Animal Farm Reflection

The story Animal Farm by George Orwell obviously is an allegory for communism, and probably the Communist movement in Russia. Animal Farm follows the ascension of power of Napoleon in contrast to the defamation of Snowball. Napoleon probably represents Josef Stalin while Snowball represents Trotsky.

The three parallels to history that interest me the most are spreading the idea of animal rebellion, the unforeseen shrewdness of Napoleon and the animals becoming what they had worked to overthrow.

In Chapter 5 Napoleon and Snowball disagree over whether it is better to focus efforts on defending the farm another possible Jones attack or spread against ing the idea of animal rebellion. The chauvinistic Napoleon thinks it is more prudent to focus on military strategy while Snowball believes in stirring up rebellion in neighboring farms. We can see from history that Stalin was a very violent man and his personality is reflected in Napoleon.

Before the ostracizing of Snowball, I had thought that Napoleon had gained his power through his brute force. It appeared that was what happened, he bided his time and was secretly training, in essence, his own ruthless secret police, like the NKVD, that was loyal to him. Napoleon wasn't just keeping quiet because he isn't as smart as Snowball, he was hatching a brilliant scheme to get rid of the other alpha male. I was most impressed though with Napoleon's theft of Snowball's brainchild, the windmill. Napy, realizing the windmill would be good, or at least good for his political purposes, said he had supported the idea all along and only pretended to oppose it in order to purge the dangerous Snowball.

Orwell says how the police dogs were "noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs had been used to do to Mr. Jones," (38). In agreeing with Freddy's view on Russia in the real world, the animals's society has become exactly what it sought to get rid of. The way of life on Animal Farm is now the same totalitarian system that existed when Jones was in charge. The only change is that Napoleon is the new leader. The animals's main ideal of "Four legs good, two legs bad" has been severely compromised because now the animals trade with a human and view Snowball, who walks on four legs, as the enemy.