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How do you insult the Soviet Union and get away with it? Make them animals. (No one will ever know.) That was George Orwell's plan, and it worked. He was able to insult Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky, all while masking them as barn animals—which really is an insult in itself. Would you like to be compared to a pig?

Author:

Author / Orwell - George Orwell

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English Language

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Transcript

00:02
“Moo” says the cow. “Baa” says the sheep.
00:14
“Believe my Communist propaganda”
00:18
says the pig. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a satirical
00:21
novella
00:22
that uses animals to represent ideas

00:24
central to the Russian Revolution. With this device, Orwell demonstrates the
00:28
great value of metaphors.
00:30
More or less, each animal represents a specific player in the Russian Revolution.
00:35
Old Major is both
00:36
Karl Marx and
00:37
Vladimir Lenin. Napoleon is an allegory for
00:39
Joseph Stalin. Snowball channels
00:42
Leon Trotsky. So it begs the big question:
00:45
why did Orwell choose animals as characters instead of
00:48
…humans? Our old pals Marx,
00:51
Lenin,
00:51
Stalin, and
00:52
Trotsky are a LOT more interesting than a bunch of barnyard animals, aren’t they?
00:56
We here at Shmoop don’t think so. Orwell’s metaphorical use of animals is
01:00
precisely what makes Animal Farm such an interesting book.
01:03
By using animals, Orwell was able to make his book interesting to both young and old
01:08
alike. Because seriously, who doesn’t love animals?
01:12
For real… Just one more. Really, how can anyone resist
01:15
these <<in baby voice>> fuzzy wuzzy wittle animals?
01:19
Orwell’s use of animals also gives his writing much more power.
01:24
Orwell smart!
01:26
Hulk angry! Using animals gives Orwell the ability to
01:30
criticize the Soviet Union and its leaders without directly endangering himself.
01:35
Pigs bad;
01:36
Humans good. Especially Soviet humans! Orwell also gives himself the freedom to let
01:42
the animals perform primitive actions
01:43
that a human would never, ever, ever perform. Like murdering their own kind…
01:49
…or abusing power and oppressing lower classes…
01:52
…or using the media to trick and manipulate the population.
01:56
Wait…
01:57
what? Orwell was able to successfully emphasize
02:00
and exaggerate mankind’s uglier attributes. What better way to show that man is a pig
02:05
than…
02:06
to make him one? There’s some food for thought.
02:09
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
02:10
YouTube blurb:
02:10
Who let the pigs out? Oink… oink… oink oink. What’s the deal with all of these
02:10
animals running amok – and in a work of classic literature, no less? Isn’t this
02:10
a children’s book? Something’s fishy here…
Full Transcript