A Satirical Evaluation of Animal Farm

Option 1
Jerry Mahajan 2019

Satire is a literary form in which the reader’s perspectives are questioned and change is brought
about. Satire often uses comedy as a literary technique but the ultimate purpose for satire is not
only humour. George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm uses satirical techniques to successfully confront
the reader with hard truths and change their thinking for the betterment of society. Orwell uses
allegory, symbolism and irony to convey his message. He confronts the reader about the
management of power, the use of propaganda and how people can be oblivious to these.

Orwell effectively demonstrates how power can be misused when in the wrong hands, he portrays
what is important when managing power and who should control it. Orwell uses anthropomorphism
to reflect on real-world situations in an engaging narrative fashion. Life under the management of
Jones is reflective of life under totalitarian systems as Jones controls all the labour and profits of the
farm. Through Old Major’s speech, Orwell envisages what life is like under this regime, “Let us face
it, our lives are miserable, laborious and short… No animal in England is free.” (p.3) This quote shows
how physically taxing and unfair the conditions of the animals are, they do not reap the fruits of
their labour and instead Jones amasses wealth without any labour of his own. Later in the novella,
the animals revolt against Jones and control the power themselves. The characters are not animals
to be funny instead Orwell satirically uses them as an allegory for a pure communist society. For
some time this society works and the animals live in a utopia but it is short-lived and is hijacked by
Napoleon who turns it into another totalitarian dictatorship. Orwell crafted this to show the reader
how power can be manipulated and how one political system can be discretely disguised as another
through propaganda.

In Animal Farm, the pigs use propaganda to cloak their activities and lead other animals to believe
that they are acting in the best interests of the farm. Orwell wants to inform the reader that this also
happens outside the story, in our world. Napoleon quickly transforms Animal Farm from a
communist utopia to a tyrannical dictatorship in which he holds all power through select
propaganda. Orwell uses symbolism In speeches, Squealer uses the word “Comrades” to make the
animals of the farm believe they are living in a classless society, they believe that they are all equal
and that they all hold power. In Napoleon’s rise to power, Napoleon uses propaganda to stir hatred
against Snowball, Napoleon says “Comrades … Do you know the enemy who has come in the night
and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” All the animals had laboured vigorously to construct the
windmill, when they saw it in ruins, they must have become very emotional. Napoleon capitalised on
this, redirecting all their sadness from the broken windmill to hatred towards Snowball, this was
extremely effective propaganda. Hence, Napoleon was able to take control of the farm and eliminate
the obstacle of Snowball. Orwell efficaciously confronts the reader that propaganda is used by
political leaders and we can fall victim to it without being aware.

Another one of Orwell’s major hard truths in the novella was how people can be oblivious to
corruption and propaganda. The animals do not see the corruption in the pigs, thus rendering them
victims of propaganda. In contrast, the readers know the corruption of the pigs and see how the
animals are oblivious of this, this dramatic irony is paramount to the satirical effectiveness of Animal
Farm. A prime example of this are the seven commandments. Originally the 6 th commandment was
that “No animal shall kill any other animal” (p.15), later in the novel the pigs change this
commandment to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause”(p.61). This exhibits how the
pigs had completely changed the principles of Animal Farm and how the other animals were
oblivious to this small but potent change. “Somehow or other, the last two words had slipped out of
the animal’s memory. But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated.” (p.61) This
is a case of dramatic irony as the reader knows that the Commandment has been changed but the
animals do not know that. This dramatic irony successfully makes the reader take an overarching
view of their own life, searching for corruption and propaganda that they are not aware of, this is
Orwell’s primary satirical goal of the novella.

While not a comedic novella, Orwell’s Animal farm is a satirical text written to challenge the reader’s
original preconceptions and confront them with hard truths. Orwell hopes that the reader will gain
from reading the novella and apply their new-found knowledge in their own world. This is especially
in regards to choosing political systems and being aware of the management of power within them.
Orwell is able to educate the masses about the issues with a communal system of power and how
the humanistic tendency of greed can corrupt the system.

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 837 Words