Historical Allegory and Symbolism in Animal Farm

Haley Pruitt Mrs. Blount AP Literature and Composition 12 November 2012 Symbolism and Allegory in animal(prenominal) conjure up When George Or sound wrote his literary master sh are that has been acclaimed for some years by critics everywhere, wildcat Farm, in that location were compositiony world events shaping the future(a) of all of europium and the world that force his views, which at that situationfore influenced his committal to paternity and opinions. His background and determine help to shape the glasses d bingle which he views these events.George Orwell is put into positions of warf are and prudence and handles two argently as he allows them to mold him into the person that writes the masterpieces that he goes on to produce. living organisms are implemented to retell the composition of Marxism, the Russian Revolution, and the d testifyfall of utopian views and societies. George Orwell uses symbolization and emblem in his novel zoology Farm to file the neighborly issues of the Soviet nitty-gritty in the season stay of 1917 through 1943.The background of George Orwell must be understood before one keep go deeper into his literary be contracts. George Orwell was the pen de none of Eric Arthur Blair who was born on June 25, 1903 in Motihari, Bihar, India. He was born into an upper middle shape family and went to Catholic school. He moved to Burma where his nanna lived, and this is where he later wrote Burmese Days, A Hanging, and Shooting an Elephant. In Burmese Days, he resigned to escape non provided from imperialism precisely from every form of gentlemans gentlemans dominion everywhere man (Orwell 748).When George Orwell moved to London, he began to explore the slums and the poorer part of the city so that he could bring out to understand them and the context of the m all books that were scripted about them. Orwell became interested in the Spanish Civil contend and decided to tamp down part in it because of this, he was asked to be a part of the Spanish Embassy in Paris and he wanted to clear fascism end-to-end the world. George Orwell was married to and adopted a son with Eileen OShaughnessy. She died in 1945 during a surgical procedure. Right before he died, he married Sonia Brownell in 1949. Orwell died at 46 years old from tuberculosis.He was in and out of many hospitals for the last leash years that he was alive. The author was interred according to Angli preempt Rite in the All Saints church serviceyard. At the outbreak of man warfare II, George Orwell was deemed unfit for service so he began to write for newspapers. Orwell wrote a tug of the Tribune and he was a major indorser/writer of The Observer. By this stage, Orwell saw himself earlier as a political writer, a democratic socialist who hated troupe labels, hated totalitarianism, and was to become a lot(prenominal) and much dis coloured with the methods of Communism (Orwell 748).Orwell wanted to undo Communism and e liminate it from Europe. Through his writing for various newspapers, he saw himself as making a difference, but not quite as much as he would have ilkd so he began a novel to show the ugly truth of Communism at once and for all. Before the end of 1944, Animal Farm was ready for publication, but a publishing firm could not be put in as it was considered an attack on the Soviets. No one wanted to accept that kind of certificate of indebtedness and punishment if something where to reach the Soviet northern regarding his use of allegory and symbolisation development animals against them and their ideas.Eventually Jonathon cape agreed to tackle the controersies that Orwell discussed and he published it. Jonathon Cape founded Jonathon Cape Ltd. with jenny wren Howard in 1921. It was one of the leading literary publishers in London during the time consequence. Jonathon Cape as well published croaks much(prenominal) as T. E. Lawrences The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Arthur Ransomes Swallows and Amazons, and the offset of the James Bond books. an early(a)(prenominal) historical issue that must be dealt with before a further judgment of Animal Farm can be reached is what exactly happened in the Soviet coupling with the Russian Revolution and Marxism.Two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, coined Marxism. The communist Manifesto(1848) of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels provided a theoretical al-Qaida for the rotary motionary movements springing up in Europe in the latter part of the ordinal century, (Meyers). Marxism is a air to look at socioeconomics that is based on a more materialistic view of the development of history, a view of social change that has a lot to do with location, and an examination of the relationships of social patternes within high provideeration and the stylus that capitalism is wrong and should be looked down upon.It raise ups for the self-disc everywherey and acquittance of the twisting partition and makin g everyone meet to a certain degree. The rednesss adopted these ideals of Marxism when they took over Russia in the Russian Revolution. World War I did not introduce things any easier on the peasants. Now they were forced to make do for a country they did not like in the first of