Metaphors

The whole book of Animal Farm is a metaphor for the Russian revolution. Many of the characters in George Orwell's book represent real people. Animalism is the same idea as communism; both were supposed to fix problems, all people and animals were meant to be equal, with no owners, no rich, no poor. The main idea behind Russia's communism was the government owning everything, with the people owning the government, whereas with Animal Farm, everybody owned the farm.

Tsar Nicholas II (Mr. Jones) was an extremely poor leader at the best of times. A group of people in Russia started to plot against him. This group of people were lead by Karl Marx (old major), who was the first person to invent the idea of every person being equal, communism. Karl Marx died before the Russian revolution.

The group was taken over by two very competitive beings, Leon Trotsky (Snowball) and Joseph Stalin (Napoleon), while Trotsky wished to follow Karl Marx’s ideas, Stalin wanted to break the rules, for he cared only for power, and killed all that opposed him.

Trotsky had a better education than Stalin, so afraid that Trotsky would ruin his plans, Stalin chased him away with Lenin’s secret police (the Dogs), who were not actually police, more similar to forced followers.

The propaganda department of Lenin’s government (Squealer) acted as mouthpieces for Stalin, convincing everybody that the lies that came from his mouth were nothing but truth. He would lie about anything, just so long as his master’s reputation with the people was safe.

There were many people in Russia who felt that they were strong supporters of communism. They stayed loyal to Stalin after realising that he wasn’t doing good. All of these supporters were tricked, and many were killed by the man they had once trusted.

Religion (Moses, the tame raven) was meant to be used to make people become satisfied with their work. Snowball did not approve of its tricks but Stalin saw that he could use it to his own advantage.

Many selfish inhabitants of Russia (Mollie) moved to other countries that had more to offer for themselves. They did not care about the revolution or anyone other than themselves.

Life was supposed to be better for all after the revolution, only it ended up worse.