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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
As a work of political satire, Animal Farm critiques totalitarian regimes by illustrating how power can corrupt and that absolute power is especially prone to such corruption. Although he’s writing about animals, Orwell is really reflecting on the complex dynamics of the Soviet Union ousting one government and bringing in new leadership and ideologies. By distilling these interactions into the everyday events of a farmyard, Orwell allows readers to explore the development and degeneration of these systems in an accessible way. He exposes the hypocrisy and moral degradation of leaders like Stalin, who twist the truth and manipulate their constituents. The pigs take the place of these corrupt leaders, and the other animals represent their disappointed subjects . The pigs’ gradual shift from revolutionaries to oppressive rulers is a way for Orwell to lampoon the downfall of revolutionary purity in the Soviet Union and in revolutions like it. By the end of the novel it’s clear that there’s an ironic resemblance of the new tyranny to the old. Even though revolutions start with beautiful ideas, Orwell implies, all it takes is greed and selfishness to destroy them.
Animal Farm is also often categorized as dystopian fiction, as it depicts a society that—although founded on ideals of freedom—has become broken and fundamentally changed. The gradual descent of the farm from a happy, cooperative place into a dystopian tyranny brings the effects of corrupt leadership and the loss of individual freedoms to the forefront. This transformation from positivity to hopelessness reflects the broader theme of dystopian literature: that the balance of things as we know it is delicate. It’s a warning of what might come if people become complacent and let their leaders gain unchecked power.
Related Themes:
