George Orwell

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. George Orwell re-uses many of his themes in order to get his point across. In "Why I Write", Orwell states that one of the reasons he writes is for political purpose. He expresses this theme in his essays, "An Episode of Bed-wetting" and "St. Cyprian 's", as well as his novels, "1984" and "Animal Farm".

In "An Episode of Bed-wetting" and "St. Cyprian 's", Orwell expresses how he feels about the politics in the school, St. Cyprian 's. While attending St. Cyprian 's Orwell and many of the other boys who were not rich, were treated unfairly. Sambo, the headmaster, and Flip, his wife, always seemed to look down upon the boys who were not rich and did not have titles.
Retelling the story of the emergence and development of Soviet communism in the form of an animal fable, "Animal Farm" allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Joseph Stalin. Although Orwell believed strongly in socialist ideals, he felt that the Soviet Union realized these ideals in a terribly perverse form. His novel creates its most powerful ironies in the moments in which Orwell depicts the corruption of Animalist ideals by those in power. Even though "Animal Farm" serves not so much to condemn tyranny or despotism as to indict the horrifying hypocrisy of tyrannies that base themselves on, and owe their initial power to, ideologies of liberation and equality. The gradual disintegration and perversion of the Seven Commandments illustrates this hypocrisy with vivid force. In "Animal Farm", Orwell writes, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" (Orwell 112). In this statement, the rulers (the pigs), are re-writing laws to make things favor them. Also, many people will misread the word "equal" in the first part as a relative term rather than an absolute one. Once a misreading like this takes place, the core ideals of the animal farm, and any human nation, gradually become