“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” When the uprising is gradually forgotten, it has become a dust-laden history; When the “seven laws” written on the wall disappear with time; When “animal manor” becomes a tool and no longer belongs to animals… a beautiful utopia will eventually become an illusion.
Animal Farm is one of George Orwell’s representative works. This book, with seemingly simple and understandable language, alludes to politics, and is recognized as a successful dystopian work. George Orwell’s creation of animal manor is not accidental, but closely related to his personal experience.
George Orwell was born in the British colony of India. Unlike most British children, he was full of sympathy for the oppressed people since childhood. In 1937, George Orwell came back from the battlefield of the Spanish Civil War, originally to defend democracy, but witnessed dark political disputes. George Orwell, who escaped from death, thoroughly saw the current situation of Spain under the rule of the Soviet Union. Although it was democratic and progressive, it was actually full of autocracy and personal persecution… So he hoped to alert the world through his works. Animal Farm was born in this period.
For many years, the animals living in the manor have led a dull life, and there is no difference. A pig named Mel made an exciting speech before he died, encouraging the animals to dare to resist. After listening to the speech, the animals were very excited, but soon returned to a peaceful life. Later, Mel died. However, to the surprise of the animals, the uprising really broke out, and they even drove away Jones and others who had been oppressing them and became the owner of the manor.
At first, all activities in the manor were in order. All animals obeyed discipline and worked diligently. Under the leadership of Napoleon and Snowball, everyone lived in peace and contentment. However, in order to fight for power, Napoleon designed to drive Snowball away. From that moment, everything changed completely.
The life of animals began to become more and more difficult, even far less than that of Jones era. Work hard every day, but can barely feed and clothe. In order to consolidate his rule, Napoleon launched a cleansing campaign and killed a group of animals who tried to resist. In order to improve production, he asked animals to build windmills several times and enjoyed the success of his own. Napoleon satisfied his ambition, and the animal manor no longer belonged to animals. At the end, Napoleon and human beings sat on the table and played cards together. The author’s sentence “who is a pig and who is a man” is really meaningful.
The animals thought that as long as they drove Jones away, they could win freedom and equality and live according to their own wishes. However, the truth is that they have become the tools of Napoleon’s dictatorship, and there is no freedom and equality at all. This is the same as human society. Without absolute equality, even relative equality cannot be achieved in most cases. This is particularly prominent in the rule.
Napoleon is a very capable pig. Undeniably, it played a very important role in the uprising. It also participated in the construction of the animal farm system at the beginning. However, it was blinded by the endless desire and could not extricate itself. When Napoleon turned several puppies into his bodyguards under the banner of “education”, he began to go black. Finally, it even abandoned all the ideas of the uprising and became the second “Jones” who oppressed animals. Napoleon symbolizes a politician who pursues power blindly. Only power is everything. It has the power to control everything, but it has lost its original intention and forgotten that it is also one of the animals.
Benjamin is an older donkey, but he keeps awake under all circumstances. It can always clearly see the future and will not change with the change of the surrounding environment. Benjamin symbolizes a calm and objective wise man, but there is only one Benjamin in the animal farm. If there are more “Benjamin” in the animal farm, perhaps the tragic ending of the animals can be avoided.
Boxer is a hard-working horse, which is Napoleon’s most loyal supporter. It always believed that all Napoleon’s policies were right. In order to build the windmill as soon as possible, it worked day and night. It is even willing to get up early and work alone, just to finish more work. Because of overwork, Boxer broke down. It was no longer useful, and was sold to the slaughterhouse by Napoleon mercilessly, thus ending his life. Boxer represents the hard-working people in the bottom of the society. They work hard, but they live a tight life.
Each animal in Animal Farm represents different people. Some are politicians pursuing fame and profit, some are calm and objective wise men, some are industrious model workers, and some are good speakers… The author writes about animals with different personalities on the surface, but actually uses animals with different personalities to allude to people in real life. 03
About the book Animal Farm, everyone can see different things from it. Maybe this is the meaning of the classic. Although this is a seemingly simple story about the uprising of a group of animals, we can see too many shadows about human society from the stories of animals. Perhaps we are similar in many places, whether animals or humans.
The wheel of history keeps moving forward, and the change of dynasties seems to be only in a moment. Therefore, there are many “sad places in the Qin and Han dynasties, where thousands of palaces and palaces have been made of earth.” Unfortunately, the real world is like this.
The story of the animal farm will be forgotten over time. For those animals who have tried everything to fight, they once owned a manor of their own. This should be the greatest consolation for them.
