The novel Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegory to the Russian Revolution. There are many situations that allude to events that occurred in the revolution. One example of this is Napoleon's plan for the windmill representing Joseph Stalin's five year plans. Its representation in Animal Farm was well done, and while it was missing some aspects, it overall did a sufficient job at portraying this event in history.
After Vladimir Lenin died, Joseph Stalin came to power, despite Leon Trotsky being Lenin's first choice as a replacement (Hindsight). Once Stalin was a Soviet leader, he was ¨ready to initiate the next stage in the Soviet Union's development -- massive economic expansion¨ (Rathbone). He figured that in order to make Russia a key …show more content…
In the novel, Napoleon tried to hide the fact that the farm was having a food shortage. He did this by telling Whymper, the man that linked Animal Farm to the rest of the humans, that they actually were experiencing a surplus of food, rather than admitting their struggles. This strategy that Napoleon put into place helped to convince the humans that the animals were easily surviving on their own and were gaining power. A nearly identical tactic was used by many managers during the years of Stalin’s plans. These managers “falsified production records to hide their failures,” just like Napoleon did (Hindsight). Both Stalin and Napoleon didn’t want to appear weak to others, and so by implementing strategies such as this helped them seem more threatening and powerful. One of the other main reasons Napoleon wanted to implement his plan for the windmill was because he desired for Animal Farm to be self-sufficient and to become independent from the other farms, while still maintaining trade agreements with them. This is reminiscent of Stalin trying to use his plans to make the USSR free from its “dependency on capitalist countries” …show more content…
While there were some parts of the five year plans that were missing, and some new aspects added in, Orwell did an overall impressive job of relating the two. There were big picture similarities, such as Stalin and Napoleon’s goals and motivations, along with more specific parts, like Alexei Stakhanov and Boxer being inspirations for the other workers. By analyzing the events that correlate with Stalin’s plans in the book, you can determine Orwell’s thoughts on methods used by both power figures. The lack of success and the poor leadership that is caused by Napoleon, an antagonist, shows that Orwell probably did not believe these plans were a smart idea. Overall, the relationship between both plans was uncanny, and Orwell successfully created an accurate representation of Stalin’s plans in his
After Vladimir Lenin died, Joseph Stalin came to power, despite Leon Trotsky being Lenin's first choice as a replacement (Hindsight). Once Stalin was a Soviet leader, he was ¨ready to initiate the next stage in the Soviet Union's development -- massive economic expansion¨ (Rathbone). He figured that in order to make Russia a key …show more content…
In the novel, Napoleon tried to hide the fact that the farm was having a food shortage. He did this by telling Whymper, the man that linked Animal Farm to the rest of the humans, that they actually were experiencing a surplus of food, rather than admitting their struggles. This strategy that Napoleon put into place helped to convince the humans that the animals were easily surviving on their own and were gaining power. A nearly identical tactic was used by many managers during the years of Stalin’s plans. These managers “falsified production records to hide their failures,” just like Napoleon did (Hindsight). Both Stalin and Napoleon didn’t want to appear weak to others, and so by implementing strategies such as this helped them seem more threatening and powerful. One of the other main reasons Napoleon wanted to implement his plan for the windmill was because he desired for Animal Farm to be self-sufficient and to become independent from the other farms, while still maintaining trade agreements with them. This is reminiscent of Stalin trying to use his plans to make the USSR free from its “dependency on capitalist countries” …show more content…
While there were some parts of the five year plans that were missing, and some new aspects added in, Orwell did an overall impressive job of relating the two. There were big picture similarities, such as Stalin and Napoleon’s goals and motivations, along with more specific parts, like Alexei Stakhanov and Boxer being inspirations for the other workers. By analyzing the events that correlate with Stalin’s plans in the book, you can determine Orwell’s thoughts on methods used by both power figures. The lack of success and the poor leadership that is caused by Napoleon, an antagonist, shows that Orwell probably did not believe these plans were a smart idea. Overall, the relationship between both plans was uncanny, and Orwell successfully created an accurate representation of Stalin’s plans in his