Irony And Motifs In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Animal Farm by George Orwell is a fictional novel that was published in 1945. This story not only has a remarkable and thought-instigating plot, but additionally has a political purpose: to critique soviet communism. Orwell’s intended audience was for citizens across the globe, because he wanted this book to educate people about the negative parts of Soviet Communism. Based on Orwell’s use of irony and motifs, the perfect communist society would see every citizen as an individual, not just what physical work they can accomplish.
To start with, Orwell uses irony in his story to critique Soviet Communism. He does this by showing the pigs (leaders) treating the animals like objects and not individuals. Boxer, a main character in Animal Farm, was a horse who was exceedingly powerful and greatly benefited the farm. However, once he got hurt and lost his strength, the pigs decided to sell him to the glue knacker. On page 122, Benjamin the donkey exclaims “Fools, fool! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van? Horse slaughterer and Glue Boiler” (122). This is an example of irony because animalism is all about every animal being

It states “This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.” (59) This is a motif that these animals are not being treated like individuals. Evidently, this work was not “voluntary”, because rather than rewarding good behavior, the leaders are punishing the “bad” behavior. Napoleon was easily willing to let the animals starve to death if they did not do the voluntary work, thus proving that in Soviet Communism, leaders only care about the work proletariats do, not about their safety, happiness, or personality. In summary, Orwell has made it very lucid that an ideal communist society would make sure that the proletariat’s well being came first, and the work they did