"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism... Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole."

- George Orwell, "Why I Write"

"The business of making people conscious of what is happening outside their own small circle is one of the major problems of our time, and a new literary technique will have to be evolved to meet it."

-George Orwell

    For quite some time, George Orwell felt the need to express his political opinions of his time and make his fellow citizens aware of the political system under which they lived. Politics is often an unpopular theme of discussion, yet Orwell successfully developed a vehicle of political commentary with Animal Farm.

    Animal Farm is subtitled "A Fairy Story". It appears to be modelled after fairy tales and fables. In an effective manner, political history, values and opinions are exposed to readers in a fashion that can easily be understood.

    The book Animal Farm presents an allegory of Communist Russia. The beauty of Animal Farm it symbolically captures the history of Russia in a subtle, sophisticated yet comprehensible way. The novel was written between November 1943 and February 1944, at time at which Communism was at its peak in Russia (Meyers 131).  Many events from the Russian Revolution are alluded to in Animal Farm. Three main Russian political events of this era are allegorized in Animal Farm.  These events are the February Revolution of 1917, resulting in the overthrow of the old Czarist Russian government, the results of Stalin's collectivization from 1929-33, and the Great Purge from 1932-38 (Meyers 139). Orwell also modeled the characters reflect the characteristics of key political figures and groups of the time (ie Stalin and Trotsky) and appropriately chose their names, such that they corresponded to the role they take in the story.

    This novel truly is a subtle, yet clear statement of the political reality of Communist Russia during the early twentieth century. Orwell has crafted a masterpiece that critiques Russia honestly, meanwhile allowing readers to emerge themselves in the unpleasant history of Communist Russia in a more pleasant, convincing atmosphere.

Works Cited
Meyers, Jeffrey. "The Political Allegory of Animal Farm." A Reader's Guide to George Orwell. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. 130-143.  

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© Mindy White-Gosse, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002