Allegory Animal Farm

From fairy tales to allegories, genres help readers determine the tone and purpose of a story. Even though in many literary works , the readers are capable of differentiating the genre, some books like Animal Farm by George Orwell use different elements from contrasting genres. Throughout Animal Farm, Orwell adapts components like talking animals from fables, universal truths from fairy tales, criticism on certain individuals from satires, and symbolic messages from allegories to enhance the story. But what is the main genre of the book? Animal Farm is a story about a group of farm animals who rebel against Mr. Jones, their careless farm owner, and create their own society called Animal Farm. The animals based their society on the principles …show more content…
The Tortoise and the Hare and The Lion and the Mouse, one of the most famous fables written by Aesop, have set the standards for this genre. A fable is classified as a brief story with talking animals, who mimic humans and demonstrate their faults, and a closing sentence that represents the moral of the piece. Orwell successfully incorporates many elements of a fable throughout Animal Farm. For example, Orwell revolves the story around the talking farm animals, who share qualities of certain kinds of individuals. As the book progresses, the readers witness Napoleon demonstrate qualities of a totalitarian dictator. Many totalitarian leaders use propaganda to take advantage of their people and gain control in their country, Likewise, Napoleon, with the help of Squealer uses propaganda to cover up his corrupt actions and malign his political opponent, Snowball. For example, when the first windmill collapses because of the storm, Napoleon persuades the animals to believe that Snowball destroyed the windmill to prevent the farm from thriving. Throughout the book, Napoleon also constantly spreads false rumors about neighboring farms, who do not fulfill his needs. Additionally, Snowball and Napoleon represent two political rivals, who both believe in Animalism, but have different views on how to execute the idea. An example of this kind behavior by politicians is seen during the rise of the Soviet Union when the two …show more content…
Many people consider Animal Farm as a political satire because of its criticism of Stalinist Russia, a period of time after the Russian Revolution where the infamous leader Joseph Stalin ruled over the Soviet Union. Orwell also integrates verbal, situational, and dramatic irony throughout the book to emphasize his criticism of Stalin and other communist followers. Verbal irony, a sentence which contradicts its usual meaning, is seen a the end of Animal Farm when Napoleon and the other pigs change the main idea of Animalism to “All animals are equal but some are more equal than other.” The irony of this statement is that if every animal had equality, than no certain breed would have the right to be superior than the others. Also this statement ridicules communism in Russia after their revolution because the leader, Stalin, and many other government officials twisted the ideas of communism, which mainly stated everyone is equal, and made all the citizens subservient to them, as a result of their immense power. An example of situational irony in the novella or twist in a story that counters the expectation of the audience occurs when the pigs start walking on their hind legs and use whips to pelt the animals who disobey them. Even though, the audience knew that Napoleon and the other pigs were cruel and base, they did not expect them to violate and