I am currently reading Animal
Farm by George Orwell for my philosophy book club. It’s a really
interesting book, about animals taking over a farm and kicking out their
irresponsible farmer so that they can rise above humans and eventually make
animals the dominant population. As I read the book, I notice similarities
between the book and historical events, such as World War Two. It seems to be
an extremely obvious allegory of World War Two.
The animals on the farm were being
oppressed by their farmer, and decided to rebel in order to create their own
species of animals who behave like “civilized” humans in their opinion. The
allegory only begins when the animals have risen above the farmer and have
kicked him out, when only the animals are living on the farm. The pigs are
apparently superior and more intelligent than any of the other animals, and
they’ve taken the initiative to make all of the farm’s decisions and boss
around the rest of the animals. They tell the animals what to do when they’re
working in the fields, and decide to save a large portion of the food for
themselves. They seem to be the Nazis in this case, while the other animals
appear to be the Jewish population. The pigs start to become oppressive, and
the other animals are under their rule, thinking they are unable to question
this oppression since the pigs are apparently so much more intelligent than the
others.
Earlier in the year, we wrote
picture books on controversial issues that affect our community, like teenage
homelessness for example. We had to present them to an elementary school class;
so many of us chose to write allegories, stories that have a hidden meaning. I
think Animal Farm has an obvious hidden meaning, since I’ve only just
started reading it, I’m not sure what it is yet, but I can tell it will have
one, since it’s already so similar to World War Two.
Fiona:
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You made really good connections to yourself, and other events that have taken place throughout history, which demonstrates your understanding of the depth of the content of this book. Why do you think the author chose to make an allegory of World War II? What messages was he trying to portray to the reader about World War II? Do you have any predictions on how it will end? I am also reading a book about World War II that has animals as characters, but it is not an allegory. These depictions make the book more interesting because it allows for different interpretations on the events. Again, great job.