16. Dystopian literature (George Orwell, Animal Farm and other works)

Motifs: songs – serve as propaganda, Beasts of England, Animal Farm Animal Farm

State ritual – large parades, new songs – the state attempts to reinforce the loyalty of the animals by increasing the frequency of the rituals

Symbols: animal farm - symbolizes Russia and the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule, stands for any human society – a government (the pigs), a police force or army (the dogs), a working class (the other animals)

The windmill – symbolizes pig’s manipulation of other animals for their own gain, despite the immediacy of the need for food and warmth, the pigs exploit Boxer and the other animals

The barn – pigs pint the Seven Commandments of its walls, represents the collective memory of a modern nation – pigs changed the principals of animalism – institution in power can change a community’s concept of history

Plot:

- Old major – boar (kanec), introduces his ideas about self-rule and animal rebellion, teaching the other animal the song Beasts of England, later replaced by Comrade Napoleon; it corresponds to socialist anthem The Internationale

- animal rebel against their farmer Mr. Jones and take over his farm

- Battle of cowshed – animals defend their farm from humans for the first time

- Snowball and Napoleon compete for leadership

- Napoleon expelled Snowball using propaganda delivered by Squealer and educating the animals turning Snowball from hero to scapegoat (obětní beránek)

Animalism = allegoric reference to communism, Snowball, napoleon and Squealer adapt Old Majors ideas into a complete system of thought

- Napoleon imposes his will to animals making them work harder for less and less, while he and other pigs live more extravagantly with plenty of food and detached from the community

- he orders the construction of a windmill (modernizing the farm) – (been Snowballs idea) – but when they defend farm against Fredrick, windmill is destroyed

- Boxer is send to slaughter (na porážku) and other animals are lied to about what happened to him

- original document animals lived by is modified to single commandment – All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

- pigs walk on two legs and are more educated

- pigs and humans gather together to celebrate their exploitation of other working creatures in the farm

- Old majors dream = animals should have better life, independent, free, all animals to be united

- animal-controlled society

- it represents Marx/Lenin, shapes ideology and philosophy

- everything they produce is for everyone - sharing

- he criticizes humans because 1. They are cruel 2. Are slaughtering animals 3. Maltreatment the animals receive from humans

• Old Major – he provides the inspiration that fuels the rebellion

• he is an allegorical combination of Karl Marx, one of the creators of communism, and Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader of the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet nation, in that he draws up the principles of the revolution. His skull being put on revered public display recalls Lenin, whose embalmed body was put on display. By the end of the book, the skull is reburied.

• Napoleon – "A large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way". An allegory of Joseph Stalin, Napoleon is the main villain of Animal Farm.

• Snowball – Napoleon's rival and original head of the farm after Jones' overthrow. His life parallels that of Leon Trotsky, but may also combine elements from Lenin.

• Squealer – A small, white, fat porker who serves as Napoleon's second-in-command and minister of propaganda, holding a position similar to that of Vyacheslav Molotov.