Animal Farm Analysis: Context
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- Опубликовано: 8 апр 2018
- How a single line at the beginning of Animal Farm gives us a deep insight into why the animals' revolution fails - and what this tells us about human nature and the Russian Revolution
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It seems to me that Old Major represents Karl Marx rather than Vladimir Lenin. Firstly because Karl Marx came up with the idea, and secondly because Karl Marx died before the revolution came about. I would consider Snowball to represent a combination of Lenin and Trotsky, though he is more like Trotsky than Lenin.
Yes exaclty my thoughts- Marx = Old Major, Snowball = Trotsky , Napoleon = Stalin (as Stalin took Marxist principles and twisted them for his own personal gain, similar to Napoleon and Major's ideas of Animalism
But it was Lenin’s body on the display like Old Major’s scar. I guess it’s blurry or it not completely accurate to the events that ensued.
Lenin was a dictator. Doesn't really fit with Old Major's image
@@erwin9065 yes, I agree though I read on Wikipedia that Old Major is a supposed to be a combination of Marx and Lenin
Total BS!! Sometimes a pen is just a pen! -Freud.
This book or the video of it is junk. It's purported to tell the story from an animals perspective but still dictated by human. Its conclusion has no value.
There is no need to write a story about how a knife can't cut itself. In this aspect George Ordwell failed.
I liked the horse Mollie. Although stunningly stupid and foolish, she’s the only character to be her own person (so to speak) and not follow the crowd. She was the outlier who ultimately ends up with a better life than the rest of the animals (with the exception of the pigs of course). There are benefits, it would seem, to being an independent thinker - even if your thoughts are considered foolish by others.
This is a very good point
Sometimes a pen is just a pen!
This book or the video of it is junk. It's purported to tell the story from an animals perspective but still dictated by human. Its conclusion has no value.
There is no need to write a story about how a knife can't cut itself. In this aspect George Ordwell failed.
I love Mollie too
that’s pretty accurate
This book should be mandatory reading in schools.
Good point: I agree. It's a book that I remember reading at school and which has stayed with me.
Actually cool fact, it was the first book my eight grade English class read.(although I actually read it before) also I was in a gifted program so that’s probably why I was lucky
That is true, I remember that this book was banned in our school, I had to borrow it from a friend, and printed it. I would read it at school on A4 printed pages to conceal it.
Tough times
It is in Lithuania :)
@@godastp307 I wish I had completed my school education in Lithuania
this is exactly what i needed, not some plain obvious plot summary but an in depth analysis which stimluates high marks
Very glad to hear that.
I always thought there is a serious theme of education and literacy amongst the population, as well as propaganda. The barn animals have terrible memory, terrible intellect, and have no other source of information other than the pigs. Seems like that is the take away: being ignorant, trustful, and optimistic for a plan you don't know the details of will only lead to your ruin.
Yes and that's a theme that carries over into 1984 with the phrase "Down the memory hole." If your only source of information and history can re-write that info history at will, you're in trouble.
lol
Not only that any time the animals want to argue the change of the rules the sheep shutdown the discussion with there bleating
yoo. Huge shout out to your Team. Nailed the Infos in just 4 and a half min
Thank you: that's very kind of you to say.
I learned something today, just now, Monday 12/06/21, or maybe it is that I was simply reminded of something I had forgotten. But I remember reading "Animal Farm" well, a long, long time ago so maybe it was "back in school" in which case the teacher would have surely told us that this was an "allegory"...about the Russian Revolution. What I do remember, however, is thinking, "Yeah, that is exactly how people and government and authority figures and the ruling class really are! There is always a 'somebody else' who I am to trust and believe, and believe in, that wants me to believe that they/it truly 'care' about me." Hell, by the time I was in school I'd already figured out that that was a bunch of crap, nothing more the tragic reality of the stuff of daily life.
