1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Animal Farm is one of George Orwell#8217;s influential works. In this fable novel, a story of animal revolution mirrors what the author has experienced in Spain. Under the torture of Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm, animals plotted a revolution against him. The pigs guided the resistance and finally attained equality of all the animals. However, the two leading pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, competed with each other for power. With the new dictatorship of Napoleon, animals worship the new rule that some animals can be treated more equally than others. In the end, animals suffered from the totalitarian system created by themselves and the utopia vanished.

The author conveyed the main idea that equality and liberty are limited, evanescent and even impossible. That is to say, without democracy and law, the political revolution will end up with dictatorship, though it stems from fighting against totalitarian system. In this story, a group of animals with the ideal vision tried to break the old regulation, which should make them out of the cage but actually jump into another trap. The only difference is that in the human farm, humans control the animals while in the animal farm, poor animals are under the rule of other animals, which is a great pity.

1.2 George Orwell and his political views

George Orwell is a British novelist, journalist and social critic. Most of his works provided his readers with impressive insights of his era and scathing comments on the social phenomena. He experienced poverty and prejudice in his early years, which has a great influence on his idea of equality and liberty. In the 1920s, he worked as a colonist policeman in India, where he found how colonists had ruined the Indian people#8217;s life.

After leaving India, he wandered around in Europe and embarked on his writing career in 1928. From 1936 to 1937, he joined the Labor Party Civil Army to struggle against the Spanish Inner War, when he advocated the ideology of Communist and criticized the totalitarian system both directly and indirectly in his journals. In 1945, Animal Farm was published after Spanish Inner War and Anti-Fascist War. It was based on the fact that Stalin ruled the nation with his authority and resulted in the decline of the Soviet Union.

Animal Farm contains a lot of characters, which are indicative of the political figures in the 20^th century. They are actively influencing the shape of the global politics. Old Major put forward the idea that if human beings exploit animals, animals must resist, which is what Lenin and Marx. The leading pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, represent the politicians Trotsky and Stalin respectively. Benjamin epitomizes the author himself, who has independent attitudes towards the totalitarian society but has no ability to change the situation.

1.3 Need for the study