Animal Farm Essay Research Paper Revolution FarmGeorge

Animal Farm Essay, Research Paper Revolution Farm George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm does an excellent job of drawing parallels from the Russian Revolution of 1917. Animal Farm is a satire that uses its characters to symbolize leaders of the Russian Revolution. The animals of Manor Farm, the setting of this novel, which symbolizes Russia, overthrow their master after years of mistreatment. Led by the pigs, the farm animals continue to do their work, only with more pride, knowing that they are working for themselves, as opposed to working for their human master, Farmer Jones. Slowly over time the pigs gain power and take advantage of the other animals. They gain so much power that they become just as power hungry and corrupt as their human master. The theme of the novel is

Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts completely. This is a good theme for the novel Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution because it proves that even the ones you think you can trust are corrupted by the power they possess. Old Major is a boar who helps point out to the animals that no animal in England is free. He continues to tell the animals that everything they produce is stolen by man, who does not produce but only consumes. The animals in return get near nothing, just enough to keep them away from starvation. Old Major gave many speeches to the farm animals about hope and the future. He is the main animal who got the rebellion started even though he died before it actually began. Old Major’s role compares to Karl Marx whose ideas sparked the communist revolution.

Like Old Major, Marx wrote essays and gave speeches to the working class poor. The working class in Russia, as compared with the barnyard animals in Animal Farm, were a laboring class of people that received low wages for their work. Old major tells the animals that the source of the problem is man, and that they must overthrow man to abolish tyranny and hunger. Soon Old Major does die, but the animals still remember everything he said. With the leadership of the pigs, the smartest animals, they rebel against the human and gain complete control of the farm. This would symbolize the Russian Revolution of 1917. Another parallel represented in the book is Farmer Jones. His character is similar to the Czar Nicholas II who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his

animals and was a poor leader at best, compared to western kings (Animal Farm,www.globalserve.net). The animal rebellion on the farm was started because Farmer Jones was a drunk who never took care of the animals. This made them very angry so the animals decided to rebel. Czar Nicholas II was a very weak man who treated his people similar to how Farmer Jones treated his animals. The animal Napoleon can be compared as a character representing Stalin in Russia. Both were very mean looking, didn’t talk very much but always got what they wanted through force. In the book Animal Farm Napoleon had the dogs charge Snowball to gain complete control over the farm. Stalin became the Soviet Leader after the death of Lenin. It was not until very many years later that the world found out

about the many deaths that Stalin created in Russia during the Revolution. Another strong parallel would is the character of Snowball with the Russian leader Trotsky. Snowball was very enthusiastic and was a leader who organized the defense of the farm. He gave speeches and instructions but was not very beneficial. All the other animals liked him, but he was outsmarted by Napoleon. An example of this is Leon Trotsky was one of the principal leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) government until ousted and exiled by his archrival, Joseph Stalin (Trotsky, Encarta). Trotsky and Stalin’s relationship was very much like Snowball’s and Napoleons. Trotsky organized the Red Army and gave speeches and everyone in Russia thought he would win power over Stalin. After