But I did buy--no, I was given--a used copy of "Animal Farm" when my now ex-wife and I separated in '79. And it was given to me by a pal whose "lady friend" had just dumped him two weeks prior. And he owned a book shop and said "Here you go. Add this to your personal library." I did and it remains on a shelf in the basement.
But me, my personal "hero" and absolutely favorite character in the tale?
Oh, that would be Benjamin, that old gray donkey because I knew, even as a kid, that I, too, "would rather have no tail and no flies" rather than be stuck in the stuff that is indeed the madness of the real life "Animal Farm".
Excellent video, Dr. Aidan. Bravo!
I’m very pleased that you enjoyed the video and thank you for your kind words.
Loved your analysis. I think why this book is really such a good read is because it remains relevant timelessly. While ofcourse befitting the context of the Russian Revolution perfectly, I also think it reflects on the nature of power dynamics so well. Whether you consider British colonialism or just fascist forces in a country in general, the way that the masses are brainwashed into believing whatever narrative those in power churn out is something the book captures so beautifully. I'm an Indian and so naturally I was able to relate the book to the circumstances of the Indian freedom struggle and what made this comparsion more pertinent for me was that a large number of Indians then were illiterate just like most classes of animals in the farm, which made it somewhat easier to perhaps build a certain idea by feeding false facts which the people had no means of veryifying.
Very glad to hear that you enjoyed the analysis.
On point analysis
Great video 👍👍
This book is a modern classic and a masterpiece of literature that had massive political impact for its time.
Sometimes a pen is just a pen!
This book or the video of it is junk. It's purported to tell the story from an animals perspective but still dictated by human. Its conclusion has no value.
There is no need to write a story about how a knife can't cut itself. In this aspect George Ordwell failed.
I thought that the dogs represented cops and rats represent criminals and that’s why the dogs are engrained to believe rats should be attacked?
Yep, you're right.
Noice video
So, based on this reading, Orwell was some sort of racist essentialist? It seems to me that the scene with the dogs and rats hilights the challenge of overcoming internalized hierarchies. THis is of course a danger of allegory, which, by design, refuses one to one associations, but this reading points to fascistic ideas. Orwell would be outraged.
Also, no one would accuse Lenin of being vague about his vision of a communist society. He built it. BUt that's also why Old Major isn't a stand-in for Lenin. He's clearly Marx, who critiqued capitalism but never laid out a vision for communist organization.
There are many things that make people unequal. Intelligence and education levels, physical strength or beauty, charisma, class status, where they’re from (even in a rural vs urban context)-these all create internalized hierarchies as well.
BS.
Sometimes a pen is just a pen!
This book or the video of it is junk. It's purported to tell the story from an animals perspective but still dictated by human. Its conclusion has no value.
There is no need to write a story about how a knife can't cut itself. In this aspect George Ordwell failed.
Circa 1945, T. S. Eliot, then Editor of Faber and Faber, rejected publication of Animal Farm; three other publishers also rejected the book; both the Left and the Right rejected the book. The little book was finally published after V.E. Day, when the Cold War had just started blowing its icy winds over the world.
