What is an allegory? An allegory is a narrative that uses literary devices to unveil hidden meanings. Animal farm is a novel written by George Orwell. It is an allegorical commentary on what went wrong when Czarist Russia evolved into Communist Russia. It was a fight against Hitler during WW2.
Let's talk about the pigs. Who are the pigs in Orwell's book? Old major is the oldest pig on the farm and is respected by the other animals. In the beginning of the book, he tells the animals that he had a strange dream about a farm where the animals were all equal because the kept producing what they produced. He explains about more of his dream about how the animals didn't have to live short lives and they are dominated by hard work and hunger for the benefit of the humans.
Old Major and his dream represented Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto of 1848, as in which Marx makes a statement about the evils of feudalism and capitalism, the idealistic world of communism, inspiring the Russian Revolution of 1917. Like the Revolution, It started out with great intentions. The flags of Animal Farm and Soviet Communism also resemble one another. After the involvement in the revolution on Animal Farm, Snowball is a pig who rises as one of the leaders and is described as "vivacious" and "intentive". Snowball wants to spread the word about the farm to all the other farm so that the other animals can be free.
Next, Snowball is represented as Leon Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin's second-in-command during the revolution and is the leader of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. Trotsky wanted to spread the word about Communism to other nations. However, Snowball and Trotsky get kicked out of their positions by power of other leaders. Napoleon is another pig who makes it as a leader. Rather than trying to influence and gain consensus from other animals through speeches and secretly raised a personal army from nine puppies.
He used them to implement his goals no matter how horrible and brutal it is. Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party from 1922 until 30 years later he died. Stalin created the KGB, the communist party's secret police, who carried out all of his commands. The false confessions of disloyalty in the farm and the executions were made after Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930's, which if anyone would disrespect him would be killed.
Finally, Squealer is the pig who always spreads persuasive messages supporting the leader's goals. He announces changes in the rules, or reinvents history in order to confuse the other animals. He's probably not a symbol for a specific person, but more of an embodiment of hypocrisy and propaganda in general. He could represent the communist newspaper, Pravda, that was the official voice of the party in the 1930s, used to keep the public calm and under control with its misleading leader.
The idea of an equal and utopian society seemed so promising and right, yet it seemed impossible for the pigs not to fall into the habits of man by being greedy, controlling, and deceitful. I wish that the ending had another revolution but this time the rebellion would be against the pigs' rule.
