In this module,
we need to apply 'narrative' to our work. The work I have done so far, might
have a narrative already but not to the level being asked for now.
We have a list of
books from which we must choose one to illustrate.
Book List
The Wind in the
Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Treasure Island –
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Princess
Bride – William Goldman
James and the
Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
The Big Book of
Nonsense – Colin West
The Three
Mulla-Mulgars – Walter de La Mare
Wuthering Heights
– Emily Bronte
Oliver Twist –
Charles Dickens
Catch 22 – Joseph
Heller
The Hobbit –
J.R.R Tolkin
Northern Lights –
Philip Pullman
Batman: Arkham
Asylum – Grant Morrison / Dave McKean
Sin City Volume
4: That Yellow Bastard – Frank Miller
Judge Dredd:
Shooters night.
Listening to the
Earth Turn - Jason Aaron
Chain of Command
- Andy Diggle
Nobrow – Graphic
narrative – Exclusion – Sam Arthur
The Castle –
Franz Kafka
Trainspotting –
Irvine Welsh
Animal Farm –
George Orwell
Fifty Shades of
Grey – E L James
White Bones –
Grahame Masterton
Blow by Blow: The
story of Isabella Blow – Detmar Blow / Tom Sykes
Necronomicon: The
Best Weird Tales – H.P Lovecraft
A Princess of
Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Artificial
Man – Leslie Purnell Davies
Dracula – Bram
Stoker
I have chosen
Animal Farm by George Orwell.
George Orwell
wrote Animal Farm in 1945 and published by Martin Secker and Warburg for
Penguin books. It has been reprinted many times since and is one of the most
well loved pieces of literature even today, as many of the underlying messages
and satirical jibes still apply today.
Animal Farm - A
Fairy Story, is anything but a children's tale, though the style in which
Orwell writes and uses description is done in such as way as if he reading to a
child, which could be interpreted as Orwell making yet another point
within this work, that the reader needs it spelt out in such a way as to be
alerted to the problem.
Orwell wrote the
tale as a response to the rise of Communism in the (former) Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) and many of the characters in the book represent an
aspect or notable person of interest from that time.
Manor Farm (as it
is called before the animals come to power) is run by Mr. Jones, who is cruel
to the animals under his care and lacks the ability to run the farm
effectively. It isn’t long till the animals have had enough and drive Mr. Jones
from the farm, renaming it ‘Animal Farm’.
Following the
rebellion, the days are better for the animals and all pitch in to harvest the
seasons crops and care for one another, doing a much better job than the
previous owner. Most of the animals do what they do best and aside from one or
two, help in the upkeep of the farm. Even the pigs at first, get stuck in
though stick to mostly supervisory rolls, being the most intellectual animals
on the farm. They take charge of directing the workforce and innovating in
their ideas, non-more so than Snowball.
Things run
smoothly for a while, until one pig in particular (Napoleon) becomes hungry for
power and drives Snowball from the farm, with the help of the dogs he has
raised as his own private army.
It is clear by
this point that Napoleon’s interests are primarily for himself and pretty soon,
the farm is being run with the same level of brutality and contempt as they
were under Mr. Jones, though non of the animals realise this.
By the end of the
book the pigs are now so much like their previous human custodian that the
other animals are unable to tell the difference anymore, but are now so beaten
down and disillusioned that they do not have the will or means with which to
fight back again.
Characters
 |
| Illustration by Ralph Steadman |
Old Major
Old Major is the
wisest animal on the farm and is the one who brings the idea of rebellion to
the others.
The Major represents Karl Marx who came up with the
key principles behind Communism.
Napoleon
"Napoleon
was a large, rather fierce looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the
farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own
way." - Quote taken from Animal Farm, page 15, second paragraph.
Napoleon
represents Joseph Stalin and his rise to power within Russia during the
mid-1920's.
"Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but not considered to have the same depth of character." - Quote from Animal Farm, page 15, second paragraph.
Snowball represents Leon Trotsky, leader of the opposition during Stalins rise to power. He was deported from the country upon his defeat and was assassinated on Stalin's order in August 1940. He opposed the Stalinist bureaucracy until his death.
Boxer
“Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen-hands
high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.” - Quote from Animal Farm, page 6.
Boxer doesn’t represent any one person in particular, what he does
symbolize is the numerous, hardy working classes of Russia. He is friendly and
eager to work, taking great pride in what he is able to accomplish, however he
is also some what responsible for Nepoleon’s rise to power. Out of all of the
animals he is the one could have stopped it in its tracks, but didn’t have the
sense to do so.
This fact is the most obvious during the first slaughter by the dogs,
when one is driven by blood lust and ends up lunging for Boxer. The sturdy
horse is able to render the dog immobile and is quite prepared to kill the
creature if Napoleon wished it so. Instead Boxer lets the dog back up on
Napoleon’s order.
This says much about the power Boxer (the people) has and if he only had
the sense, he could have quite easily over-thrown the tyrannical pigs.
