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Animal Farm
 His
best-known novel, it is a social fable satirizing Russia and setting
Stalinist totalitarianism in a farmyard. He completed the novel in February
1944, but no publisher would accept it at the time. When Animal Farm
was finally published, it became a great success and Orwell became famous
overnight.
With a subtitle “A Fair Story”, the novel tells that the
animals of Mr. Jones’ farm revolts against their human masters and drive
them out. The pigs become the leader of the animals. The rebellion begins
with “all animals are equal” and goes on gradually to the tyranny of the
pigs over other “lower animals” and the supreme authority of their chief,
Napoleon. Napoleon is the symbol of
Stalin, ruthless and critical. Soon a
power struggle begins between Napoleon and other pigs. It turns out that the
pigs are corrupted by power and a new tyranny replaces the old. Their famous
slogan is “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than
others” It is an attack on Stalinist dictatorship and all kinds of
totalitarianism. It is an allegory of the
Russian Revolution by Stalin and
his cohorts, of the treacherous treatment of
Trotsky, and the exploitation
of the populace for party survival and advantage. The novel makes readers to
think about the danger of power corruption. The following is the paragraph
from the opening chapter, in which the old Major, the prize Middle White
boar has a speech on other animals:
“All the animals were now
present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back
door. When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were
waiting attentively, he cleared his throat and began:
‘Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last
night. But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say
first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months
longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as
I have acquired. I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as
I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature
of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this
that I wish to speak to you.
Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our
lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so
much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are
capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the
very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with
hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or
leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an
animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.”
Nineteen Eighty-Four
 In 1984,
Winston Smith lives in London, which is part of the country Oceania. The
world is divided into three countries that include the entire globe:
Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The world is a totalitarian society led by
Big Brother, which censors everyone’s behavior, even their thoughts. Winston
is disgusted with his oppressed life and secretly longs to join the fabled
Brotherhood, a supposed group of underground rebels intent on overthrowing
the government. Winston meets Julia and they secretly fall in love and have
an affair, something which is considered a crime. One day, while walking
home, Winston encounters O'Brien who is regarded by Winston as a member of
Brotherhood and gives him his address. Since Julia hated the party as much
as Winston did, they went to O'Brien’s house together where they were
introduced into the Brotherhood. O'Brien is actually a faithful member of
the Inner-Party and this is actually a trap planed many years for Winston.
Winston and Julia are sent to the Ministry of Love, which is a sort of
rehabilitation center for criminals accused of “thoughtcrime”. There,
Winston was separated from Julia, and tortured until his beliefs coincided
with those of the Party. Winston denounces everything he believed him, even
his love for Julia, and was released back into the public where he wastes
his days at the Chestnut Tree drinking gin.
Orwell maintains that language has the power in politics to
mask the truth and mislead the public, and he wishes to increase public
awareness of this power. Demonstrating the repeated abuse of language by the
government and by the media in his Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell shows
how language can be used politically to deceive and manipulate people,
leading to a society in which the people unquestioningly obey their
government and mindlessly accept all propaganda as reality. Language becomes
a mind-control tool, with the ultimate goal being the destruction of will
and imagination.
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