Modern texts, Year 11: the Russian Revolution retold, irony, allegory and plain style (Animal Farm option)

The Russian Revolution of 1917

HintA rising against an emperor, early in the twentieth century.

The whyOrwell's tale follows the run-up to the 1917 revolution and then the Stalin years. The farm is a small version of the Soviet Union.

Tsar Nicholas II

HintA ruler forced to give up his throne in 1917.

The whyLike Jones, the Tsar was overthrown: he was forced to give up his throne in 1917. He and his family were later executed by the Bolsheviks.

Karl Marx and Lenin

HintA thinker and a leader of the revolution.

The whyHis skull is put on public view, as Lenin's body was left on display. Orwell uses him to show how revolutions begin in noble ideas.

1945

HintIn the same year as the end of the Second World War.

The whyPublishers refused it at first, as Britain was then allied to the Soviet Union. It sold very well once it came out, as relations moved towards the Cold War.

Britain was allied with the Soviet Union in the war, and a book attacking Stalin seemed unwise

HintPolitics, not quality, was the problem.

The whyPublishers feared offending an ally. When the alliance turned into the Cold War, the book became a great success.

allegory

HintA story with a second meaning running underneath.

The whyNapoleon stands for Stalin, Snowball for Trotsky, and so on. Orwell said the book was meant to apply more widely than to Russia alone.

Making fun of something, with humour and exaggeration, in order to criticise it

HintThe tone may be light, but the purpose is not.

The whyOrwell described the book as a satire aimed at Stalin. The pigs' behaviour is funny at first, then disturbing.

The good animals speak plainly; Napoleon and the pigs twist language to suit their own wishes

HintSpeech is a clue to character.

The whyThe contrast makes the point that words can be used to deceive. Orwell's own style is plain on principle.

They rebelled against humans, but cannot now tell the new rulers from the old

HintOne master has been swapped for another.

The whyThe revolution has led to the thing it was meant to remove. The irony is the main force of the final scene.

The rule of equality is the first to be betrayed by the group that wrote it

HintThink about who made the rules and who benefits.

The whyThe pigs do not abolish the rule, they change it so that it excuses privilege. The irony is that equality is used to justify inequality.