Posted by tim cratchit on August 31, 2001 at 21:42:43:
In Reply to: satirical techniques of Animal Farm- PLEASE HELP posted by kat on August 31, 2001 at 16:58:20:
Mases of dull sheep. Ruling pigs. (Squealer, the great orator, swishing his little tail and hoping from one side to another) The Sugarcandy mountain religion. The pigs getting drunk (Comrade Napoleon is dying - somebody must have poisoned him. Then he is not dying, but with a terrible hangover he declares that alcohol drinking is evil punishable by death. In the evening the edict is not mentioned again and pigs drink merrily again...)
The animals are soooo gulible, the wicked pigs so selfish and dishonest yet goofy in the 'cleverness' of their propaganda.
All the simpleminded things about the abuse of power, exaggerated to the extreme (so that even a child could tell what is going on), written with a mild ironic detachement, like if Orwell is being amused by the sheer stupidity of ones and the clumsy wickedness of the others. Also, the specific funny animal manners fit the people behaviour quite nicely.(Orwell had spent a lot of time in the countryside and was fond of animals, so the farm and animal description is sound).
The tight alegory on Soviet Russia could have easily been a dreary excersise in the politic pamflet writing, but it is not; a good farce reading which one actually feels sorry for those clueless animals and wonder if this is what they always get for their courage and idealism.
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Growing up in a communist country, I heard the Party propaganda every day. So It is particularly entertaining for me to read the pig's silly explainations why they had to eat and live better than anybody else, why they were so busy writting briefs and memorandas all day long, how four legs good, and two legs *better* and all animals are equal, but some are *more equal* than others...