George Orwell’s Animal Farm

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George Orwell’s Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a novel where the author uses satire as a style to address corruption and flaws in the government. The author of this publication uses animals to represent greedy and wicked leaders in the legislative system. With detailed use of symbolism, he shows certain animals misusing their leadership positions for their selfish interests. In this book, Mr. Jones is the owner of the ‘Manor Farm’, which has many animals of all kind. However, he hardly takes care of them and instead mistreats them by beating them regularly. One night, Old Major, an elderly and much respected boar in the farm, incites the animals to rebel against the oppression by the farmer.

According to Old Major, no animal in England lives freely, and they all die by cruel knives in the end. As he narrates of the animal land he dreams of, he sings a song named ‘Beast of England’ that talks about a future where all animals would live freely and happily and all animals in the meeting join in the singing. Although Old Major dies before this dream comes true, the animals hold several secret meetings to discuss strategies to gain their freedom. When Mr. Jones loses all his money in a lawsuit, he takes to drinking. The farm workers also neglect the animals and do not feed them the whole day. The animals’ patience wears out and they break out from their sheds and into the storeroom while destroying anything on their way. The animals unite and overpower the farm’s owner and his workers driving them out of the farm making the animals the masters.

The animals now live freely with no rings, chains and whips. They even change the farm’s name to ‘Animal Farm’. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, take over leadership and formulate seven key rules to govern the farm. According to these rules, all animals are equal, all men are enemies, and no animal is allowed to kill another. Despite these rules, the pigs do not do manual work during harvesting time as they claim to be best at brainwork due to their intelligence. However, the animals do not object to this suggestion. Squealer, a pig with a high convincing power, manages to convince the rest of the animals on why the pigs should eat special food such as milk and apples. The successful rebellion by these animals  influences the neighboring farms and the owners of these farms decide to help Mr. Jones reclaim his farm for fear that they would experience the same misfortune. Their efforts are, however, futile as the members of the Animal Farm fight them away through a battle they call ‘The Battle of the Cowshed’.