The prominent novel Animal Farm was written by George Orwell. This book was published during World War II and was intended to portray the communism that had been taking place throughout Russia at the time. Orwell took a massive risk and jeopardized his well-being by letting this story get out to the public. Animal Farm had seemed to be an innocent children’s book at first glance, but many soon realized it had a much deeper meaning. George Orwell shared his true opinions about World War II by giving his negative views on Stalin and affirmative views on Trotsky without being too upfront about it.
This was a very precarious piece of writing to issue; however, his bravery and willingness to rebel made a huge impact on society. To begin with, the novel Animal Farm could easily be misinterpreted by its readers. This is because one may overlook the parallels between the animals on the farm and the individuals from World War II. Many people may completely disregard the fact that the book’s main purpose is not to entertain the audience with a sweet story about farm animals, but to get his point across about where he stands on what had been going on within the war.
Orwell symbolized different characters and movements in the story by depicting them as animals with similar characteristics and statuses in society. For example, the leaders, Stalin and Trotsky, were represented by pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, to show how he felt about their actions throughout the feud. Also, Orwell used the sheep to symbolize the middle class or “bourgeoisie” to convey how most people went along with anything they heard during World War II. Rather than possessing their own opinions on matters, they just listened to whoever spoke at the time and believed what they were told.
Moreover, George Orwell took an enormous risk when attempting to publish this harsh, opinionated novel. Animal Farm is a very biased piece of writing that expressed his opinions on specific topics that were not normally discussed. Although many people had mutual feelings that Orwell had towards what was taking place in World War II, no one had the courage to publicize it. Orwell’s work was so risky because the book consists of a very negative tone towards Stalin.
Though this was a common view throughout most of Russia, if a reader had not felt the same, they could have easily turned Orwell in to the government for being so prejudiced. He could have been penalized and given serious consequences for his writing and sharing the way he felt about Stalin. To lower the chances of something like this taking place, he symbolized everything and used analogies rather than straight up saying he disagreed with Stalin’s motives. This kept his chances of getting in trouble more in his advantage; however, the publishing of Animal Farm was still a very dangerous move for him to make at the time. Furthermore, George Orwell revealed censorship throughout the entire novel, Animal Farm.
Orwell’s objective while writing this story was to show the public his opinion on the current government and his adverse views on communism in Russia. Throughout the book, he hinted at how the social system was unfair and how corrupt of a tyrant Stalin truly was. In order to publish such undesirable opinions about what was going on throughout World War II, Orwell had to somehow “censor” the book and make it appropriate for the public eye while still sharing with them his thoughts about Stalin. To get away with this anarchy, he took precautions in his writing and used censorship in the novel.
By using allegories for the people and situations going on within the feud, such as the pigs representing Stalin and Trotsky or “animalism” signifying communism in Russia, Orwell found a way to express his ideas without getting himself in misfortune. To conclude, this book was written to expose what was truly going on in the government at the time of World War II. The novel had been misunderstood at times, brought on perilous risks for the author, and even altered many of the residents’ opinions on what Stalin had been doing.
In order for Orwell to reveal his sentiments on the communist system, he symbolized the entire book and used censorship. Without these cunning strategies, he most likely would have never gotten away with the rebellion he was starting. George Orwell used the Animal Farm to his best ability and spread how he felt about Stalin and the rest of the government without directing it towards any true people or events. The main topic he had wanted to show was more often just known during the war and the readers were able to interpret the meaning behind the harmless story almost instantly.
