Animal Farm

Animal Farm        

Chapter 1.

1.Jones is a figure representing Orwell’s view of capitalism. He manages the farm thoroughly. The capitalists profit from the labour of others just as Jones profits from his animals. In particular Jones represents the old Russian aristocracy; more specifically, the Russian Tsar. It was the Tsar’s form of government which truly exploited ordinary working people that the Bolsheviks wished to overthrow. In this they were inspired by Marks and Lenin.

2. Notice the subtle manner in which Orwell’s description of the animals, points to the way in which the characters will develop. The first to enter are the dogs, then the pigs. For the moment, it seems perfectly natural that these intelligent animals, should enter first. Only later, do we come to see the pigs, as ruthlessly ambitious animals and the dogs as their violent, cruel, and devoted servants. (Remember that the dogs represent the Russian secret police (KGB). Everyone was terrified of them).

3. These are qualities that will characterise Boxer throughout. He is kind and gentle and unfailingly loyal and immensely hardworking but unable to see the evil of the pigs. He trusts blindly. In the political allegory, Boxer and Clover represent the ordinary working people (proletariat). Orwell describes both with tenderness and understanding. His descriptions never seem sentimental. We see their enormous size, we guess their immense strength but we also see their natural kindness and delicacy.

4.  Benjamin is an important character. Orwell’s novel is concerned with the betrayal of the revolution with the way the ideals of liberty are corrupted by those who seek power for its own sake. This is a grim and bitter few. Most of the animals have high hopes for the revolution at the start of the book. Only in the later chapters do we see their disillusion. Benjamin however is doubtful from the start. He says donkeys live longer than other animals and so see more of the world and its disappointments. Benjamin is something of a cynic but though he takes part in the revolution, he never really believes that its aims will improve the animals’ lives. Right from the start, Benjamin is the voice warning us that things may not turn out as happily as we expect. Nonetheless, for all his cynicism, Benjamin is devoted to Boxer which allegorically represents those people who have a deep sympathy with the hard life of ordinary working people. In some respects, we can see Benjamin as a figure representing Orwell himself: a man deeply sympathetic to the sufferings of ordinary people yet too wise to believe that revolutions are necessarily a good thing.

5. Molly is an animal who enjoys all the little luxuries humankind can give her. She also has an important place in the political allegory that underlies animal farm. She represents the white Russians; those people who were opposed to the communist revolution in Russia and who sided with the forces of the tsar. Molly too is never really a true part of the Revolution and she will eventually leave the farm to work alongside the human beings. The descriptions of animals in the opening chapter anticipates the animals’ later reaction to events.

6. Major has eloquently convinced both the animals and us of the injustices they suffer. He describes the animals wretched existence in such vivid terms the reader immediately understands why they want a revolution.

7. Major declares that the only way of throwing off such gross injustice is rebellion. Revolution will make them free or so it seems. Orwell is here portraying a central idea of communism: the belief that just as Jones’s animals are exploited by a figure weaker than themselves, so the mass of ordinary working people are exploited by the forces of capitalism. According to this view, the capitalists do very little work themselves yet they own everything, in particular they own the labour of ordinary people: the proletariat. Marx believed that only by removing the capitalists would the proletariat be free to enjoy what they themselves produces just as Old Major thinks that such a revolution is bound to come about one day because there are so many animals and they are so much stronger than Jones. So Marx and his followers believe that ordinary people would one day assert their power and throw off the rule of the capitalists.

8. Major’s speech is a simple powerful depiction of the ideals that underlie the communist philosophy of Karl Marx and Lenin. Note the way in which Orwell introduces these ideas. He is not going to preach a difficult lesson. Rather, he introduces these ideas to us through the power, passion, and authority with which Major speaks. Orwell introduces subtle irony even into the opening sections of Major’s speech. The picture Major gives of the suffering of the animals is very strong but when the animals take over the running of the farm, many of the old injustices will be continued by the pigs. For example, Major declares that the cow’s milk should be given to their calves rather than taken by man but when pigs take over Napoleon makes sure that the milk goes to him and the other pigs. Similarly, the hens will not be allowed to hatch their eggs. Instead, the eggs will be sold off to raise money for the pigs’ projects. Most cruelly of all the fate that awaits Boxer under the tyranny of the pigs is exactly the same as that which awaits him under the tyranny of man.

9. In the allegory of Animal Farm, the wild animals such as the rats, represent the great mass of Russian peasants. It is now agreed by the farm animals that these creatures should have their place in the new world that the revolution will create. Just as the Russian peasantry were given their place in the Russian revolution.

10. Major’s vision of a fairer world is very moral and very idealistic. He not only tells animals what they must do to improve their lives but also warns them of the things they must avoid if they are not to become like the exploiting humans they will one day replace for example they must never live in a house or sleep in a bed. It is a measure of the collapse of the revolution on Animal farm that each of these rules is eventually twisted by the pigs to their own advantage. The pigs will tyrannize the other animals in precisely the way Major wishes to avoid. They will kill their comrades with blood thirsty ruthlessness while they seem to support the idea that “All animals are equal.” They finally pervert even this rule and declare that “Some animals are more equal than others.” We thus see right at the start of the novel all the ideals of the revolution that its leaders will betray. Here-lies the tragic irony of Animal Farm. Each of these ideals is corrupted and overridden by the pigs as they establish their power. Major’s dream, becomes a nightmare. The chapters that follow show how the principles of animalism are distorted and corrupted.