorate for State
Security, which eventually became the Committee
for State Security (KGB)
Hitler
 Originally an ally of Stalin at the beginning of
World war Two
 Stalin betrayed him and formed an alliance with
the British and Americans instead
 (He went from the Axis powers to the Allied
powers)
Plot parallels
Can you work with a partner to match the events of
the Russian Revolution to events in the book?
Plot parallels

October revolution: The animals’ rebellion

Civil War: The Battle of the Cowshed led by Snowball

Kronstadt rebellion: The mutiny of the hens

Trotsky & Industry: Snowball and the Windmill

Stalin & Agriculture: Napoleon’s opposition to the windmill

Trotsky’s permanent revolution: Snowball wants to send pigeons to nearby farms

Stalin’s socialism in one country: Napoleon opposes pigeons

Trotsky’s exile: Snowball is defeated and driven away

Failure of the 5 year plan: The windmill is demolished

Ukraine Famine: Starvation

Purge trials: Confessions and executions of animals

Nazi-Soviet Pact: Deal with Frederick

German Invasion: Battle with Frederick
Finally
 The Tehran Conference: Pigs indistinguishable
form men.
 Perhaps the most shocking moment of all: it
implies that Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill are
all as bad as each other.