all place and they were be hardly slaughtered because they were not trained soldiers. Originally, it served to chill out the peasants because everyone was united against one enemy, but it wore forth once the initial benefits were gone.Russias first major battle of World War I ended in over thirty thousand Russian promenade were kil take or wounded and the revolutions began. Tsar Nicholas began to make poor military choices and the Russians, particularly the commence class battalion as they had to make out and send their family and friends off to fight, began to think that thither could be something better out there if they could find the right fibre of governance to suit them. The February Re volt was the first of these gross outs in the city of Petrograd.The tsar abdicated the throne because he was frightened and knew that he did not hold enough military power to spank the revolts. After this, there was a finale of dual power where there was a provisional government that was loyal to the Soviet Socialists. The Bolsheviks were a group in Russia that began to revolt when the provisional government chose to continue to fight in Germany. Vladimir Lenin and the workers Soviets led the Bolsheviks. They quickly aloof Russia from World War I with the care for of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.This resulted in a civil war between the Bolshevik (red) and anti-Bolshevik (white) factions of the government, lasting for several years, with the Bolsheviks eventually clout out a victory. The chest that this happened, it allowed for the amount of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to rule later. The way that the Bolsheviks ruled the Soviet Union can be compared to the way that the Catholic Church was run (Frye 11). These are comparable because both were totalitarian and rigid with little fantasy into the people that describeed them.People followed long sets of rules and did not actually hit the hay why and there was no rejoin for them except to keep their lives/not be excommunicated from the church. The Russian Revolution describes the mini revolutions that happened in Russia in 1917 that rose up against the monarchy of Russia of which tsar Nicholas was the head. The causes of the Russian Revolution pertaining to corporation came from the oppression felt by the depress classes in the autocracy of the tsar. They had been emancipated, but manners was no better for them.The industrialization of Russia led to overcrowding and very bad conditions in the cities for the urban industrial workers. This do the peasants more potential to go on protest and go on strike than in introductory years. rough critics view the literary work of George Orwell to be cre ating a utopian society and to praise that idea of the perfect society. Orwell particularly valued the vigorous, colorful and concrete style of pamphlets and wanted to revive the genre, says Valerie Meyers of Orwells Animal Farm (Meyers).This is not well thought-out because he was making fun of the way that people thought of utopias and he made the utopian society of the farm animals in Animal Farm fail miserably. If he had been praising the utopian societies and genre, then he would have written things differently and not had the society end in nonstarter and death which is ultimately where he believed it would end. OrwellsAnimal Farm, like Swifts Lilliput and Blefuscu, is a coded satiric portraiture of a certain society, an anti-utopia which, by castigating real evils, suggests what society ought to be like (Meyers).George Orwell uses badinage and allegory to show an intended utopia failing and Meyers puts it well when she says that he castigates real evils because Orwell lici tly shows the evils of what was accident in Russia and tries to simplify them into something of a fairytale that the normal person could patronize and understand. . It is written as a assembly though with the moral being to ascertain a political lesson (Meyers). He is try to show the parking lot person the effects on the people and the seriousness of the controversies that he chose to write about.The ultimate goal of writing Animal Farm was to destroy the Soviet myth (Patai). Orwell wanted the myth that everything was spill great in the Soviet Union to be dismissed because people were not taking things seriously. The rest of the world did not think anything of the terrorism that was taking place because they simply did not even k right away that it was happening. Concerning Russian Communism, George Orwell did not take into discover the underlying reasons for its transformation from a p economic consumption dictatorship into a kind of scoffing of the Catholic Church, (Fr ye 11).Orwell simply went through the puzzle out of what happened and didnt ask the questions like why did Old Major feel the way he did? or Why did the animals blindly believe the pigs and not question them? The fibers that are utilize in the literary work of Animal Farm are animals. Some critics say this is because it is written in a fable-style and some, like Daphne Patai say that this is because, It was apparently easier for Orwell to identify with the animal kingdom, exploited at the detainment of humans, than to note that buried in class and race divisions in the human orld go under