Literary Analysis

The More Uneducated, the Easier to Control “Four legs good, two legs bad.” page 50. This statement, exclaimed by the sheep in Animal Farm, analyzes how they willingly stated anything they were taught to say with little education of what it meant. Animal Farm was written by George Orwell, whose real name is Eric Blair. He was born in 1903, and during the Russian Revolution, was a part of the lower-middle class; anti-stein. Blair, being in the lower-middle class, realized how Stalin took advantage of the uneducated by corrupting Russia. In his dystopian novel Animal Farm, George Orwell uses character motivation and symbolism to convey his theme: education is the key to freedom. Animal Farm is a spectacular work of literature featuring secret meanings revealed in both character motivations and symbolism. This can also be called an allegory. It was published in Londen, 1946. As the story begins, Old Major introduces the animals to the idea of animalism. He says,” The life of an animal is misery and slavery.” page 5. Therefore, the animals rebel going against the humans, and they run their own farm. The pigs rise to power and start treating the other animals as they are inferior to them. It becomes all about the pigs now as they push the animals to work extremely hard with long hours. The pigs eventually become just like the humans. Every action you make, you have a reason you did it right? Just like in Animal Farm, Orwell uses character motivation to help understand why an animal did a certain thing. For example, Napoleon took in and corrupted Animal Farm more and more. He did this for power and to have complete control of the farm. Also, he ran snowball (one of the other powerful pigs) out of power because he thought the other animals liked snowball more, and that was not acceptable since Napoleon had to be in complete power. Napoleon also took advantage of all the uneducated animals. One example of this is the quote, “Napoleon is always right.” page 56. This was said by Boxer, a donkey. Napoleon was so manipulative, he could get the animals to say anything he wanted them too. Napoleon and Boxer were major symbols in Animal Farm. Napoleon, representing Stalin, the corruptive leader, and Boxer, representing the proletariat, also known as the hardworking citizen willing to do anything Napoleon wants him to do. These two major characters are very diverse from each other. Napoleon is the absolute ruler; you could call him the antagonist. However, Boxer in Animal Farm could be known as the protagonist. Napoleon controlled Animal Farm with complete power and kept the animals uneducated, so they could have no freedom. If they were educated, Napoleon wouldn’t have contained absolute power over them. When something makes use of something else, it symbolizes it. Just like in Animal Farm, Orwell uses symbolism to show how things compare to the Russian Revolution. For example, the whip in the story stood for the military force in the Russian Revolution. “Out came Napoleon himself, casting haughty glances from side to side and carrying a whip in his trotter. There was a deadly silence.” page 117. This last quote expresses how scared and at a loss for words the animals were when Napoleon came out with the whip (military force). The animals have no knowledge of how to rebel against it or what to do. This symbolism conveys how education is the key to being free. Likewise, the theme of this literary work is education is the key to freedom.”Four legs good, two legs better.” page 118. This quote is important to the theme because Napoleon and the other wise pigs could get the not as intelligent animals (like the sheep) to say anything they wanted them to. They didn’t know what was right and what was wrong. Napoleon changed the quote slightly, but it meant a lot differently; however the sheep continually said whatever they heard or were taught to say. Using character motivation as to what and why a character did something explains how they had no education, being like controlled mechanical airplanes. If they did have education, their character motivation would be different. Also, symbolism explains the theme since the whip was their military force; they had little knowledge of freedom. Education is a key factor to independence. Moreover, Animal Farm isn’t just a symbolism toward the Russian Revolution, but also toward events in our world today. For Instance, North Korea is corrupted and under a dictatorship to this day. Animal Farm helps readers further see and understand more of these events, and to maybe prevent them from happening in the future.