Animal Farm

Animal Farm is George Orwell’s 1945 novella in which farm animals overthrow their human owner, then see their revolutionary society become a dictatorship.

Seven Commandments: The farm’s original rules, painted on the barn wall to define the animals’ revolutionary principles. Their repeated alteration makes the revolution’s ideals visibly erode.
George Orwell: The pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist and essayist known for political writing. Orwell wrote the novella as a critique of revolutionary authoritarianism.
Political allegory: A narrative whose characters and events represent political ideas, institutions, or historical events. The farm’s story maps revolutionary politics onto an animal fable.
Nineteen Eighty-Four: George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel about surveillance, linguistic control, and totalitarian rule. Its sustained human society contrasts with Animal Farm’s compressed animal allegory.
Battle of the Cowshed: The animals’ first battle to defend Animal Farm against a human attempt to reclaim it. Its victory establishes the rebellion’s military legitimacy before later power struggles.
Napoleon (Animal Farm): A pig who seizes control of Animal Farm and rules it as a dictator. His consolidation of power drives the farm’s transformation.
Russian Revolution: The revolutions of 1917 that overthrew the Russian monarchy and brought the Bolsheviks to power. The novella’s plot and characters echo events and figures from the revolution.
Totalitarianism: A form of government that seeks comprehensive control over political and social life. The pigs’ rule illustrates the concentration of power and suppression of dissent.
The Road to Wigan Pier: George Orwell’s 1937 nonfiction book on poverty and working-class life in northern England. Its documentary argument contrasts with the novella’s invented fable.
Windmill in Animal Farm: A construction project repeatedly promised as a source of labor-saving power for the farm. Its shifting promises expose how the regime redirects labor and explains hardship.

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