Satire - Animal Farm

nimal Farm is an animal satire through which Orwell indirectly attacks on the Russian Communism, on Stalinism. Through a humorous and effective animal allegory, Orwell directs his satiric attack on the events of the Russian Revolution and on the totalitarian regime. Orwell combines political purpose with artistic purpose to voice his pessimistic belief, which stems from various experiences he had of the revolution in Spain and the results of the Russian Revolution, that people can only change the tyrants through revolutions but the systems remain the same. He believes that it is only a dream, an ideal to assume that people can achieve a classless society through revolutions. Moreover, he thinks this ideal that begins as utopia is doomed to failure since human nature is corrupt. It is very likely that the lust for power felt by those who are cleverer and more skilful than the others turn revolutionary enthusiasm into the opposite. In a society where people have no voice, if the ruling body with privileges such as special education, luxury and titles, has absolute power, this will lead to total corruption and disintegration of values. Thus, in the novel, the dream, the ideal shatters since what happens in the end turns out to be in sharp contrast with what the Revolution was all about. The dream was a classless society where everybody would be equal and free, enjoying a perfect democracy; the reality is the terror and poverty of dictatorship in which some individuals are "more equal" (Orwell, 1955, p.114) than the others (Hollis, 1962, p. 225). However, although the structure of the novel is suggestive of the Marxist Revolution due to apparent parellels on the level of plot, it could resemble any class of idealistic principles which is mainly based on propaganda but which is not a workable system. Christopher Hollis puts it this way: "The lesson of Animal Farm is clearly not merely the corrupting effect of power when exercised by Communists, but the corrupting effect of power when exercised by anybody."(1962, p.227)