Marise van Zyl
An allegory is a story with two meanings. One meaning is simple and is just about the characters and what happens to them. The second meaning is deeper and symbolic. The characters represent real people and the things that happen; refer to important events in the world. Animal Farm is a simple story about a group of animals who take over control of the farm. Their leaders, the pigs, promise them a wonderful life, but they end up starving and miserable. Orwell uses this plot to satirize the communistic system and the events following the Russian Revolution
In the beginning of the novel, the animals live in a capitalistic environment. Old Major plants the seed of the rebellion by sharing his revolutionary dream with the other animals. This brings up the thought of Marxism and the ideals of Lenin. After the animals have taken over the farm, they set up seven commandments, which are to be the principles of Animalism. Animalism is exactly like the communism in Russia. The reason for the animals’ rebellion is so that everyone could have a better life, but they ended up worse off. The reason for the Russian Revolution was to fix the problems created by the Tsar, but Russia was also worse off and it turned out the Tsar was nothing compared to Stalin.
The events in Animal Farm contribute to the development and flow of the plot, but they also represent real historical events. The rebellion of the animals refers the Russian Revolution. The battle of the cowshed can be linked to the Civil War between the Tsarist Forces and The Bolsheviks. It was a war of communist against anti-communist and it is also known as Red October. When the animals go into the farmhouse for the first time, they are amazed and disgusted. The common people have the same attitude towards the ostentatious wealth of the Russian Royal Family. Stalin and Trotsky were constantly arguing and couldn’t agree on anything, if one said...