Benjamin
Benjamin is by far the oldest animal on the farm. He
never lets himself get carried away, even after they successfully win the farm
from Mr. Jones, Benjamin either refuses or simply can not get excited about
their accomplishment, seeming to realise long before the finale, that the
changes they have made ultimately count for nothing. There will still be
hunger, hard work and hardship.
His motto throughout (which may or may not account for
his cynicism) is “Donkey’s live a long time, you’ve never seen a dead donkey.”
This could be interpreted as ‘he is old enough to have seen it all before’ and
if that is the case, he knows that nothing really changes for the animals.
Squealer
Squealer is quite obviously
Napoleon’s propaganda machine, able to (and without conscience) spin a tale to
the other animals, especially if it serves the interest of Napoleon and thus,
himself.
He is a coward and often absent when the farm is in need
of defending or if there is hard work to be done, his talent truly is the lies
he is able to wield with conviction. Some of his reasoning behind the events at
the farm, for example the discontinuation of the weekly meetings are definitely
hiding underhand, ulterior motives, but none of the animals can find it within
themselves to argue, especially when Squealer ‘‘prances back and forth,
swishing his tail’. This could be an indicator to the way Stalin used the media
to bombard the people with news or events that distracted them from the real
problems.
Nine Dogs
The nine dogs are the puppies that Napoleon takes away
and are ‘educated’ by the aspiring boar.
The next time these misguided canines are seen is the
night that Snowball is driven from the farm, with these nine vicious dogs
snapping at his heels.
These dogs represent the Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD the Russian secret
police). These were responsible for many disappearances of people who Stalin
perceived as a threat and this is touched upon in the book several times, most
notably when Napoleon has the dogs savage some of the animals who ‘confess’ to
be in league with the ‘traitor’ Snowball.
Orwell also draws attention to the fact that the dogs
look to Napoleon the same way they looked to Mr. Jones, with wagging tails.
This is a huge indicator of the things to come by the end of the book.
Moses the
Raven
Moses the Raven represents the persecution and the
reinstatement of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Moses was the favorite family pet of the Jones, this
refers to the union of the Tsar and the church and their relationship.
When the Jones’ are driven out, Moses disappears also,
taking his tales of Sugar Candy Mountain. Sugar Candy Mountain, according to
Moses is a place where animals go to after they die. It is a good place, with
no work to be done and there is always enough to eat (Heaven).
Once Napoleon has a sure fast control and requires the
animals to continue to defend the farm, he allows Moses and his tales to return
and pays the Raven a ‘Gill of Beer’ a day. By doing this he is hoping to
placate the animals as they now contend with the hardships they face under
Napoleons rein. Moses becomes another kind of control.
Mollie
Mollie is pretty, vain and materialistic horse who represents
the middle classes of Stalin’s Russia, the bourgeois.
From the very beginning of the book, when the
rebellion is still young and not yet acted upon, Mollie’s concerns lie with
whether there will be ‘sugar cubes’ and ‘ribbons’. These represent the material
wealth of the bourgeois that they were asked to give up. Most did not and
instead, fled to the west.
Mollie flees and joins a neighboring farm and is seen
soon after, pulling a cart with the ribbons she adores once again in her mane.
Clover
Clover is the female counterpart
of Boxer and likely represents the female perspective of the Russian working
classes of the time.
She is more perceptive than Boxer and has many moments
where she recognizes what the pigs are doing goes against what they first set
out to do in the early days of the rebellion, but like Boxer she is unable to
vocalize her thoughts.
“As Clover
looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken
her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed
at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the
human race. These scenes of terror and slaughter were not what they had looked
forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to rebellion.”
This excerpt from the book, written from Clover’s
perspective clearly states that while she understands that only terrible things
are happening, she doesn’t possess the tools required in order to speak out.
Could Orwell then be saying that, if the female working
classes had a political voice or a way to speak out against these atrocities,
they may not have happened or could have been stopped? She is after all a horse
like Boxer, strong and the second largest animal on the farm.
The Sheep
The sheep
on the farm represent the masses of people who were blindly following the
propaganda (Squealer). There use of short bleated mottos, like “Four legs good,
two legs bad” is all these simple minded creatures were able to understand.
Anything more complex was lost on them. They are easily swayed and ultimately
not very intelligent because by the end of the book, Squealer has the sheep
bleating “Four legs good, two legs better” just in time for when the pigs
themselves start to walk on their hind trotters only…
Hen’s
The hens
under Jone’s reign have their eggs taken and sold daily and are given very
little food and care. When the rebellion happens they are assured that they
would not have to part with their eggs anymore, so when Napoleon demands they
do so, they are understandably upset and rebel. Withholding their eggs and
instead choose to smash them during their own revolt.
This represents the Ukrainian peasants who revolted
under Stalin who wanted them to ‘collectivize’
their produce. Instead of doing this, they choose instead to slaughter
their own livestock (breaking of the eggs).
The hens are then starved and nine of them end up
dying. This number is no where near the amount of Ukrainian farmers who were
also starved to death under Stalin’s regime, between four and ten million
peasant farmers died.
Cows
The
cows represent the wealth of the farm, they produce a highly sought after
commodity, milk. One the pigs at least desire and the cows are happy to supply
it, they simply want to be milked.
