A Critical Analysis of the Characters and Their Implications

in Animal Farm

分析《动物庄园》中的人物形象及意义

Purpose and Significance of the Study

George Orwell(1903－1950),a famous British novelist, journalist and social critic, has always been regarded as a dangerous heresy. Among all his works, Animal Farm and 1984 have an important impact in history, in which he takes the role of a prophet that he points out cold tone outline of human dark future, making readers#8217; heart tremble. Combined comedy with tragedy, his works caused great tension. George Orwell was a famous British novelist, journalist and social critic. Differing from others, Orwell directly exposes the decadence of language rather than allude to other people with a novel regime. In Orwell#8217;s opinion, the language is the curtain to hide the truth, as well as the tools to gloss over the reality. He believes that the writer must maintain his independence to be an eternal protester in the sense of resistance to violence and suffering in an age of language decay. For his profound ideas in the work, he is considered as ”a solemn conscience of a generation”. Some critics make the comment that ”More than a person to see Orwell, more guarantee of freedom to protect". With specific ideas, Orwell criticized the totalitarianism headed by the Soviet Union in the Stalin era under the name of the socialist. He satirized those people addicted to the totalitarian society and the pursuit of power with his spicy writing. The prediction of totalitarian regimes in the novel have took place unceasingly in the following fifty years of history, so his novels, including Animal Farm, have been called as one of the political satire classics in literary world. Also, he was called "a solemn conscience of a generation".

Animal Farm is a political fable novel which describes an animal revolution including its ferment, the rise and the final disintegration. Suffering from the leader Mr. Jones of the farm, Manor Farm, the animals begin their resistance under the guide of pigs. At last, the animals achieve in power, and the farm was renamed as "Animal Farm", adhering to the equality of all animal. However, the two leading pig try to go after power and strife, a winner announced that the other party is a traitor. Since then, with more and more right in hand, the winner pig has become the new privileged class. If any animal is slightly dissatisfied, it will lead to a bloody cleaning. What#8217;s worse, the idea of the farm has changed into "some animals are more equal than any other animals". The miserable of the past time come back again.

At the end of 1936, Orwell took part in the war in Spain, which was supposed to protect the democratic government represented by the Republican government, but he witnessed the struggle of life and death in the Left. When Orwell returned from Spain, he was filled with indignation for the action of the Spanish Republicans under the control of the Soviet Union. So he wrote a lot to expose their hypocrisy to personal persecution. In the 1920s and 1930s, when many Western left-wing intellectuals put their hope in the Soviet Union, Orwell held his own judgment on the essence of Stalin's Soviet union through his own experience and a series of events of the Soviet Union. If it is said that the whole works during Orwell's life are mainly reflected in the two themes "poverty" and "politics", the main driving force to stimulate his writing is the conscience and sincerity. Animal Farm in the form of fairy tales is the product of this kind of thought. Therefore, each character in Animal Farm in a very political color has a strong simple. For example, the old pig, Old Major, put forward the idea of animal, alluding to Marx and Lenin. While the pig, Napoleon, one of the leaders of the animal revolution and becoming the leader of the farm, represents Stalin. In conclude, the study of the characters and their implications in literary works can help us understand the background of the works and the author.

The symbolism of literature creation originated in Europe in 19th century, creating a starting point of the Symbolism, which was the theoretical base for the development of British and American literature and directly contributed to a new peak of literature development. In the process of the development of history and culture in particular, passion, romance and responsibility collide with each other, to a great extent which launched a world with ugliness and beauty opposed, in order to enhance the literary aesthetic and artistry and efficiency. So we analyze on the characters in this work of Orwell, including their implications.