Literary Concepts

8/2/2019 Literary Concepts

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AnimalFarm

By George Orwell

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

Allegory - Satire - Fable


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What is Animal Farm?

Animal Farmis a POLITICAL SATIRE -a tale of oppressed individualswho long for freedom but areultimately corrupted by assumingthe very power that had originallyoppressed them.

The story traces the conditionsof mistreated animals who canspeak and who exhibit manyhuman characteristics. Afterextreme negligence by theirowner, the animals revolt and

expel Mr. Jones from the farm. The tale of the society the

animals form into a TOTALITARIANREGIME is viewed as Orwell'scritique of the COMMUNIST SYSTEMin the former Soviet Union.


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The significance of the novel today

But why now that Soviet Communism hasfallen and the Cold War is over doesAnimal Farmdeserve our attention?

The answer lies in the power of ALLEGORY.Allegorical fables require the reader tomake comparisons and connections so aremeaningful to any reader in any historicalperiod. The story of Animal Farmwill alwayshave lessons to teach us about the ways thatpeople abuse power and manipulate others.

Orwell's chilling story of the betrayal ofidealism through tyranny and corruption is as

fresh and relevant today as when it wasfirst published in 1945.


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Childrens Book? No!

After Animal Farmwas published in 1945, Orwell discovered with horrorthat booksellers were placing his novel on childrens shelves. Hetravelled from bookstore to bookstore requesting that the book beshelved with adult works. This dual identity - as childrens fable and

adult satire - has stayed with Orwells novel and adds to itsUNIVERSALITY, being read by individuals of all ages.

Universality?Universality is a concept which allows the reader to truly understand the

message which the author is trying to express. How? By the authorusing concepts which the reader is sure to understand. The author

focuses on concepts which are concrete and which each individual mayhave experienced, such as feeling certain emotions which are UNIVERSALlike happiness; anger; jealousy

The author may also focus on realistic settings such as a farm or a beachor a field, rather than going to Mars or the Sun.


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Why choose animals for characters?

In explaining how he came to write Animal Farm, Orwell says he

once saw a little boy whipping a horse and he wrote,It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strengthwe should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in

much the same way as the rich exploit the [worker].

Why choose the farm as a setting?

The countryside provides the perfect rural, idyllic and nostalgicbackdrop for Old Majors dream of a perfect state a UTOPIAin which all animals are free.

Apart from that Orwell wanted to show how man has the POWERto oppress and exploit animals for his own material gain.


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Fable The fable is one of the oldest literary forms

- older than the novel or short story. It is usually short, written in either verse or

prose, and is deliberately invented. A fable is either a short story or folk tale

which conveys a moral or message which maybe expressed clearly at the end as a maxim.

Fables often use animals for their central

characters which retain animal traits BUTthen talk and act like people. For example,Aesop used the fox to embody the humancharacteristics of cunning and cleverness.Though Aesop's animal fables wereostensibly about animals, they were reallyinstructional tales about human emotions andhuman behaviour.

The most popular animal fables are the JustSo Stories(1902) written by RudyardKipling. Kipling's fables were adapted byDisney in the movie The Jungle Book. Kiplinginfluenced Orwell in the form of AnimalFarmas Orwell took the short animal fableand expanded it to the length of a shortnovel in the form of an ALLEGORY.


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Allegory

Most fables have TWO levels of meaning. On the surface, the fable is aboutanimals. But on a second level, the animals stand for types of people or ideas.The way the animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says somethingabout the nature of people or the value of ideas. Any type of fiction thathas multiple levels of meaning in this way is called an allegory.

An allegory is a symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation formeanings other than the literal. The characters are generally embodimentsof moral qualities such as strength of character or ambition.

It is possible to argue that Animal Farmalso has a third and more generallevel of meaning which adds to its UNIVERSALITY as it still focuses on aspectsof life today. For instance, the pigs need not only represent specific

tyrannical soviet leaders. They could also be symbols for tyranny morebroadly: their qualities are therefore not simply the historicalcharacteristics of a set of actual men but are the qualities of all leaderswho rely on repression and manipulation.
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Satire Satire is a literary technique which

ridicules its subject by exaggeratingfaults and revealing hypocrisies, oftenas a means of provoking change.

In a satire, the writer attacks aserious issue by making fun of it.

Orwell uses satire to expose what hesaw as the myth of Soviet socialism.Thus, the novel as an ALLEGORY tells astory that people of all ages canunderstand, but it also tells us a

second story - that of the real-liferevolution.


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Point of View

The point of view is the position fromwhich the story is observed or narrated. InAnimal FarmOrwell tells the story througha third person, impersonal and omniscientpoint of view. The narrator is neverinvolved in the action of the story but is

able to see into the minds of thecharacters and understand theirmotivations.

Orwell never tries to bias or influence hisreaders by manipulating them with thelanguage he uses as he realises that is what

the Communist government does to thepeople in Russia after the revolution trying to show that they are ignorant foolswho have no opinion or say over their ownlife.
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Symbolism

Symbolism is when a writer represents a character or an objectto stand for something else especially when a material object isused to represent something abstract. We use a heart to showwe love someone or else say that red is the colour which showsdanger.

A deeper form of symbolism is when we use PATHETIC FALLACYwhere we use aspects of nature to tie into what someone isfeeling or to foreshadow what might happen in the future. Whenit is raining we may say that the heavens are crying, or when it isa stormy day we expect bad things to happen.

In Animal Farm, Orwell used the animal characters as symbolsfor real human counterparts either from history, especially theRussian Revolution, or from life today such as common tyrants ordictators who will always exist.
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Dramatic Irony Ironyresults when there is inconsistency

between what an audience would expectto happen and what actually happens.Orwell uses dramatic irony in AnimalFarmas he allows the animals toforeshadow what will happen further onin Animal Farm.

The reader knows just what the animalsknow, but we can see so much more of itssignificance than they can. Theconclusions we reach that the animalsnever quite get to that the pigs aredecadent, corrupt, and immoral are all

the more powerful because we arrive atthem ourselves, without the narratorpointing these things out to us directly.


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Themes

1. Freedom and individual dignitymust be guarded very carefully.

2. Language is a very powerful tool;used improperly it can enslave

and confuse us.3. Weakness can be dominated bystrength, fear and trickery.

4. Hope and vision must be keptalive or we might live like the

animals of Animal Farm.5. Power corrupts and absolutepower corrupts absolutely.
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Literary Concepts