73 pages • 2 hours read
George OrwellA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Orwell’s allegory parallels the events of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent regime of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Many characters and events suggest real-life counterparts. Napoleon is a stand-in for Stalin, while Snowball, the idealistic pig whom Napoleon overthrows, is an analog for Leon Trotsky, who was essentially the second-in-command of the first head of Soviet Russia’s government, Vladimir Lenin. The old boar Major is a Karl Marx-like figure who inspires revolution. Mr. Jones represents the Russian Czar Nicholas II, whose mismanaged leadership led to the communist takeover. The farm dogs represent the brutal Soviet police, and the sheep represent the ignorant and unthinking masses. Neighboring human-run farms symbolize capitalist countries that either desired the downfall of the Soviet Union or sought to form alliances with it. As in the Soviet Union under Stalin, life on the farm includes show trials and executions, deceptive propaganda, and revisionist history.
Thinkers, including early 20th-century English writer G. K. Chesterton, have pointed out that the word “revolution” (literally, overturning) implies that the wheel of change will eventually turn back to its original position. Orwell plays on this pessimistic idea in Animal Farm.
By George Orwell
1984
George Orwell
A Hanging
George Orwell
Burmese Days
George Orwell
Coming Up for Air
George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell
Homage To Catalonia
George Orwell
Keep the Aspidistra Flying
George Orwell
Politics and the English Language
George Orwell
Shooting an Elephant
George Orwell
Such, Such Were the Joys
George Orwell
The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell
Why I Write
George Orwell
Allegories of Modern Life
View Collection
Animals in Literature
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Banned Books Week
View Collection
British Literature
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Fantasy
View Collection
Fantasy & Science Fiction Books (High...
View Collection
Goodreads Reading Challenge
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Satire
View Collection
Science Fiction & Dystopian Fiction
View Collection
SuperSummary Staff Picks
View Collection