“Animal Farm” Orwell’s first political allegory came out in 1945. Its publication provoked the critic Bernard Crick to state, “Orwell is the best polemical writer in English since Swift”. Atkins also notes, “It is the work by a man whose literary personality has evolved into maturity and good temper even when dealing with matters about which he feels keenly”.
Animal Farm has many planes. Children can read and enjoy it as a fable. Nevertheless, a discerning reader can see it as an assault on Stalinism in Russia, which was being passed off as scientific socialism.
Mr. Jones, a human being owned the Manor Farm. There was an old major, a middle white boar who was held in high esteem by the other animals. Once he had told his comrades that man was their real enemy. He exhorted the animals to remove man from the scene, as he was the root cause of the hunger and poverty in the farm. He said in his last speech, “Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk , he does not lay eggs he is too wreak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits, yet he is the lord of the animals’ He said that it was the duty of the animals to make man remove from his pedestal.
Even after the death of the major, his influence on the animals remained. The leadership fell on the pigs as they were the cleverest of all the animals. Napoleon and Snowball were the leaders. Snowball was a vicious pig who had the gift of gab. He was also more inventive than Napoleon. Another promising figure in the farm was a small fat pig named Squealer with round cheeks and twinkling eyes. he was a brilliant talker and had a shrill voice. It was said that he could turn black into white.Napolean, Snowball and Squealer sat together and shaped old major’s ideas into complete system of thought, which they named “Animalism”
This trinity exhorted others to rise in revolt against Mr: Jones. The revolt was easier than they had expected. The manor Farm was renamed Animal Farm. Moreover, it was reorganised based on the view that all animals are equals. The seven commandments of Animalism were inscribed in big letters on the wall of the Animal Farm.
Snowball and Napoleon stand for Trotsky and Stalin. And the revolt of the animals stands for the Russian Revolution of 1917. Although the Russian peasants joined under the able leadership of Lenin, Trotsky etc, they did not know exactly how the country was going to be ruled after the revolution. Being illiterates the peasants could not make out much of what the leaders preached. They just trusted their leaders who promised them a society sans exploitations. For the benefit of the illiterates, Snowball coined a slogan “Four legs good two legs bad”. The sheep was very much impressed with the slogan and they kept repeating it.
They had to face so many hurdles along the way. But they over came them by sheer hard work. Every one worked according to one’s capacity. No one made any complaints or asked any questions. To look after the affairs of the state committees were formed and decisions were taken after prolonged deliberations. However, Napoleon was not interested in Snowball’s committees. He argued that the education of the young was most important. One day it was declared that the pigs needed to consume more milk than others did. Squealer explained that though they did not like milk and apples they had to have them in order to keep themselves healthy, for the welfare of the farm depended on the well-being of the pigs, the brainworkers.

As time went on Snowball and Napoleon disagreed on almost everything. At the meetings, Snowball was able to win the support of the members of the committees, as he was an accomplished orator. However, at times Napoleon managed to get better of Snowball with the support of the sheep. Snowball put forward a proposal to build a windmill to produce electricity for the farm. But Napoleon ridiculed the scheme.
Napoleon said that a windmill would not solve anything. Snowball with his eloquence could swing the people in his favour. At this napoleon ordered his dogs to drive Snowball out of the farm. Later napoleon announced that there would be no Sunday meetings any longer, for it was useless to discuss everything with the illiterate and ignorant folk after all Napoleon knew what was good for the farm. Boxer said, “If comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right”.
On the third Sunday after Snowball was expelled from the farm Napoleon announced that he was going to build a windmill. No explanation was given for the change of mind. Squealer explained that Napoleon had not in fact opposed the construction o f the windmill. On the contrary, it was he who advocated it for the first time. But Snowball cheated Napoleon and stole his plans. When Napoleon spoke against the windmill, he was actually pretending. It was his tactics to trap Snowball. At last, the windmill was constructed under napoleon’s leadership.
The windmill collapsed one day as it was badly constructed. After a survey, Napoleon declared that snowball was responsible for the tragedy. After that whatever went wrong at the farm snowball was held responsible. In January, food was scarce and corn ration had to be reduced. But it was declared that it would be made up by extra potato ration. But it was found that the potato crop had been frosted in the clamps as they had not been covered. For days the animals had nothing but chaffs to eat.
Human being spread rumours about the situation in the farm that the production had fallen and that the animals are starving so on and so forth. Mr Whimper the agent was taken to different parts of the farm to see the situation for himself. Before that, Napoleon had ordered the empty bins to be filled with sand to the brim. The grain was used to cover the top of the bins. As Mr: Whymper passed along the barn; the sheep were talking about the increase in ration. Impressed Mr: Whymper reported o the world outside that there was no food scarcity in the farm.
Changes were made in the original seven commandemends from time to time as the situation demanded. For instance, the sixth one had earlier been that “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause”. And it was not that difficult to cite causes when one was done away with. This alluded to the purges that Stalin carried out in the Soviet Union. It is widely believed that Stalin had put about ten lakh people to death during his reign of terror.
As time passed, the pigs began to live in style but life became hard for the common animals. As compensation, they were given more songs, speeches and processions. Spontaneous demonstrations were held each week to celebrate the struggle and triumphs of the animal farm. And indeed the animals lapped up all of them, for the merrymaking made them forget their hunger and thirst.
The population of the farm grew slowly and gradually. A new generation who did not have first hand experience of the revolution came into being. They were stupid enough to believe whatever they were told about Animalism and the Animal Farm. The farm had grown richer than before, but the riches were in the hands of the pigs and dogs which outnumbered other animals while the common animals toiled in the fields. The pigs and dogs busied themselves with ‘files’, ‘reports’,’minutes’ and ‘memoranda’.
