ALLEGORY the Novella Is Written During World War II When the Soviet Union and Britain Were Allies in the Struggle Against Hitler
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ALLEGORY The novella is written during World War II when the Soviet Union and Britain were allies in the struggle against Hitler. We also know that Orwell was anti-communist because of his experiences in Spain. Orwell therefore aimed to criticize the Soviet Union directly. In order to do this, he took the form or genre of a fable (a short story with animal characters and moral) and expended it into an allegory. An allegory is a fable or story that is an extended metaphor: it has another meaning beyond the obvious surface meaning. On the surface, Animal Farm is a story about Napoleon’s rise to power on the farm. In reality, the novella is a metaphor for Stalin’s equally ruthless rise to power in the Soviet Union. This is a clever Commenté [v1]: Pitiless, merciless choice of genre not least because it enables Orwell to make the complex world of communist politics Commenté [v2]: helps accessible to the everyday reader. For example, we associate particular animals with well-known character traits: horses are hard-working, sheep lack intelligence, and dogs can be vicious. Orwell uses these traits as vehicles for his characters and Commenté [v3]: very mean their links to communism. For example, Napoleon is a pig, and pigs connote laziness and greed. Perhaps Commenté [v4]: strong appetite for money another layer of meaning is that the pigs symbolize all greedy exploitative tyrants in any country. This makes Commenté [v5]: niveau de sens the story simpler and helps the reader to understand the dangers that communism presents. Orwell also invites us to think about the gullible and apathetic populace who allow these regimes to emerge. Commenté [v6]: naïve, credulous, too trusting His choice of the allegory form therefore encourages the reader to explore a range of meanings. POLITICAL SATIRE What is satire exactly? A satire is a literary or other artistic work that ridicules the vices, silliness and shortcomings of people, organizations, government or society. Orwell uses the novella to ridicule the myth Commenté [v7]: failing, inadequacy of communism. Depicting Stalin as a pig and many other characters as animals turns them into objects of Commenté [v8]: describing ridicule. Orwell uses irony to create satire and exaggerate the faults of the pigs. IRONY The whole message of Animal Farm is ironic because Orwell aims to show that the revolution that seeks to promote equality instead creates another totalitarian society. ▪ Verbal irony: Verbal irony is the difference between what a person says and what a person means. It is like sarcasm, the main difference being that with sarcasm the speaker intends to hurt the listener’s feelings. With verbal irony, people sometimes say the opposite of what they mean to emphasize a Commenté [v9]: to insist greatly upon, to make it seem point or to create humor. important ▪ Situational irony: it is important to understand the situation that the characters are in. For example, immediately after Old Major tells the animals that ‘All animals are comrades’, the dogs attempt to attack the rats. This is situational irony because the context is that they have been told that all animals are equal. The outcome is the opposite of what we expect. ▪ Dramatic irony: the audience or readers know something that the characters do not. Orwell’s decision to write the story through the eyes of the animals creates dramatic irony. The reader knows, for example, that Squealer has changed the commandments, but the animals believe that they have not remembered them correctly. (…) Orwell’s use of dramatic irony encourages the reader to make comparisons with the Soviet Union’s use of propaganda. Kerry Lewis, Mr Bruff’s Guide to Animal Farm (2018) .