Animal Farm

1. What is the writer trying to communicate? How is the writer doing this?

Ian Wooldridge, who adapted Animal Farm from George Orwell’s original novel, seems to be trying to communicate several themes such as political corruption, classism, and lack of education. Political corruption and classism is communicated through the pigs rise to power, especially through Napoleon. Napoleon disregards the needs of all the other animals to satisfy his own selfish desires. The pigs, except for Snowball who shows genuine care but is run off the farm, show classism by using their intellect to elevate themselves in the new farm society. For example, they steal milk and apples, and lie to the other animals by saying that these foods have nutrients essential to pigs, who need these nutrients to carry on their managerial work. Lack of education, namely being able to read and write, is evident in the other animals as well. This lack of education leads to the rest of the animals being easily manipulated by the pigs.

2. Under which genre can we classify this work? Support your opinion.

I would classify this work under contemporary animalistic satire. I say that it is animalistic satire because Animal Farm shows the irony of revolution while criticizing the stupidity and greediness of political figures through using animals with human characteristics to highlight this mockery. It falls under the contemporary genre because of how the play incorporates references to current political figures and events, such as Donald Trump.

3. How does this work effect/affect you? Is what the writer is doing worth doing? Yes, this is a subjective question, and I want you to answer this question subjectively.

When I finished watching the play, I could see the many parallels it made with American politics and culture. It almost seems to be a critique of the America its systems of oppression. Though Orwell’s story reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, the play reflects core themes of political corruption and ignorance in our society today. The hypocrisy and elitism of the pigs compliments the director’s choice to parallel Napoleon and the pigs with Trump and his administration due to Trump’s continuous treatment of ‘lower’ classes in America. Other thoughts that this play brought up was how critical education is to liberation/freedom – The other animals seemed chained by their inability to read and write because many of the issues they faced could have been resolved if they knew how to do so. The pigs capitalized on this ignorance by changing the commandments to suit their needs while harming and killing any potential opponents to their tyranny. The selfishness of the pigs halted any progression that could have been made by the animal society as a whole. It reminded me of how certain