Animal Farm - descrizione libro e analisi PDF

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George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 Animal Farm is considered, together with Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s masterpiece. It is a short allegorical political fable or novella , i.e. it uses anthropomorphized animals to teach a general lesson (See the Greek and Roman fabulists Aesop and Phaedrus). This lesson is “power corrupts” and it was particularly relevant in the 1930s and ‘40s, when ostensibly (= apparentemente) socialist revolutions had succeeded in replacing corrupt systems of government with new men who would themselves duplicate the corruption and abuses of power they were meant to end. More specifically, Animal Farm satirizes the corruption of Socialism in the Soviet Union. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era (1922-1953) of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin, and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. How the story begins The animals of an old British farm are tired of being exploited by the farmer, Mr. Jones. One night, one of the animals, an old pig called Old Major, has the vision of an equal and happy society and convinces the others that they should rebel against man in order to set up an independent community: Animal Farm, only run by animals. The animals’ revolution takes place, led by two disciples of Old Major: two pigs called Napoleon and Snowball. Eventually, an equalitarian or socialist community is established and all the animals are asked to work for and contribute to the common wealth. The farm’s statutes (= statuto, legge) are drawn up, in the form of Seven Commandments (Ch. II): “1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.” (They are summarized in the motto: “Four legs good, two legs bad”) 3. No animal shall wear clothes . 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal.” The most important is the seventh one: “All animals are equal”. However, this proves not true because Napoleon gradually concentrates all the power in his hands and grants privileges to his fellow pigs. He even creates a police force, made up by the hounds of the farm, to discourage opposition to his rule. 1/6

George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 Yet, all the animals do their work, day after day, for the common good. Life is hard but they all know they are living up to their ideals. Suddenly, though, strange things begin to happen.

“SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” (last Ch. X)

“It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the animals had finished work and were making their way back to the farm buildings, that the terrified neighing (= nitrito) of a horse sounded from the yard (= cortile). Startled (= spaventati), the animals stopped in their tracks (= sul loro cammino). It was Clover’s voice. She neighed again, and all the animals broke into a gallop and rushed into the yard. Then they saw what Clover (= Trifoglio) had seen. It was a pig walking on his hind (= posteriori) legs. yes, it was Squealer (= Piagnone, Strillone). A little awkwardly (= goffamente), as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling (= andava a zonzo) across the yard. And a moment later, out from the door of the farmhouse came a long file of pigs, all walking on their hind legs. some did it better than others, one or two were even a trifle (= un pochino) unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the support of a stick, but every one of them made his way right round the yard successfully. And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing (= un canto acuto) from the black cockerel (= galletto), and out came Napoleon himself majestically upright, casting haughty glances (=gettando occhiate altezzose) from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling (= che saltellavano) round him. He carried a whip (= frustino) in his trotter (= zampone). There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling (= stringendosi) together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the world had turned upside-down. Then there came a moment when the first shock had worn off (= scemato, scomparso) and when, in spite of everything - in spite of their terror of the dogs, and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never criticizing, no matter what happened - they might have uttered (= pronunciare, lanciare) some word of protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a tremendous bleating (= belato) of - “Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! It went on for five minutes without stopping. And by the time the sheep had quieted down, the chance to utter any protest had passed , for the pigs had marched back into the farmhouse (= cascina, fattoria, casa colonica). Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling (= che sfiorava) at his shoulder. he looked round. It was Clover. Her old eyes looked dimmer (= più miopi) than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged (= lo tirò per) gently at his mane (= criniera) and led him around to the end of the

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George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 big barn (= granaio), where the Seven Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tarred (= incatramato) wall with its white lettering (= lettere). “My sight is failing (= sta diventando più debole),” she said finally. “Even when I was young I could have not have read what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks different. Are the Seven Commandments the same they used to be, Benjamin?” For once Benjamin consented to break his rule (= his silence) and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set (= radio), and were arranging to install a telephone, and had taken out subscriptions (= avevano sottoscritto abbonamenti) to John Bull, Tit-Bits, and the Daily Mirror. It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden with a pipe in his mouth - no, not even when the pigs took Mr Jones’s clothes out of the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat, rat-catcher breeches (= pantaloni ruvidi da campagna), and leather leggings (= gambali di cuoio), while his favourite sow (= scrofa) appeared in the watered silk (= damasco di seta) dress which Mrs Jones had been used to wear on Sundays.

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How the story ends A new form of oppression begins: the pigs have taken the place of the men. The other animals finally see pigs and men drinking together to celebrate their pacification and common rule over the farm. To the other animals looking at the scene, the faces of the pigs and the faces of the men seem more and more similar, till they can no longer be distinguished: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which” are the last lines of the fable. Focus on the text The animals of the farm are terrified by an unusual and unexpected scene: the farm’s pigs are walking on two legs, like man. Their parade across the yard is both a parody of military parades and the image of a new tyranny, which Napoleon sums up: he carries a whip, like a slave-owner, and his name is symbolical - like the historical Napoleon, he has come out of a revolution only to end up as an emperor. 3/6

