Animal Farm
Animal Farm
by George Orwell

Animal Farm Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.

Old Major's Dream and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto

Animal Farm opens with the news that old Major, "the prize Middle White boar" (1.2), has called a meeting to share a dream that he's had. As he explains his dream to the other animals, he points ou...

The Fall of Mister Jones and the Russian Revolution of 1917

Though the animals begin preparing for rebellion as soon as Old Major dies, they don’t know when exactly it is going to come. Yet we soon learn that "the Rebellion was achieved much earlier a...

The Battle of the Cowshed and the Russian Civil War

In Animal Farm, the animals have time to begin organizing a large harvest before Mr. Jones and some men return. The different animals begin to take on clearer roles, and we learn that Napoleon is a...

To Grow or Not to Grow? The Windmill and the Trotsky-Stalin Conflict

As Lenin grew sick in the early 1920s, serious tension started to mount between Joseph Stalin (Napoleon) and Leon Trotsky (Snowball). Trotsky had already been critical of Stalin’s war record,...

Napoleon's Initiative and Stalin's Five-Year-Plans

One of Stalin’s first decisions as the leader of the Soviet Union was to initiate something known as the Five-Year-Plans, the first of which was accepted in 1928 for the years 1929-1933. The...

The Hen Rebellion, Napoleon's Pile of Corpses, and Stalin's Great Purge

Not that Animal Farm is ever a particularly light tale, but the story takes a very dark turn about halfway through. First, the hens refuse to give their eggs up to the pigs, and Napoleon resolves t...

The Scheming Frederick and how Hitler Broke the Non-Aggression Pact

There’s an odd little episode after Napoleon’s executions that has to do with the need to sell a pile of timber to either Mr. Frederick or Mr. Pilkington. Mr. Frederick stands in for Hi...

Battle of the Windmill and World War II

Russia suffered enormous casualties in World War II. It is estimated that the Soviet Union lost roughly 11 million soldiers in the war, along with perhaps even more civilian casualties (source). In...

Goodbye Boxer and the Betrayal of the Proletariat (Working Class)

Throughout Animal Farm, we’ve seen the pigs betray the principles of the Rebellion over and over again. Yet no betrayal is quite so poignant as what happens after Boxer’s lung collapses...

Napoleon's Last Laugh and The Tehran Conference

The book ends with a meeting between the pigs and the neighboring humans. The animals watch on through a farmhouse window as the pigs explain that there must have been some misunderstanding. They w...
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