Question

In at least 150 words, explain how George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory and identify the real-life historical events and persons represented in the story. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Answer 1

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Step-by-step explanation:

George Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution. The characters and events that occur in the story are representations of actual people and events of the Russian Revolution. The important characters in Animal Farm are Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, and Boxer. They are also representations of important players in the Russian Revolution. For example, Old Major the founder of Animalism is a representation of the creator of communism, Karl Marx. Just like Animalism, the good-intentioned communism goes off the rails when Stalin snatches power. In the story, the equivalent is Napoleon, who takes power away from Snowball (the equivalent of Leon Trotsky. With no disagreements of chances to debate, Napoleon becomes a dictator just like Stalin. Also, just like in Russia, the working class represented especially by Boxer, but by all the animals except the pigs, has unfailing loyalty. Just like in Animal Farm, this proves disastrous. The betrayal of Boxer is representative of when the Soviet government betrayed even their most loyal followers. Squealer is representative of Russian propaganda. He spreads all kinds of lies and half-truths to keep the animals satisfied. When Boxer is sent to the knacker to be made into glue and meat, Squealer says that he was in fact sent to the hospital to receive the best care and that the van had been recently bought from the knacker, which is why the van had read, "Horse Slaughterer." Squealer lies so that the animals who loved Boxer would not try to buck the government. The Soviet government often did the same thing when well-known people were executed. They made up false excuses so that the people that liked whoever had been killed wouldn't get mad at the government.

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Answer 2

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is an allegory about the Russian Revolution and totalitarian governments in general.

The farm where the animals of the book live represent the country of Russia. Many animals represent people in real life, especially Snowball, old Major and Napoleon, that represent dominant figures of the Russian Revolution.

The farm was ruled by Mr. Jones, that represents Tsar Nicholas II. Mr. Jones (Tsar) had the idea that he was the only ruler of his farm (Russia) and despite the fact that the animals (people from Russia) were starving he was the incontestable ruler.

Old Major (Lenin) with the help of the other animals (people) start a revolution against Mr. Jones (human and Tsar), all ruled by the idea that all animals are equal, this represents The October Revolution of 1917. Seven Commandments of Animalism are created, between them, one says “four legs good, two legs bad”, showing their hate for humans.

Snowball (Trotski) understands that the only way that the revolution of the animals gets to its objective is making a series of revolutions especially making improvements at the farm so it runs more efficiently. But Napoleon (Stalin) doesn’t like Snowball, he doesn’t listen to his ideas and even pees at the windmill - one of Snowball’s improvements to the farm. Just like Trotski was killed, Snowball is chased off the farm by Napoleon with his dogs, that represent KGB (Russian secret service).

Eventually, just like Stalin, Napoleon becomes one of the world’s worst dictators, the dreams that Russia Revolution once dreamed do not come true, hunger and poverty come again - just like the failure of the 5-year plan - and the quote from the book tells all: some all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.