George Orwell's Animal Farm is a timeless allegorical novel that critiques power corruption and tyranny, serving as a potent warning against the abuse of authority in any societal or governmental system.
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Animal Farm, which was written by George Orwell and published in 1945, is a
timeless tale of power corruption and tyranny. While the story was a reaction
to the Russian Revolution and the oppression that followed, there's a lot
the book can tell us about every society and government and the way power can be
abused. Before we dive into the novel it's important to understand a little
bit about Orwell's life. George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in Mata Hari
British India in 1903. His father worked for the Indian civil service and
although his family was poor, Orwell described them as "lower upper middle
class", he managed to get a scholarship to attend St Cyprian school, an elite
preparatory boarding school in East Sussex. It could be said that his
hatred of cruelty and oppression began here. Orwell attended the school from
1911 to 1916 and in an essay titled 'Such, such were the joys' which was published
after his death, he describes the cruelty and snobbery he experienced at the
school. "Virtue consisted in winning," he wrote.
"It consisted in being bigger stronger handsomer, richer, more popular, more
elegant, more unscrupulous than other people, in dominating them, bullying them
making them suffer pain, making them look foolish, getting the better of them in
every way. Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were
the strong who deserved to win and always did win and there were the weak
who deserved to lose and always did lose everlastingly. In 1917 Orwell received a
place at Eton College where he studied until he was 18. Unable to afford
university his parents encouraged him to join the Imperial Police and he was
assigned to Burma which, at the time, was a province of India. In the essay
'Shooting an Elephant', Orwell describes how repulsed he was by the British
Empire. "I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and
the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically and
secretly of course, I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors,
the British. As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can
perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of empire of
At close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the
lockups, the gray cowered faces of the long term convicts, the scarred buttocks
of the men who have been flogged with bamboos. All these oppressed me with an
intolerable sense of guilt." During his time in Burma, Orwell attended local
churches and became fluent in Burmese. According to Christopher Hitchens in 'Why
Orwell Matters', he harboured contempt for British settlers who spent their entire
lives in the region without bothering to learn the language. Ultimately, these
experiences led Orwell to argue in favour of Indian independence. In 1928, after a
bout of dengue fever and a holiday in England, he decided to leave the Imperial
Police and become a writer. For the next seven years, he wrote essays and novels
including 'Down and Out in Paris and London."
'Burmese Days', 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'. During
this time he was preoccupied with ideas of class, poverty and socialism. He
fervently argued that our goal should be a world of free and equal human beings.
As always, this writing was on the side of the oppressed and the downtrodden. In
1936, Orwell travelled to Spain where he fought in the Spanish Civil War,
joining the struggle against the fascist military revolt. As Christopher Hitchens
notes, "When Spain was menaced by fascism, he was among the first to shoulder a
rifle and feel the weight of a pack." The squalor and horror of the Spanish Civil
War was a defining moment for Orwell. "Every line a serious work that I've
written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against
totalitarianism and for democratic socialism." After being shot in the throat
Orwell returned to England in the middle of 1937. Because of these injuries he was
unable to serve in the Second World War. During that, time he joined the Home
Guard, continued writing and worked for the BBC. It was during the Second World
War that Orwell started writing 'Animal Farm' The novel is his response to the
Russian Revolution in 1917 and the tyranny that followed. At the time there
were many British intellectuals who praised what they called the 'Great
Soviet Experiment' and ignored the atrocities committed in the name of
communism. Although Orwell was a lifelong socialist
it was clear that the communist government in the USSR had become a
brutal and repressive regime. Animal Farm doesn't shy away from this inconvenient
fact. As Hitchens notes, "In the late 1940s a dystopian novel based on the notorious
horrors of National Socialism would probably have been very well received
but it would have done nothing to shake the complacency of Western intellectuals
concerning the system of state terror for which at the time so many of them
had either a blind spot or a soft spot." Orwell's self-confessed ability for
facing unpleasant facts is one of the reason his work and
his ideas continue to resonate. In 1948 Orwell published 1984. The book, which is
a dystopian novel about a repressive government, received critical acclaim.
Orwell continued to write until his death from tuberculosis in 1950. During
his life Orwell wrote about society, politics, power, oppression and tyranny.
His commentary on totalitarianism was so influential that the word 'Orwellian' has
become an adjective to describe anything that threatens a free and open society.
Knowing a little about Orwell's life will help you to understand Animal Farm.
Orwell believed in democracy, in freedom in socialism and the goal of achieving a
world of free and equal human beings. A cautionary tale about power, corruption
and oppression, Animal Farm is an important book that is still relevant
today.
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