Animal Farm

1. Summary: Old Major tells everyone they should come together as one in an inspirational speech in the barn. He dies three days later. “Animalism” is formulated from Old Majors ideas by the remaining pigs. The animals run Mr. Jones, the farmer, off of the farm. Snowball steps up as a teacher while Napoleon takes the puppies to educate them in Animalism. Tension rises between Snowball and Napoleon and how things should be run. Napoleon arranges his puppies, which have turned into strong body guards by now, to chase Snowball from the meeting of the windmill votes off the farm. Napoleon now goes crazy with power and blames every mishap on Snowball saying he sabotaged everyone. In the end Napoleon is sleeping in a bed, wearing clothes, and trading with other farmers. All of these things go directly against the original rules of Animalism. By the end of the novel the only remaining rule is that, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” The author gets his point across through the dramatic change in Napoleon from being a pig to the animals not being able to tell the difference between him and the humans.
2. Theme: The theme of the novel is how Napoleon becomes power hungry and goes against all of the things he promised the animals he would never do.
3. Tone: The tone is ironic. The way that in the end the animals look though the window of the house and cannot tell the difference between the humans and pigs when the entire point of the rebellion was to change the way things were. Also, the saying “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” because if all were really equal Napoleon wouldn’t be put above everyone else. Lastly, that Napoleon runs Snowball out during the windmill because his opposition to it, but then later builds it out of selfishness.
4. Literary Elements:
a. Paradox: Is a phrase or saying that contradicts itself. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
b. Allusion: A reference an author makes and expects the reader to understand. George Orwell expects his readers to understand that the book is really about the Russian Revolution.
c. Allegory: a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically. The entire book is an allegory of the corruption of the Czar’s and the Revolution.
d. Symbols: Something that stands for, or represents something else. The farm represents Russia under communist rule.
e. Foreshadow: To indicate something is going to happen later on. There are many examples through out the novel of foreshadowing, but the major one that starts everything is old Major’s speech about animals being in control. It shows that later on the animals will have control.