Class And Communism In George Orwell's Animal Farm

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a classic work of literature that was published in August 17, 1945. Its impact on the communist ideas Americans held in the 1950s has made it one of the most influential books of its time. This simple story is an allegory for the Russian Revolution and has many hidden meanings to each character and event that takes place in the novel. Famous critics Harold Bloom, Kingsley Martin, Cyril Connolly, and Northrop Frye all review and explain the ideas that are shown in this novel. Animal Farm is a well written novel explaining a well thought out story, has many references to real world people and events, explains class and communism in a unique way, and has had reviews done by many critics. Animal Farm’s story takes

For example, Boxer, the powerful yet simple-minded cart horse, represents the Russian working class. His large work output for little personal gain is what Russian workers were dealing with at the time. Workers at the time were uneducated, just like Boxer, so they could not question the ideas of communism. Boxer even adopts the statement, “Napoleon is always right.” (pg. 48) Boxer repeats this statement, just like the workers who trusted Joseph Stalin. Molly, another horse on the farm, represents the secular middle class who lived ordinary lives. In the story, she is very keen on keeping her relationship with the humans. The pigs are the higher class of the farm. They enjoy much more luxuries than the other farm animals, such as eating all the apples and drinking the milk, and did much less than every animal combined. This is identical to the upper class of the Soviet Union, in which they did nothing but watch as the people in the lower classes suffer under the harsh conditions at the time. Lastly, Benjamin, the old donkey, represents the older population in Russia. He is old, cynical, wise, and as smart as the pigs. However, just like the older population of Russia, he does not care for anything that happens around him. All these classes are representations of communist Russia. However, a certain line from the text summarizes the imbalance of freedom within communist

In his book, he summarizes Animal Farm and makes connections of animals to the political leaders of Soviet Russia. In it, he references many reviews done by writers. One reference he points out is that of Kingsley Martin, a British journalist in the 1900s. In his review called “Orwell’s Cynicism and Benjamin,” he calls it “beautifully written, amusing and, if you don’t take it too seriously, a fair corrective of much silly worship of the Soviet Union, …” Another writer brought up by Bloom is Cyril Connolly. In his review titled, “Betrayal on the Russian Revolution”, he states that, “Orwell is a revolutionary writer who is in love with 1910.” Connolly goes on to explain the basic ideas Orwell brings up, such as Napoleon’s tyranny and its similarity to Stalin’s regime. Paraphrasing and summarizing “Chapter 2” of Richard I. Smyer’s book, Animal Farm: Pastoralism and Politics, Smyer explains how Animal Farm is an important book of our time because it highlights a dark time in Russian history. He says it helps identify the roles all the past dictators had on Soviet Russia. Lastly, Northrop Frye, a Canadian literary critic, says in his book, Twentieth-Century Literature, “The story is very well written, …” and goes on to explain how it is, such as bringing up Snowball’s story and its comparison to