The Author - George Orwell

In 1941 he moved to London and in 1943 he became literary editor of "Tribune", a socialist weekly. Throughout these years, he began to write "Animal Farm", which he completed in 1944(but it was published in 1945). The most famous Orwell's book is "Nineteen Eighty-Four", his last work; it was published in 1949 and a year later George Orwell died.

His main works:

• Burmese Days
• Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging (1950)
• Down and out in Paris and London
• Keep the Apidistra  Flying
• Homage to Catalonia
• Animal Farm

Summary:

Mr. Jones is the owner of the Manor Farm; on night, all the animals gathered around the pig Major, which incites them to rebel against Mr. Jones. A few days later, an animals revolution broke out because Mr. Jones forgot to feed them; so, they chased him away. All the animals were very happy and they began to organize a self-sufficient society, they wrote the Seven Commandments of the new Animal Farm on a wall and sang the song "Beasts of England" a lot of time. But some pigs decided to take command of the farm: Napoleon proclaim himself as the boss, Snowball and Squealer were his assistant. Snowball and Napoleon quarrelled for everything, so when the first decided to build a windmill, Napoleon chased it away because it was a cheat. Day by day, Napoleon became bad: it obliged the animals to work more and more and gave them very little food; Squealer persuaded them that the boss did only what was necessary. Then, they began to trade on the outside through Mr. Whymper. Step by step, in the Animal Farm a dictatorship headed by Napoleon started, a lot of animals were killed and the pigs took human customs and, most of all, semblances; in fact, they learnt to go on two legs.  (214 words)

Main characters:

Mr Jones: he's the owner of the farm; he's very violent and he's drunk very often; the animals rebelled against humans because he had forgotten to feed them. After the first attempt to reconquer his farm, he abandoned it definitively

Old Major(pig): it diffused the idea of animal rebellion, because men were too bad with the animals and they wanted to be free from every restriction

Napoleon (pig): clever and ambitious, it became the boss of the farm; at first, it forbids the animals to go out from the farm, but then it associates with Mr. Whymper. It starts a dictatorship, supported by others pig and wild dogs. It often changes the commandments, taking advantage of ignorance of other animals. When it decides to enter Mr. Jones's house, it sleeps on the bed and drinks alcoholic drinks. It changes himself in a human and learns to go on two legs, like the men

Snowball(pig): it is chased away from the farm because Napoleon wants to be in charge; it designs the windmill, but later will destroy the one that the other animals built

Squealer(pig): brilliant speaker, it can persuade other animals to follow Napoleon's ideas; it's faithful to its boss

Boxer and Clover(horses): great workers; Boxer isn't very clever but it has muscles very strong and works night and day, until Napoleon sends it to the butcher; Clover is sweet  but determined and understands what's happening to the farm

Mr Frederik of Pinchfield farm he tries to occupy Animal Farm, helped by his workers, but the animals drives them out with violence

Mr Pilkington of Foxwood farm: at the end, he allies with Napoleon and they have a dinner with expensive food and tankards full of beer

Themes:

• Use of intelligence: the most intelligent animals, the pigs, use their quality to subdue the others; in fact, only a few animals can read, so the pigs change the commandments and teach them what they want

• Differences between men and animals: at first, animals were more organised and fruitful; but when Napoleon began to command, the differences between men and animals lessened and pigs became very similar to men

• Equality: at first, all the animals were equal and respected each other, then social classes were created and some animals exploited the others

Narrative Modes and point of view:

The author decided to use the techniques of the narration and the description, and the novel has a chronologic order; the story is told by a third-person narrator, that's also unobtrusive.

Language:

The language in simple and very understandable, full of adjectives and descriptions of the animals and the setting; because of its clear language, the novel can be considered also a tale for children.

Style:

This novel is an example of anti-utopian novel, because it reflects a negative view of the future; it's also an allegorical novel: in fact, the pigs system of government represents the Russian dictatorship of Stalin. The author uses irony and some metaphors to render the story more significant.

Personal comment:

I like this novel very much because it's funny but also instructive: it deals with a historical event in a different way from the other historical novels. Although the language was very clear and the plot very simple, the story is more complicated than in appearance, because the animals symbolize the Russian people and Russian dictator Stalin; For example, sheep represent uneducated people that repeat every word without understanding the meaning, pigs are greedy men who impose restrictions (78 words)

Bibliography:

"Urban Experience" (Guglielmo Corrado, Laura Stagno), Black Cat Publishing, October 2000

Only Connect.A History and Anthology of English Literature-Volume three: The 20^th Century (Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella), Zanichelli

Luana Vento