Animal Farm Cynicism Essay

The book, as the material representation of human thought and an object of human creation in itself, is bound to harbor an intimate connection with its creator. As such, one is bound to wonder if such a connection is omnipresent, and whether it can be classified by separate directions. Such is the case in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, a dystopian novella originally written as a warning against the presiding Stalinist Soviet Union at the time. The reigning parallel in the story, in which animals assume the personas of prevalent groups and individuals, features a mysterious, secretive shadow of a man--Benjamin, the old, cross donkey, designated symbol of the intellects. It is through him that one witnesses a striking connection: just as fictional

Orwell appears through their matching conviction of eternal hardship: “[Orwell] was ludicrously wrong about the amazing efficiency with which totalitarians would destroy individualism... ( Orwell XIII); “[Benjamin knew] that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse...” (Orwell 130). Benjamin’s prevalent cynicism throughout the text mirrors Orwell’s as both pertained an overwhelmingly pessimistic outlook upon revolutionaries. They both believe that the world and state of affairs was unchangeable toward utopia; any step forward digressed one or more backwards. A reflection of the readers appears through Orwell’s use of objective omniscient: “None of the animals could form any idea as to what this meant except old Benjamin, who nodded his muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand, but would say nothing” (Orwell 109). His “knowing air” illustrates his greater wisdom, a wisdom carefully placed by Orwell as the circumstances made it blindingly obvious as to what Benjamin had noticed. Both Benjamin and the readers were thus privy to the real situation but unable to act upon the matter; the readers’ inability was guaranteed from their physical exclusion, while Benjamin found it outside of his sphere of