Animal Farm

• Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said that Revolution is impossible until it is inevitable
• There comes a point when enough is enough when the need for radical change becomes urgent and outweighs the risks of violent Rebellion
• What happens when Revolution leads to yet another more Insidious form of tyranny
• George Orwell was troubled by the progress of the Russian Revolution in his lifetime
• Orwell was inspired to allegorize the Russian Revolution in the form of a farmyard Fable
• An allegory is a narrative whose plot characters or setting are used to symbolize or represent real world issues or events
• The Russian Revolution which began in 1917 followed a recognizable pattern
• The cycle of Revolution and tyranny


  1. Unrest

  2. Violent overthrow of old regime

  3. Establishment of new hopeful regime

  4. Betrayal of Revolutionary ideals

  5. Reign of terror

  6. New tyrannical dictatorship
• Catalyst for the revolution


  A stirring speech delivered by old major farmer Jones's prized boore
• Old Major's rhetoric or the persuasive power of His language plants the seed of rebellion in the hearts of the discontented animals
• Old Major asks his audience is it not Crystal Clear then comrades that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings
• Orwell capitalizes or uses a capital letter for man to highlight the status of humans as the arch enemies of animals
• The animals also begin to address each other as comrade which means Ally or fellow Soldier
• Mr Jones is a slovenly drunken farmer whose neglect and abuse of the animals becomes unbearable
• The animals flung themselves upon their tormentors Jones and his men and suddenly found themselves being buttered and kicked from all sides
• The animals were overwhelmed with the joy of Freedom
• A new regime is established on the newly named Animal Farm
• Animal Farm now had its own flag Democratic meetings on Sundays and an Anthem which they all proudly sang
• Napoleon becomes a tyrannical ruler who holds absolute power on the farm and enforces it through fear cruelty and oppression
• Napoleon's dramatic power grab results in a different use of the space as he mounted onto the raised portion of the floor where major had previously stood to deliver his speech
• Napoleon with Squealer and another pig named Minimus sat on the front of the raised platform with the nine young dogs forming a semicircle around them and the other pigs sitting behind the rest of the animals sat facing them in the main body of the barn
• Napoleon acts swiftly and ruthlessly to starve the hens which kills nine of them
• Napoleon starts publicly executing other animals and the dogs promptly tore their throats out
• Snowball the exiled enemy of Animal Farm symbolizes Leon Trotsky and the poor animals executed by Napoleon's dog symbolize the defendants in Stalin's show trials
• Boxer's fate symbolizes that of the Russian working class they fought to establish the Soviet Union but were eventually betrayed by Stalin's communist regime
• The revolution against Mr Jones was meant to liberate the animals from the tyranny of man and make them all rich and free
• Instead the animals are delivered into a bizarre nightmare where they are generally hungry while Napoleon was seen strolling in The Farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth
• In the novel's Deno or final resolution Orwell delivers a chilling twist as the animals watch the pigs and humans quarreling over for a card game and it was impossible to say which was which
• The revolution comes full circle in rebelling against the old regime the new leaders eventually become their old enemies
• Revolution and tyranny seem to go hand inand their opposite side of the same coin
• While future revolutions are inevitable can we learn from history and literature and do without the plot twist of tyranny