4.1.4
Narrator & Allegory
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Narrator
Animal Farm has an omniscient narrator who appears to be giving the reader the facts in a simple way using simple language. It is told from the animals’ point of view and in chronological order.
Clover
- There is only a brief moment when we see through an individual animal’s eyes, and that is through Clover (who represents the working classes).
- This suggests that Orwell wants the reader to sympathise with the working classes.
- It also shows the reader that the animals are blindly loyal and enables us to see things which the animals cannot.
Simple language
- The simple language makes events seem factual, inevitable and threatening (almost as if it cannot be argued with).
- This, and the narrator’s lack of reaction, makes the events even more shocking.
Simple language - quotes
- “The milk was “mixed every day into the pigs’ mashes”.
- “The dogs promptly tore their throats out”.
- “Boxer was never seen again”.
Allegory
Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution.
Soviet Union
- The pigs create Old Major’s ideal society just as Trotsky (Snowball) and Lenin created the Soviet Union, where all wealth was meant to be divided equally.
Stalin and Trotsky
- Snowball and Napoleon disagree over everything. Napoleon forces Snowball to leave.
- After Lenin’s death, Trotsky and Stalin battle for power. Stalin wins and Trotsky is forced to leave Russia. He is later assassinated in Mexico.
Stalin's propaganda
- Squealer convinces the animals that Napoleon has their interests at heart just as Stalin used propaganda and manipulation to convince people that he was the only one who could protect them.
Confessions and persecutions
- The chickens are persecuted when they resist giving up their eggs.
- The public executions take place where animals confess to crimes that they haven’t committed and anyone who is a threat to Napoleon or who has shown loyalty to Snowball is executed.
- In Russia, many were forced to confess to non-existent crimes and were publicly executed.
Stalin's police
- Napoleon's dogs are allegorical figures for Stalin's secret and violent police force who eliminated any threats to Stalin’s power.
1Important Plot Features
2Characters & Their Links to History
2.1Key Characters
3Key Themes & Orwell's Purpose
4Language, Form & Structure
4.1Language, Form & Structure
5Recap: Main Quotes
5.1Characters Quotes
5.2Text Structure Quotes
Jump to other topics
1Important Plot Features
2Characters & Their Links to History
2.1Key Characters
3Key Themes & Orwell's Purpose
4Language, Form & Structure
4.1Language, Form & Structure
5Recap: Main Quotes
5.1Characters Quotes
5.2Text Structure Quotes
Practice questions on Narrator & Allegory
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 1
- 2Features of the narration in _Animal Farm_:True / false
- 3
- 4What is _Animal Farm_ an allegory of?Multiple choice
- 5
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