Animal Farm Historical Context

ANIMAL FARM
BY GEORGE ORWELL
GEORGE ORWELL
BACKGROUND ON ORWELL
 George Orwell was born in Bengal, India. His

real name is Eric Blair.
 In 1904, his mother moved back to England so
that her children could begin their education
there.
 Orwell received a scholarship to study at Eton
in 1917. Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New
World) was one of his teachers.
 At Eton, Orwell was first exposed to popular
liberal and socialist ideas.
 After graduating in 1921, he joined the Civil
Service and went to Burma as a sergeant in the
Indian Imperial Police.
 He quit this job in 1927 because he did not like
being an instrument of power over the Burmese
people.
 After quitting the Civil Service, Orwell chose to
live among the working-class people of Paris
and the homeless in England. This experience
lasted for more than a year.
 He wrote about these experiences in his first
book, Down and Out in Paris and London
(published in 1933).
 At this time, he adopted his pseudonym George
Orwell.
 He took Orwell from an English river near where
he once lived, and he chose George as his first
name because it was typically English.
 At this time, he worked as a teacher, and after
he married, he and his wife ran a village pub
and the general store.
 In 1936, he became a socialist, and his
publisher encouraged him to write about
oppressed people. He did.
 In 1945, he published Animal Farm, one of

the two novels for which Orwell is most famous.
 1984 , Orwell’s most celebrated novel, was
published in 1949.
 Orwell got the idea for Animal Farm from seeing
a small boy driving a horse and whipping it
whenever it tried to turn.
 “It struck me,” said Orwell, “that if only such

animals became aware of their strength, we
should have no power over them, and that men
exploit animals in much the same way as the
rich exploit the proletariat (working class).”
 Orwell disapproved of Britain’s privileged class
and believed instead in the traditions and
virtues of the working class.
 These beliefs were fostered by a visit Orwell had
made to Spain about ten years earlier.
 He went to Spain to write about their Civil War, and
even to fight in it.
 He was wounded in his neck in battle by a
sniper’s bullet which caused his voice to become
permanently altered.
 The war experience had given him a horrifying
glimpse of political reality.
 He saw how revolutionary causes could become
corrupt and evolve into totalitarianism (a kind of
dictatorship where one political party has total control
and all opposition is ruthlessly suppressed), which he
saw as the future’s threat to human freedom.
 Later in Russia, Orwell saw a powerful dictator-Joseph
Stalin-come up through the revolutionary ranks and
eventually oppress the people as badly as the Czar
had done before him.
 To show how a whole nation could be enslaved,

Orwell created his fable (a brief, often
humorous, tale that presents a moral or
message) about the animals on Manor Farm.
 Orwell said that the book was the first “in which
I tried, with full consciousness of what I was
doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic
purpose in one whole.”
HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND
INFORMATION ON ANIMAL FARM
 The novel is based upon the events that occurred

during and after The Russian Revolution of 1917.
Various historical figures are represented by different
animals and events.
 The ruling family at the time of the Revolution was the
Romanovs.
 The Czar was Nicholas II and his Czarina (wife) was
Alexandra.
 Nicholas and Alexandra had one of the most passionate
love affairs of their day.
CZAR NICHOLAS II AND THE ROYAL FAMILY
 Nicholas and Alexandra had five children

together: 4 daughters-Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and
Anastasia. They also had one son- Alexei.
Unbeknownst to the majority of the Russian
public, Alexei was a hemophiliac.
 Nicholas had no desire to be Czar of Russia, but
he was suddenly thrown into power at the young
age of 28 when his father died.
 Nicholas was the absolute sovereign of Russia, which
meant that he controlled every aspect of the
government.
 The downfall of the Romanov Dynasty began with an
incident that later became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
 unarmed demonstrators were fired upon by soldiers of
the Imperial Guard as they went to present
a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
 By the early 1900’s, the writings of Karl Marx,
increasing hardship, and the injustices of the czars
inspired widespread revolt among the working class.
KARL MARX
 Communism is an economic system where the

basic idea is that everybody does jobs in which
they excel, and everybody gets everything that
they need.
 Karl Marx is considered the “Father of Modern
Communism.”
 His beliefs were known as Marxism.
 Marxism is a theory of class struggle.