One day the pigs began to move about on their hind legs. Some of them could walk steadily. Some managed somehow. “Napoleon himself walked majestically upright, glancing haughty glances from side to side and with his dogs grumbling around him”. He had a whip n his trotter. Seeing this, the sheep bleated out “four legs good but two legs better”. The first commandment that, “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy” had been rewritten. The Ten Commandments had vanished and a single one had appeared which said, “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others”.
A party was arranged to celebrate the new developments. Neighbours of the farm were invited to the party. Mr: Pilkington of the Fox wood said that he was happy that all the misunderstandings between the animal farm and others had been cleared. He declared that, “If you have your animals to content with, we have our lower classes”. Napoleon in his speech said that he was happy too that the enmity had ended. He went on to add he never attempted to stir up rebellion in the neighbouring farm. Then he announced that the original name of the ‘Animal Farm’ i.e. ‘Manor Farm’ was being restored. Concluding his speech, Napoleon declared, “Gentleman, I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim Gentleman; here is my toast to the prosperity of the Manor Farm”. After the feast, a game of cards started and soon there were shouts. The other animals peered through the window. They looked from pigs to man and from animal to pigs and from pig to man again but already it was impossible to say which was which”.
Animal farm portrays the Russian society during and after the great October Russian Revolution. It provides a graphic account of how the values cherished by the people were trampled down one after the other after the revolution and the gap between the rulers and the ruled widened as time went on. After the revolution, the agricultural production fell to an all time low and famine stretched all over the country. The leaders of the revolution held the Western nations responsible for all the trouble. They were accused of plotting against the new nation to defeat the glorious revolution. Whenever something turned out to be different from what they had predicted, they invented enemies and blamed it on them. It was made out that the enemies were diabolic, dangerous, and hence difficult to deal with. Then they went on to curtail the freedom of the people and assume more power for the state. This ended up in a dictatorship, which lasted for about seventy long years. Those who dared to question the authority were accused of being spies and sent to labour camps in Siberia. Most of them disappeared without any trace.

Eric Arthur Blair popularly known as George Orwell is one of the prominent satirist of English literature. He was born in Mothihari in India in 1903 to Scottish parents. As a child, Orwell believed that he was born to be a serious writer. He wrote his first poem at the age of five. At the age of eleven, he wrote and published a poem in patriotic vein.
When Orwell was eight years old, he was sent to a preparatory school in the south coast. Atkins has, in his study of Orwell, noted that, “His experiences at this school marked him for his life and he escaped their influence. There were few joys in his school days and he left with what can only be called a deliberately inculcated sense of failure”.
In 1917, he turned 14 and joined Eaton. As he has made only fleeting references to this period we do not know much about his life and activities at Eaton. He has said that he was relatively happy there. However, we can be sure that he busied himself with the study of classics. He also contributed to the various periodicals of the college.
After his education, he joined the police force though he detested authority. He served in the Indian Imperial Police force at Burma from 1922 to 1927.
In 1927, he resigned his job and went to France. There he lived for two years before returning to England. Atkins notes “Even at that youthful age his appearance revealed both innate sincerity of the man and the intense struggle of. However, he had resolved to take writing seriously. In England, he worked as a private tutor, schoolteacher, and bookshop assistant for a living for some time. He also wrote for the periodicals.
“Down and out in Paris and London” an account of is personal search for poverty appeared in 1933. Though the picture of poverty he presents in it is heart rending, never does he attempt to sensationalise it. Next to it came the “Burmese Days’ (1934), his first novel which was inspired by his experiences in Burma. “ Keep the Aspidistra Flying” appeared in 1936. The theme of the novel is lack of money and the resultant poverty. He makes the point that one can never imagine a descent life without money.
In the same year, Victor Gollanz commissioned him to visit Lancashire and Yorkshire where poverty was rampant. “The Road to Wigan Pier” that appeared in 1937 provides a graphic account of poetry he witnessed there.
From 1937 to the end of his life in 1950, he was engaged in political debates. He was of the view that an honest writer could never think of relinquishing his freedom and subject himself to the party discipline.
During the Second World War Orwell worked for the BBC Eastern service from 1941 to 1943. He also wrote for the Observer and the Manchester Evening News. By the time the war came to an end, Orwell had become famous and was earning so much of money .but his health had been worsening for some time.” Animal Farm”, the book that won him worldwide acclaim came out in 1945. “Nineteen Eighty Four” hailed as the “most brilliant satires on totalitarian and the power hungry ever written” appeared in 1949.Soon after the publication on 23 January 1950 he suffered a haemorrhage and died. It has been said that Orwell was a political writer. His works deal directly or indirectly with politics.
Atkins observes, “Orwell’s contribution to modern political thought was the introduction of the despised values which used to be called truth”. The Marxists were concerned with the strategies to adopt to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. To them truth and liberty were mere words devoid of any meaning. They often went to the extent of questioning the very validity of the concepts such as truth and liberty. Orwell viewed it as a dangerous trend and fought it tooth and nail.
Orwell felt that the zeal for intellectual freedom was declining. The freedoms people enjoy depend on the public opinion. People can influence the decisions and the policies of the government by airing their views without fear. If the public fails in this the government will misuse its power .He believed that it is the duty if the intellectuals to analyse he policies of the governments and inform the public. Orwell felt that with the advent of Marxism intellectuals forsook their duty paving the way for tyrannical regimes. He was horrified by the silence of the Western liberal intellectuals during the trial and purges in Moscow during the reign of Stalin.