George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 The sheep, with their “tremendous bleating of - Four legs good, two legs better!”, correspond to the masses in totalitarian regimes blindly singing out slogans. As in all totalitarianisms “equality” in the world of Animal Farm is just a word. Here, however, inequality even becomes an article of the law: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”, the only article left out of the original seven commandments. SYMBOLS AND ALLEGORY The fable is full of symbols, starting from che Characters: • Pigs 1. Old Major: is an allegorical combination of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader of the Russian Revolution. His skull being put on revered public display recalls Lenin, whose embalmed body was put on display in Lenin’s Mausoleum situated in Red Square in the centre of Moscow. 2. Napoleon: “a large rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm (reference to Stalin’s Georgian origins), not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way [..]” is an allegory of Joseph Stalin. Napoleon is the main villain of Animal Farm. 3. Snowball: Napoleon’s rival is mainly based on Leon Trotsky, loyal to Lenin (who did not want Stalin to become the new leader after his death) and to the Communist cause. Stalin ordered his deportation to Turkey in 1929. Then Trotsky managed to go to France and from 1937 to 1939 he lived with his wife at La Casa Azul in Mexico City, the home of the painter Diego Rivera and Rivera’s wife and fellow painter, Frida Kahlo. After an ineffectual attempt to have Trotsky murdered in 1939, Stalin succeeded in having him killed in 1940. 4. Squealer (Strillone): a small, white, fat porker (= maiale d’allevamento), who serves as Napoleon’s second-in-command and minister of propaganda, holding a position similar to that of Vyacheslav Molotov. • Humans 1. Mr. Jones: a heavy drinker, who is the original owner of Manor Farm, is an allegory of Russian Tsar Nicholas II. After abdicating following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II was murdered along with the rest of his family by the Bolsheviks on 17th July 1918. • Horses and donkeys 1. Boxer: a loyal, strong, hard-working and naive cart-horse embodies Stakhanov, the famous hard-working Russian Soviet miner who became a celebrity in 1935 by mining 4/6

George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 a record 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes. When Boxer is injured, Napoleon sells him to a local knacker (= mattatoio) to buy himself whisky, and Squealer - i.e. propaganda - gives a moving account falsifying Boxer’s death. 2. Clover: a gentle, caring female horse, who shows concern especially for Boxer, who often pushes himself too hard (= si affatica troppo). Clover can read all the letters of the alphabet, but cannot “put words together”. She seems to catch on to (= capire, afferrare) the sly (= astuto, furbo, scaltro) tricks set up by Napoleon and Squealer. 3. Benjamin: a donkey, one of the oldest, wisest animals on the farm and one of the few who can read properly. He is sceptical and cynical, a touch of Orwell himself. • Dogs 1. The puppies (= cuccioli di cane): they are taken away at birth by Napoleon and reared (= allevati) by him to be his security force (the notorious “Cheka” later NKVD, later KGB). • Birds 1. Moses: the raven (= corvo imperiale), “Mr. Jones’s special pet” and a spy, portrays established religion as “the black raven of priestcraft - promising pie in the sky when you die, and faithfully serving whoever happens to be in power”. Initially following Mr. Jones into exile, he reappears several years later and resumes his role of talking but not working. He is brought back by Napoleon (Ch. IX), as Stalin brought back the Russian Orthodox Church to encourage people to fight against the Germans in the Second World War. • Animalism is a complete system of thought (= ideology) carried on by the pigs, an allegorical reference to Communism. • The Seven Commandments are the rules written on a wall of the farm which were supposed to keep order by preventing the animals from following the humans’ evil habits. Yet, there is an ironic twist to the original purpose of these rules: Squealer is employed to alter them gradually, an allusion to the Soviet Government’s revising of history in order to exercise control of people’s beliefs (See Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four). Later Napoleon and his pigs change some commandments to clear themselves of accusations of law-breaking until they are reduced to the maxims: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” and “Four legs good, two legs better” instead of bad as the pigs become increasingly dictatorial and arrogate to themselves the privileges previously exercised by humans Through the revision of the Seven Commandments, Orwell demonstrates how simply political dogmas can be turned into malleable propaganda.

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George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 • Allegory is present everywhere in Animal Farm. “Virtually every detail has political significance” (Jeffrey Heyers - Orwell’s biographer). In fact, - the Revolt of the animals against Farmer Jones is Orwell’s analogy with the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution (Ch. 2);

- when the animals confess their non existent crimes and are killed, Orwell directly alludes to the purges, confessions and show trials of the late 1930s which led to the death of three million people and sent many others to forced labour camps;

- the disagreement between the allies and the start of the Cold War is suggested when Napoleon and Pilkington (the owner of a neighbouring farm, probably Churchill), both suspicious, “played an ace of spades (= un asso di picche) simultaneously. • Message of the story Tyranny is by definition evil, regardless of its political nature. That is why the book can be considered a masterpiece, because it deals with permanent truths. Orwell himself wrote in 1946: “Of course I intended it primarily as a satire on the Russian revolution [..] that kind of revolution (violent, conspiratorial revolution led by unconsciously power hungry people) can only lead to a change of masters ..”. In 1947 he wrote: “for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth was essential if we wanted e revival of the Socialist movement. On my return from Spain [in 1937], I thought of exposing the Soviet myth in a story that could be easily understood by almost anyone and translated into other languages.” That is why the story is told in a plain, detached style which strengthens the satirical elements and stimulates thought.

Bibliography and Webliography • D. Heaney, D. Montanari, R.A. Rizzo, Continuities, vol. 3, Ed. Pearson Paravia Mondadori, 2009 • A. Cattaneo, D. De Flaviis, Literary Maps, vol. 3, Carlo Signorelli Editore, 2002 • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm • M. Spiazzi, M. Tavella, Only Connect … , vol. 3, Zanichelli, 1997 • G. Orwell, Animal Farm, Compact Books, 1987

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