Scarica Orwell and Animal Farm e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! ORWELL’S MAIN IDEAS AN ETHICAL APPROACH Orwell was defined as an author of “uncompromising intellectual honesty”. All his works reflect his ethical and political views by denouncing the evils of the 20th century and his last novels are a warning against the abuses of politics and the risk of new totalitarianism after the devastating experiences of World War II. THE REFUSAL OF AUTHORITY Despite his interest in politics and his strong social commitment Orwell never joined a political party. He first defined himself as an anarchist, then a socialist but still was able to identify the faults of his own political side and denounce them clearly. This made him at times unpopular with intellectuals who shared most of his ideals and gives him a special place in 20th-century literature. The refusal of authority started during his school years and developed in particular as an anti-imperialist feeling thanks to his experiences in the Indian Imperial Police. Orwell was particularly critical of violent repression, manipulation of the masses and the use of propaganda to justify power. IDENTIFYING WITH THE POOR Although he was born in the middle class and belonged to an intellectual elite, Orwell always had strong feelings for lower classes and most of his writings are in defense of their rights. Unlike many other intellectuals who talked about the conditions of the poor having no real idea of what they were, Orwell spent years of his life among them and experienced in the first person the abuses and terrible conditions in which they lived. And yet, he gives no romantic account: the lower classes described by him are not pure and innocent people who lead a simple life and enjoy little pleasures, but often lazy, bad-smelling alcoholics who are not interested in their own rights even if there are moments of solidarity among them. Working classes are the hope for the future but they need to be educated and made aware of their potential. THE UNTIDY UGLINESS OF INDUSTRIALISM Part of the social injustice which Orwell denounced was strictly connected to the urban transformations that had been going on since the beginning of industrialism, making English cities ugly, polluted places with overcrowded areas where the working class lived in very bad hygienic conditions. His descriptions of cities tend to underline this contrast with the countryside that, as he wrote in The Road to Wigan’s Pier, still offers “even in the filthy heart of civilization […] fields where the grass is green instead of grey”. His apocalyptic view of London in the future in 1984, is a clear example of what he disliked most in modern cities: a grey dusty desert having no harmony or beauty, a physical counterpart to the moral desolation of a totalitarian, oppressive regime. THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE The strongest interest Orwell showed in his analysis of oppressive forms of government was their manipulative use of language. He was extremely critical of ready-made idioms, slogans and images that are repeated again and again losing their real meaning: when people get used to speaking by slogans, slightly changing the words can easily turn the sentence into something with a completely different meaning. As in Animal Farm when the slogan “Four legs are good, two legs are bad” is altered into “Four legs are good, two legs better” and nobody notices that the second means exactly the opposite of the first. Orwell believed that “good prose is like a window-pane”, transparent and clear. His own books are examples of such a language and describe in plain words how a distorted use of language can alter people’s ideas and also memories. PROPAGANDA The importance of communication, manipulation of language and persuasion throughout the story of Animal Farm is a clear reference to the use of propaganda in the totalitarian regimes that developed in Europe before World War II. The pig Squealer masters the art of propaganda, since he’s able to convince all animals that the pigs – and Napoleon in particular – are always right, by using typical strategies that Orwell wanted to denounce: interpreting the pigs’ abuse of power as sacrifices that are supposed to benefit all animals, slightly changing the rules they had given themselves to justify their inconsistent behavior, pretending that the past was different so that nobody could accuse them of betraying their ideals. MEMORY AS AN ANTIDOTE TO OPPRESSION Learning from the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes: this is one of the main messages in Orwell’s books. Orwell is aware that people remembering the government’s mistakes and inconsistency is a risk that most rulers want to avoid and therefore is common for propaganda to lie about the past and convince population that the present situation is always better than the past and the government always followed the same principles. Those who remember can understand these tricks and unmask lies, but they need to be educated in order to do so. It is more difficult to control the mind and memory of active citizens who read, are informed and do not believe in whatever they are told. THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST Orwell declared that very line he wrote after 1936 was against totalitarianisms and in favour of democratic socialism. His work as an artist and his political commitment coincide perfectly, as he believed it was his duty to denounce evils and warn against political abuses. Such views made him very critical of other forms of literature: popular novels whose only objective is to entertain readers and distract them from their everyday life was considered as one of the many forms of manipulation of the masses, to make them less and less interested in their own real condition by immersing them in a fantasy world. ANIMAL FARM THE TRADITION OF THE FABLE Orwell’s decision to use the form of a fable with animals representing human virtues and vices, follows a long tradition that goes back to classic literature, in particular in the 6th century BC Greek author Aesop, who in turn inspired the Latin author Phaedrus. Very different cultures have developed similar stories, featuring animals or sometimes fantastic creatures since ancient times: they are typically short and end with a moral message. Fables were very common in the Middle Ages and were then revived by the French author La Fontaine, who looked back to Aesop’s model, in the 18 th century. But in the same period another, more complex form of fable developed in England: Jonathan Swift used animals (horses in particular) and other extravagant beings to represent human vices in Gulliver’s Travels. It can be read as a story for children, with a simple moral language or a lot of adventure, or as a satire against 18 th century