The Animal Revolution: summary and analysis of the work

The Animal Revolution (animal farm, in English) is a novel that was written in 1945 by George Orwell.

It is one of the most emblematic works of the Indian writer and essayist.

Work Summary

The story has as its central space an animal farm. There, animals discuss and aim to build an ideal society. For this, they create a set of rules and begin to think of a revolt against humans, especially its owner, Mr. Jones.

Mr Jones is the farmer on the farm. An austere man with a difficult temperament, he takes care of the farm animals, but often exploits them and leaves them to starve.

Faced with this, Major Porco presents the idea of making a revolution against him. So the animals drive Jones off the farm. Note that pigs are the smartest animals and they lead the place. They were better educated and know how to read and write.

Even at the beginning of the work, the pig dies, but the idea transmitted by him is followed by his friends. Although all the animals have the same idealization, during the work the ups and downs and the impasses of opinions between them begin.

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While the Bola-de-neve pig, one of the leaders of the revolution, wants to build a mill, the pig Napoleon is against the idea. Finally, Snowball is considered a traitor and expelled from the farm.

Napoleon has an authoritarian posture. He ends up convincing all the other animals to rebel against the leader. The idea here is about personal interests and also about corruption and the coup. This figure is always escorted by rabid dogs.

When Napoleon comes to power, these characteristics become more evident. His selfishness and totalitarianism is revealed by the way he runs the farm after deposing and expelling Snowball from the leadership.

In this sense, they put the animals to work as slaves and reduce the amount of food. It ends up building the mill. Interestingly, the idea of rebelling against humans to achieve freedom becomes a fallacy.

That's because a new type of exploration begins, but now from animals to animals. Although the idea was to move away from humans, with the growth of the farm and the construction of the mill, the pig Napoleon has a relationship with his human advocate.

The materials used to build the mill could not be obtained from the farm, and therefore needed commercial contracts from elsewhere.

With the passage of time, the pigs decide to inhabit every big one in which Mr Jones lived. Indignant that they are having a worse quality of life than Mr Jones, the exploited animals begin to argue about the topic.

Finally, they end up dead for being accomplices of the Snowball pig. And so, little by little the animals disappear from the farm. The remaining pigs start walking on two legs.

This brilliant end of the book supports the idea of union between pigs and men.

"For the first time, Benjamin consented to break his rule, and read to her what was written on the wall. There was now nothing but a single Commandment saying: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS."

Check the entire work by downloading the PDF here: The Animal Revolution.

Characters

Mr Jones: farmer who exploits the animals.
Major Pig: figure responsible for the idea of the revolution against the farmer.
snowball pig: leader of the revolution, after the Major's death.
Napoleon pig: authoritarian figure who comes to lead the group.
Mr. Whymper: Napoleon's lawyer.
Throat Pig: defender and friend of Napoleon.
Samson: very hardworking horse.
Benjamin: donkey, oldest animal on the farm.

Work Analysis

The Animal Revolution it is one of the most emblematic classics of modern literature. In the work divided into 10 chapters, Orwell performs a scathing satire on the Stalinist dictatorship.

It addresses issues such as human weaknesses, power, revolution, totalitarianism, political manipulation, etc.

In addition to political satire, the work is also considered a fable, in which morality is one of the main characteristics.

Written at the end of World War II (1945), the novel reinterprets historical figures, as we can see in the characters created by the writer. As examples, we have Napoleon (who would be Stalin) and the Snowball (as Trotsky).

The language used is simple and with the presence of direct speech, which indicates fidelity in the characters' speech. The idea of using animals as actors in the political scene brings up the issue of animalization of men.

Curiosity

At the time it was written, the work was rejected by several publishers.

Excerpts from the Work

Chapter III

"None of the other animals on the farm made it past the letter A. It was also noted that the most stupid, such as sheep, chickens and ducks, were unable to learn the Seven Commandments by heart. After much thought, Snowball declared that, in fact, the Seven Commandments could be condensed into a single maxim, which was, "Four legs good, two legs bad." There was contained, as he said, the essential principle of Animalism. Whoever followed him steadfastly would be safe from human influences. At first, the birds objected, as it seemed to them that they were in the case of the two legs, but Bola-de-Neve proved that this was not the case:

'A bird's wing, comrades, is an organ of propulsion and not of manipulation. It should look more like a leg. What distinguishes Man is the hand, the instrument with which he perpetrates all his evil."

Chapter VII

"It was essential to hide this fact from the rest of the world. Encouraged by the collapse of the windmill, the humans were renewing lies about the Granja dos Bichos. Once again it was said that the animals died of hunger and disease, that they fought continually among themselves and that they had descended into cannibalism and infanticide. Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that could result if the real food situation on the farm were known, and he decided to use Mr. Whymper to convey a contrary impression. Until then, the animals had had very little or no contact with Whymper on his weekly visits: now, however, some animals. selected, mainly sheep, were instructed to comment, casually but very audibly, the fact that they had been increased. the rations. In addition, Napoleon gave orders that the storage bins, which were almost empty, were filled almost to the mouth with sand, then topped up with cereal and flour. On some pretext, Whymper was led through the warehouse and was able to take a look at the bins. He was tricked and continued to say outside that there was absolutely no shortage of food at Granja dos Bichos. "

Chapter X

"Really, it was a violent argument. Screams, punches on the table, suspicious looks, angry denials. The origin of the case, it seemed, was the fact that Napoleon and Mr Pilkington had simultaneously played an ace of spades.

Twelve voices screamed full of hate and they were all the same. There was no doubt now as to what had happened to the swine's physiognomy. The creatures outside looked from a pig to a man, from a man to a pig, and from a pig to a man again; but it had become impossible to distinguish who was a man, who was a pig."