As a University work, we have been requested to read and analyze, to provide written feedbacks on some books. Of of them was Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this case, seven questions had been elaborated by teacher Mauricio, the course's coordinator also, and I share my answers with all you now.
1) Compare Napoleon and Snowball. What techniques do they use in their struggle for power?
Napoleon and Snowball are opposite in character. Snowball wanted to be always influential, the fair “man”, the one who considers everyone’s cause and defend their rights. On the other hand, Napoleon always had something up his sleeves; he acts behind the curtains, diligently thinking out lots of plans for gradually taking control and heading to a superior position among the animals.
Snowball did not have a chance to go on with his plans for the Animal Farm because of a plot organized by Napoleon to take absolute control of the farm, and yet, accusing Snowball of any wrongdoings across the farm. Napoleon, in his struggle for power, brought up and educated dogs secretly to serve him, protecting his against any threats he might have encountered, as well as leveraging his intelligence over the least clever animals to rule them by smartly distorting the rules of the farm for his sake.
2) Why do you think Orwell chose a Fable to talk about the Soviet Communism and Totalitarianism?
Orwell lived in a period where free expression of ideas could be hardly repressed. So in order to have his say about the ongoing facts around the Communism and Totalitarianism times, he managed to write a fable to convey his message, that later became a cartoon.
3) How does Orwell explore the problem of rhetoric in Animal Farm? Pay particular attention to Squealer’s character. How’s language used as an instrument of social control? How do the pigs rewrite history?
Given the lack of intelligence of most animals in the farm, Orwell wanted to express that the least smart ones usually take things for granted, as if they were born to be directed, and ultimately, ruled. Resorting to Squealer, quick-witted, wise and owner of a deceivable speech, why would the ignoramus answer back or turn down his notorious demonstration of intelligence? He took advantage of that to transmit the rules from Napoleon and little by little gaining acceptance without animals noticing how things were tendentious, and gradually being changed in favor of the pigs.
4) Discuss the Boxer’s character. What role does he play on the farm?
He plays the role of the one incapable of thinking out of the box, the one who really take things for granted. He had his motto that revolved around utilizing his strength as directed and nothing else. His character denotes how people can be ruled owing to their inability to realize the truth, the naïve, the ones that believe better days are coming, doing their bit, but never thinking out of the box.
5) Do you think Animal Farm message would come across effectively to someone who knows nothing about the Soviet history or the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky? What might such a reader make of the story?
I do think so. First of all, the fable reveals what may potentially happen to any Totalitarianism regime. The Soviet history was just a case in point, as much as the Hitler’s history and other ones that came about in human’s history.
The understanding of the story depends on the type of reader, how critical and educated he may be, so as to capture the nuances and subtle messages conveyed through it. The more educated one may be, the most likely one is to comprehend the real message as envisaged by Mister Orwell.
6) Of all the characters in Animal Farm, are there any who seem to represent the point of view of the offer?
Frankly speaking, the question is not crystal clear to me. I will assume the offer as what was idealized for Animal Farm initially, and think of a character that stuck to it till the end, thus representing the point of view of my assumed offer.
Thinking about it, among the ones that reached the very end of the story, we had the both the virtuous and the vicious; the former, the commanded, the latter, the rulers; both sides came across a different path as was originally envisaged by Major. Having said that, I consider Major the only one that truly represented the point of view of the offer. Despite his idealism, he failed at a point: he failed to realize that corruption terribly permeates mankind and ended up not transmitting such a truth. They had to find out that by themselves.
7) In what way Snowball is an idealist? In what way is he not?
While Snowball was preaching and stating everything for everyone’s sake, he appeared to be a typical idealist. Nevertheless, after it was proven that he had had his complicity with Jones, the idea of standing on Jones’s side since the outset emerged, it got clear that his idealism was untrue, deceivable, he was not corroborating his ideas when first proclaimed.