the issue of sexual activity oppression, (Patai). Orwell could more well wrap his mind around the roughness shown to animals because then he wouldnt have to relate it back to himself and his responsibility and role in the cruelty of human handling to other humans. Also, it allowed him to disregard race and gender in the characterization of the animals that lived on manor house Farm. When he wrote about the pigs taking over and all the other animals numbly followers them he tried to show that the class struggle among humans is pure illusionwhich is itself an illusion, (Patai).George Orwell was trying to show that we dont have to blindly follow authority and that it is not in our outdo interest, but in the same respect, he proven that it can be dangerous if you do not, therefore contradicting himself. Orwells concern is that no matter what viewpoint rulers adopt it is no guarantee that they can solve the substitution problem of revolutionindeed, of lifenamely, the subvert of power (Slater 241). George Orwell believed that whether it was Communism, Fascism, or Marxism, the leaders failed to do what they took over to do in the first place.His philosophy was that it doesnt matter the type of government, government cannot fix the problem of revolution no matter the strength. The characters that exemplify the symbolism and allegory make up the primary(prenominal) plot of the masterpiece that is Animal Farm. The pigs maintain the upper class Bolsheviks that took power, Boxer is the common man, the dogs are the enigma police, and so on. Also, the symbols used throughout the book such as the hoof and horn flag, the Order of the immature Banner, and the part song entitled The Beasts of England quickly parallel symbols common in Russian society at the time.Even the battles have their own parallels of historical revolutions taking place in Russia (Meyers). Orwell wanted to blatantly make a point and leave no room for question as to what this was specifically allegorizing. He says that he will not exertion to speak for the work Either it speaks for itself or it is a failure (Quinn). Orwell made everything so clear because he felt powerfully about this issue of Marxism and the totalitarianism happening in Russia. If a critic had a question about what this was about, it would have thwarted the purpose that it was meant to serve and so he wrote it in a way as to leave nothing to assumption.The character that nearly of the people struggling in this time feel that they can relate to is the character of Boxer, a workhorse. He buys into the lies that are fed to him by the pigs and believes all of the propaganda. Boxer really believes that the pigs are doing what is best for him and even is found encouraging other animals to go on with their decisions. I will work harder and pile is always right are the mantras that he developed to help himself keep passage and accomplish the work he was assign by the pigs.Eventually, the pigs decide that he cannot work any harder and Boxer is deemed useless he is sent to the glue factory much to the chagrin of the other animals that looked up to and respect him for his work ethics and motivation. The fact that he was sold for alcohol and food for the pigs shows upright how the system of totalitarianism works. It shows the way that people blindly follow orders, and even those who follow ord ers are not rewarded. As for the pigs, catnap represents Stalin and Snowball represents Trotsky they supervise and keep the best of everything, including food such as apples and milk.Napoleon prefers a harsher take on everything defensive buildup of armaments, change magnitude food production/work, and finally, eliminating Snowball from the equivalence altogether. Snowball is mellower, wanting destabilization by propaganda, building of the windmill (reducing work hours), and an eloquent way to run things. Because they come to a head on all of these political matters, the more brutal animal, Napoleon, finally wins by driving Snowball off with the ring of dogs being used as secret police.Napoleon, like Stalin, wrings Snowball, like Trotsky, into a shepherds crook and an enemy of the animals his victory and bravery at the Battle of the Cowshed is diminished piece by piece and his memory is degraded. The dogs are tricked into acting against their fellow comrades with offers of fo od and other treats. They mirror the KGB in that they do the play of those in power and even turn against their leader when they see a reward for themselves (Gardner 103-104). Orwells Animal Farm is taught in schools all over the country, though the immediate need for the piece of literature is now gone because there is no more Russian Communism.Many critics say that it was written as a fable or a fairy tale, and though Blair agrees, he also says Still, the narrative of Animal Farm is ingenious, and its twists take hold a certain charm (Blair). though the author is in the opinion that Animal Farm is simply a childrens book, there is a simple sympathy that it was written ingeniously. The teaching of this literary masterpiece will continue throughout the years because of its use of historical allegory and symbolism to teach the reader simply what happened in the world events of the time period that George Orwell lived in.