 Marx divided people into two main classes:

 Bourgeoisie: class of modern capitalists. They are the
minority of people who own the means of production.
 Proletariat: the modern working class who always lived
at the lowest possible level to sustain health while
providing wealth for the upper class.
 Karl Marx arranged his theories into a book entitled The
Communist Manifest.
 Marx believed that through revolution private property

would cease to exist and that workers would break free
from their metaphorical chains.
 The problem with this theory is that once the upper
class dissolved then the lower class would rise and take
its place, and the cycle would start anew.
 Without competition there would be no market; thus,
modern industry would cease to exist.
 1904 was a bad year for Russian workers. Prices
of essential goods rose so quickly that real
wages declined by twenty percent.
 When four workers were dismissed at the Putilov
Iron Works, a priest named George Gapon called
for industrial action.
 Over the next few days more than110,000
workers in St. Petersburg went on strike.
 In an attempt to settle the dispute, Gapon decided to
make a personal appeal to Czar Nicholas. He drew up a
petition outlining the worker’s sufferings and demands.
This list included calling for a reduction in the working
day to eight hours, increasing wages, and improving
working conditions.
 Numerous aspects of the petition were based upon Karl
Marx’s ideas.
 Over 150,000 people signed the petition.
 On January 22, 1905, Gapon led a large procession of
workers to the Winter Palace in order to present the
petition to Nicholas.
 When the procession of workers reached the palace,
they discovered that Nicholas had received word about
their visit and decided to leave.
 The guards that were surrounding the palace did not
know how to handle the angry mob; instead of trying to
reason with them, the guards decided to open fire.
 Over 100 workers were killed and over 300 were
wounded in the incident.
 After this incident, the people began to view Nicholas
as a blood-thirsty tyrant.
 There were numerous revolts that sprang up around
Russia seeking retribution for the fallen workers.
 This incident laid the groundwork for the Russian
Revolution.
 WWI soon broke out and Russia found itself involved in

the war.
 Nicholas decided that he wanted to be a part of the
action, so he made it a point to go out with the Russian
troops and provide help.
 During this time Nicholas makes some egregious
decisions concerning the war effort. The Russian
Army’s poor ____ reflected poorly on the Czar.
 The Russian people begin to blame his wife, who was
part German, and her so- called priest Rasputin for
influencing the Czar’s decisions.
 Nicholas soon gets word of a planned revolt in St.
Petersburg (yes another one), so he leaves the front in
an attempt to quell the revolt.
 On his way to the city, the Bolshevik Party set up a
barricade so that the train could not get through.
 The train is forced to take an alternate route, which
unfortunately leads the train right into Bolshevik
territory.
 Nicholas is taken prisoner and is forced to abdicate his
throne.
 On March 15, 1917, Czar Nicholas II was
overthrown and later executed, along with his wife
and five children.
 A provisional government was set up to take over
Russia.
 Seven months later, the Bolsheviks (the majority),
led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the provisional
government.
 This coup was known as the October Revolution.
VLADIMIR LENIN
 Even though Lenin was a follower of Marxism, he did
not agree with every aspect of Karl Marx’s philosophy.
 Lenin eventually comes up with his own theory known
as Leninism.
 Unlike Marx, Lenin believed that once the proletariat
became the only class, then the State’s role should not
disappear entirely, but instead should be led by a
Vanguard Party.
 Vanguard –a group of people leading the way in new
developments or ideas
 As it pertains to the Russian Revolution: leaders and
protectors of the working class.
 Lenin believed that this party needed to exist for
quite some time to ensure protection of the
‘socialist state’ from its internal and external
enemies.
 Lenin’s policies were often more violent and
sneaky than those of Marxist beliefs.
 Human nature in full effect
 Lenin believed in the total liquidation of the
bourgeoisie class, as well as anyone who stood
in the way of his Marxist dreams.
 After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the first official
socialist state was created with Lenin at the helm.
 The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Russian
Communist Party after the Revolution. They later
became known as “The Reds.”
 Lenin became so well-loved and revered that upon his
death his body was placed on display for all to see and
admire.
 After his death in 1924, a power struggle emerged for
control of the Communist Party.
 The death of Lenin and the conclusion of
Marxist-Leninist thought engendered two
new Russian leaders: Leon Trotsky and
Joseph Stalin.
 A power struggle soon emerged between
Trotsky and Stalin with different factions
arising from their conflicts of ideology.
 Trotsky was a strict Marxist and talented
party organizer who had played an
important role in the Russian Revolution.
LEON TROTSKY
 Trotsky believed that the only way a
society could survive was through
permanent revolution. He reinforced
the need for a worldwide socialist
class. This idea was later known as
Trotskyism.
 Stalin (secretary general of the
Communist party) favored a modified
form of Marxism.
JOSEPH STALIN
 Later, however, Stalin’s ideas and practices
quickly turned totalitarian. The power-hungry
Stalin would not let anything stand in his way.
 Totalitarianism is a form of government with a
strong central rule that attempts to control
individuals by means of coercion (SAT WORD)
and repression.
 Stalin eventually won the power struggle and
had Trotsky exiled to Mexico where he is later
killed by USSR agents.
 Stalinbegan several 5-year plans to
stimulate the Russian economy, which
actually decreased under his collective
farming.
 Although he took the formal title of Premier
in 1941, Stalin was an absolute dictator.
 Any opposition to Stalin was subject to
secret arrests, fake trials, forced labor
camps, and mass executions.
 Estimates put the death rate in the neighborhood of 10-
20,000,000.
 Stalin guided Russia through WWII as an ally of the
United States. This friendship perhaps explains why
numerous details about Stalin’s regime were not made
public.
 He took Russia from an agricultural to an industrial
society.
 His death in 1953 brought about a series of other
Premiers who continued with the same oppression of
the people, although some changes slowly ensued.
WAS THE REVOLUTION A SUCCESS?
Do you think life changed for the better for the

