Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classic, 1996.
Set on a farm in Post-Industrial England, Animal Farm, by George Orwell, demonstrates, as an allegory of the Bolshevik Revolution and Stalin’s rule, how society can be affected by the powers and corruption of a totalitarian ruler. In the novel, Orwell replaces the characters and groups in the Bolshevik Revolution with farm animals. Napoleon represents Stalin, Snowball represents Leon Trotsky, Boxer represents the common people, and the humans represent the former monarchs of Russia as well as leaders of other countries. Old Major, an old boar who represented Karl Marx, inspires the animals into revolution with his ideal of Animalism, or Communism in history, and patronizes equality for all animals. After the revolution against the human oppressors however, the ideal of equality deteriorates as Napoleon and Snowball fight each other for control of Animal Farm. One day, Snowball was chased out of the farm by Napoleon’s dogs, never to be seen again. Napoleon, being the sole uncontested ruler, used his power to change the ideals of equality, which were the purpose of the revolution itself, to his own advantage. Orwell thus demonstrates, with the events in Animal Farm as an allegory for the Soviet rise to power, how the establishment of class differences and the use of power affect the society in which people live.
There is never a moment when class distinctions and disparities disappear in Animal Farm. Rather, the ideal of equality that inspired the animals to take action and revolt against their human masters evolves and transforms as the story progresses. When the animals were treated almost as slaves during the humans’ reign, the animals were the lower classes and the servants, and the humans were the upper classes. In a speech denouncing the humans and advocating Animalism, Old Major asserts that “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in...