Scarica animal farm - George Orwell e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Animal Farm, George Orwell Animal Farm is an allegorical novella or short narrative by George Orwell, first published in England in 1945. According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, criticized Stalin and Stalinism. He believed that the Soviet Union had become a brutal dictatorship enforced by a reign of terror. In 1939 Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, which enables the germans to take over Poland and Czechoslovakia. Orwell’s indignant reaction to these events caused him to write Animal Farm. He expresses his disillusionment with Stalinism and totalitarian in general and describes Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin. He also says that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole". Plot The animals of the Manor farm live in cruel condition of exploitation under the sway of Mr. Jones, a bad and always drunken man. One day the Old Major, an old pig, in a meeting with all the animals, told them about a dream that had had the previous night. He had dreamed about an old song that incited to rebellion against the human beings. Everyone was very excited and about three months later they revolted against Mr. Jones and they took possession of the farm. The rebellion was led by the pigs that were the most intelligent animals of the farm. The purpose of the revolution was to create a fair society made only by animals based on seven commandments. 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 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. That could be summed up with the maxim: "Four legs good, two legs bad". In a short time among the pigs there was tension because Snowball, an inventive and vivacious pig, wanted to build a windmill but Napoleon, a big and fierce-looking pig, was skeptical. So the animals formed two parties. In the meantime Mr. Jones wanted to regain the farm but the animals succeeded in the battle and Mr. Jones was forced to run away. One day Napoleon arrived in the farm with nine big and ferocious dogs that incited against Snowball that ran away bleeding. From that day Napoleon was the real dictator of the farm, if someone was not agreed with him, he was eaten up by his dogs and if something didn't work, like the building of the windmill, it was all Snowball's fault. Napoleon was cruel, had pity on nobody, when Boxer, the strongest horse in the farm, lost his power because of the old age, he unexpectedly led him to slaughter. Now Napoleon and the pigs were like Mr. Jones, they became more and more dictatorial, they exploited the other animals, they took advantage of the foolishness of some animals and they came into contact with human beings for business although they established it was forbidden. In the end they became like human beings, they started to walk on their hind legs and they changed the old maxim with a new one: "Four legs good, two legs better". Nothing was changed and the rebellion had been useless. The parallel between the plot and the history of the URSS between 1917 and 1943 are clear: eat animal symbolises a precise figure. But Animal Farm cannot be interprets only as a satire on the Soviet Union, but Orwell wanted to write a satire on dictatorship in general. We can easily see this in the name of the ruling pig Napoleon.