people of Russia after Czar Nicholas II
abdicated his thrown?
What about this event do you think inspired

Orwell to write Animal Farm?
 Animal Farm, which was published the year

after World War II ended, is an anti-utopian
(dystopian) novel which shows man at the
mercy of a force he can not control.
 Orwell wanted people to remember the
errors of the past and learn from history’s
mistakes.
 Animal Farm is an allegory.
 An allegory is a story that can be read on two
distinct levels. Characters and events in an
allegory represent something else, and they are
used by the writer to convey a moral or
philosophical message.
 Animal Farm is also a satire. A satire uses
ridicule to make certain people, events, or
institutions appear foolish.
 One of the elements of satire is irony. Orwell
uses situational, verbal, and dramatic irony in
Animal Farm.
 Another aspect that plays a vital role in Animal

Farm is the use of propaganda.
 Propaganda is any widespread promotion of
particular ideas, doctrines, etc.
 The following slides present different forms of
propaganda and how they are used.
PROPAGANDA
 Name Calling – giving an idea a bad label – is

used to make us reject and condemn the idea
without examining the evidence.
 Glittering Generality – associating something
with a “virtue word” (ex. freedom, democracy,
motherhood, health, etc.) – is used to make us
accept and approve the thing without
examining the evidence.
PROPAGANDA
 Transfer– either carries the authority and

prestige of something respected and
revered over to something else in order to
make the latter acceptable, or carries
authority and disapproval to cause us to
reject and disapprove something.
PROPAGANDA
 Testimonial – consists of having some

respected or hated person say that
something or someone is good or bad.
 Plain Folks –the method by which a
speaker attempts to convince his
audience that he and his ideas are good
because they are “of the people,” the
“plain folks.”
PROPAGANDA
 Card Stacking – involves the selection and use of

information in order to give the best or the worst
possible case for an idea, program, person, or
product.
 Band Wagon – has as its theme, “everybody – at least
all of us – is doing it”; the propagandist attempts to
convince us that all members of a group to which we
belong are accepting his program and that we must
therefore follow our crowd and “jump on the band
wagon.”
PROPAGANDA
 Flattery
–uses compliments to compel the
audience to agree with the propagandist.
 Ex. You’re so smart, I’m sure you’ll realize
that this product is the best one for you!
PROPAGANDA
 Prestige& Snob Appeal –the audience

believes that they are part of the elite if
they agree with the propagandist.
 Ex.
“Anyone who is anyone…” or “The best of
the best…”
PROPAGANDA
 Pseudoscientific Jargon – The propagandist

uses confusing (and sometimes false)
terminology to convince the audience that he is
believable.
 Ex.The USDA has released a report stating that the
amino acids found in lactic excretions in bovine
mammals have corroded the cardiac artery of many
consumers leading to massive lumbar failure.

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ANIMAL FARM

 George Orwell was born in Bengal, India. His

 In 1945, he published Animal Farm, one of

 “It struck me,” said Orwell, “that if only such

 To show how a whole nation could be enslaved,

 The novel is based upon the events that occurred

 Nicholas and Alexandra had five children

 Communism is an economic system where the

 Marxism is a theory of class struggle.

 Marx divided people into two main classes:

 Marx believed that through revolution private property

 WWI soon broke out and Russia found itself involved in

Do you think life changed for the better for the

What about this event do you think inspired

 Animal Farm, which was published the year

 Another aspect that plays a vital role in Animal

 Name Calling – giving an idea a bad label – is

 Transfer– either carries the authority and

 Testimonial – consists of having some

 Card Stacking – involves the selection and use of

 Prestige& Snob Appeal –the audience

 Pseudoscientific Jargon – The propagandist

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