Analysis of Animal Farm By: Tan Ly

Animal Farm is a satire on the Russian Revolution, and is one of the best 20th-century examples of allegory, an extended form of metaphor in which objects and persons symbolize figures that exist outside the text. As its title suggests, the setting for this fable-like novel is a farm, and the bulk of the characters are the farm animals themselves, all of whom symbolize various revolutionary figures or political ideologies. The opening chapter introduces the …

…the parallels between the pigs and the humans, is both chilling and poignant. The animals are honestly not as smart as the pigs, so it is with earnest and gullible faith that they have withstood the destruction of their revolutionary ideals and the advent of the totalitarian regime. The moment where they vividly recognize the pigs for the human-minded, and therefore hopelessly corrupted, rulers that they are, is a moment of disillusionment, and ultimately horror.