Read, track, and reflect across a structured canon.
Read this after you’ve finished the book - in-depth exploration of themes, symbols, and meanings
The fundamental question of Animal Farm is: Why do revolutions aimed at total equality so often end in a new form of tyranny?
Orwell suggests that power is inherently corrupting. Even if a revolution starts with the best intentions (like Old Major’s), the practicalities of leadership and the human (or pig) desire for privilege will inevitably create a new hierarchy. The book is a warning that the “new boss” is often just like the “old boss,” only more efficient at using propaganda and terror.
Animalism begins as a pure vision of equality. However, the pigs quickly realize that they can use their “intellectual superiority” to claim more resources. The theme is summed up in the final, paradoxical commandment: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Squealer is the most important character for this theme. He doesn’t use force; he uses words. He “turns black into white” by:
Boxer represents the loyal, hard-working proletariat. He is strong and brave, but he is too trusting. His two mottos (“I will work harder” and “Napoleon is always right”) lead to his own destruction. Orwell is critiquing the way dedicated people are exploited by the very leaders they think they are serving.
| Symbol | Meaning | Key Moment |
|---|---|---|
| The Windmill | The empty promises of industrialization and the state’s exploitation of labor. | Its repeated destruction and rebuilding. |
| The Barn Wall | The record of history; how the state changes its own laws. | Every time Squealer is found with a paint bucket. |
| The Dogs | The secret police/military; the force that makes the propaganda work. | Chasing Snowball off the farm. |
| Old Major’s Skull | The desecration of the original revolutionary ideals. | Being dug up and paraded around. |
| Sugarcane Mountain | Religious distractions (the “opiate of the masses”). | Moses the raven returning with his stories. |
Animal Farm is a Double Allegory.
The Historical Key:
Significance: A simplification of complex thought. By the end, it becomes “Four legs good, two legs better.” It shows how slogans can be easily flipped to serve the oppressor.
Significance: The final realization that the revolutionaries have become the very thing they overthrew. The “vanguard” has become the new elite.
Focuses on the book as a warning against any system (Left or Right) that allows a small elite to control truth and use violence to maintain power.
Argues that Orwell is suggesting that human nature is fundamentally flawed, and therefore social equality is an impossible dream.
Which character do you identify with most? The hard-working Boxer or the cynical Benjamin?
Post-Reading Analysis created: 2025-12-25
For Great Literature 105 - Book 02 of 10