Parallel Characters In George Orwell's Animal Farm

1945 was a prime year for novels: Stuart Little, Pippi Longstocking, and The Glass Menagerie were just a few published in this year. The most satirical novel of that year, however, was George Orwell’s Animal Farm. This novel practically dripped with satire; everything from the setting to the types of animals had a double meaning. The most notably parallel characters were Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Pincher. Three out of four of these characters represent communist leaders, and consequently, three out of four of them are pigs. The first character to examine is Old Major, who most closely resembles Lenin. Many arguments could be made that he is Marx, but the clincher of the Lenin argument is the display of his head. Lenin’s body has been displayed for around 90 years following his death. Old Major died and was subsequently carved by the Jones-who represent the tsars of the old Russia. The head was later discovered by the other pigs after chasing the Jones from the farm. The head was then displayed. Old Major also laid down the basic rules of “animalism”, aka communism, before he passed. These rules as we read them seemed fairly reasonable after you witness their abuse at the hands of the Jones and Pinkertons. Old Major began the revolution with these rules. Snowball attempted to preserve …show more content…
Orwell used his novel to observe all of the terrors that were occurring in his time. It was so controversial because, at the time, novels were mainly positive in an effort to distract from the horrors of the world. Orwell skipped over that idea and wrote a novel that will transcend time. That is the most horrific idea of Animal Farm: events like those the book parodied will occur over and over because humanity will never learn from its mistakes. Napoleon’s traits are dangerous because they don’t just match the traits of Stalin; they match the traits of leaders all over the world, even