Why did you put the hammer and sickle in the intro did anyone notice it
because the book is a critique to communism
@@biancadiangelo7399 its a critique on the Russian revolution not communism as an idea. Orwell was literally a socialist lol
@@granimalzzz5875 ye I know but people associate hammer and a sickle symbol with ussr wich most people believe to be communist instead of socialist so I just went with it
@GranimalzZz he was at first, until the Spanish Civil War and he slowly grew apart from the ideals of socialism
I can't really decide wheter this book is about the french or the russian revolution or both. Because really the story is kinda similar to the french one by that I mean the farmers (royals) want to overthrow the animal goverment because of their ideology and they join forces to defeat them and the animals defeat the farmers just as the french republic did with the coalition and later napoleon (the IIIrd did this idk if the more popular one did) in the name of the revolution becames defacto a farmer (emperor/royalty) replacing Mr. Jones (burbons). I saw the animal farm today for the first time in theatre than I watched the animated movie in home and in the theatre version there was a part where a farmer called Frederick visits napoleon in the farm to arrange a deal and have a dinner togheter where napoleon comes out dressing as a farmer (defacto becoming royalty) and I thought the scene was representing the event when napoleon married into the habsburg house (I know prussia had a Frederick at that time Austria had a Francis)betraying the revolution and becoming royalty (this was not in the animated version). In the other hand the coalition never planned to replace the Burbons while the farmers wanted to take the farm from John but this can be interpeted as the germans and austrians want to force their peace threaty on the soviets though the soviets never defeated the germans. The animals can fit more and the characters can fit more into the soviet era. Being exploited workers lead by an incompetent leader. John the farmer sits well with both Nicolas IInd and with Louis XVIth Old Major was probably based on probably Lenin or Karl Marx while snowball is definetly Trotsky a good speaker, good organizer and a military genious while napoleon is suprise suprise Stalin subjugates ethnic groups, uses opression, corrupt, liar, jerk and the author himself was born in 1903 so the russian civil war must have had a bigger impact on him than the french one. The symbolysm is very similar in both revolution so its pointless to talk about that. So the story is more french revolution like while the characters are more russian revolution like but I cant decide it. It was probably inspired by both
It is 100% about the Russian revolution. It literally brings up WW1, WW2 and the revolution itself. Mr Jones were a good farmer until he lost a few lawsuits (ww1) and because of them he started to neglect the farm (Russia).
The most important line never mentioned isn’t a single line but the whole original introduction (which very few have read) to Animal Farm that Orwell wished to publish with the book, he stated that it was as much anti-British as anything else because the propaganda systems here in Britain are just as effective, and systems of power just as separate to public representation as anywhere else. In his words, the local methods of coercion are more subtle and clever though through processes that include rampant indoctrination starting from preschool, filtering and framing facts, selection during a journalist career to weed out “difficult” people asking actual questions, and that “it wouldn’t do to say” (literally Orwell’s words) certain things. This introduction was censored ironically (exactly as he was describing in the introduction itself) and even with his introduction removed, Orwell obviously had no choice but to frame the book in a way that suited establishment under the publishers, and various edits were necessary. Look it up for yourself by searching “original introduction to animal farm”.
I'm not finding it. Google isn't helpful
Sometimes a pen is just a pen!
This book or the video of it is junk. It's purported to tell the story from an animals perspective but still dictated by human. Its conclusion has no value.
There is no need to write a story about how a knife can't cut itself. In this aspect George Ordwell failed.
Funny where we are Now🤭
The next step is the Korean Revolution
it is not 1917 it is 1776/ sorry about that
"Religion" refers to the ideology required to rationalize the insanity of dictator. Old Major sold the animals a prophecy, and Napoleon fulfilled it. Had Old Major lived, he'd have been the tyrant as well, and the same goes for Snowball. Lenin ended democracy, wiped out millions of peasants on a fantasy, then instigated the Red Terror. Had he continued ruling the new Russian Empire, he likely would've been at least as horrific as Stalin, and the same goes for Trotsky. My only major critique of Orwell's book is that ignores that the pigs were already men from the start.
Soviet Germany circa literally always
pogggggg, i came because i was told to by my teacher, but i stayed for the amazing content. keep it up!
edit: thanks for all the likes guys :) if you want more, come check out my youtube channel. Pog
DegradingBear Plays thank you!
think of the industrial revolution technological revolution 1984 & brainwashing . 🔦🔦🎤🎤📲📲
Sounds like South africa now. 😅
Communism
comrade
Indeed
but the c is capitalized
Still hands down better than Capitalism
Communism?
Sorry you can’t hack it
@@mothermary3796 what
Nah, people starve under communism. With capitalism, the downside is over abundance and too much freedom, but you will never starve, regardless of class
Funny how you never hear people desperately fleeing from a capitalist country to a communist country.