Animal farm Essay -- Character Analysis, Mr. Jones, Snowball

I. SUBJECT Animal farm is a novel about animals that develop their own society and the abuses of power that result. The story takes place at an imaginary farm in England, Manor Farm. The novel begins as the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones, is falling into a drunken sleep. The animals then gather in the barn where a boar, Old Major, delivers a speech to his fellow animals about a dream he has that one day all animals will be free from the tyranny of man and in perfect comradeship. Two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball plot to drive Mr. Jones off the farm. They along with the other barnyard animals succeed but the bigger conflict is revealed, when Snowball and Napoleon struggle over the power distribution. Over the years, Napoleon and Snowball engage in many disputes regarding the management of a successful farm. Snowball establishes committees to educate the other farm animals while Napoleon takes no interest, he thought training the young should take priority over an adult animal’s education. He secures a group of nine puppies and takes them under his wing. As years went on Napoleon and snowball continued to butt heads. Their most explosive argument occurred over Snowball’s idea to construct a windmill. When the time arose for a vote to approve the windmill’s construction, Napoleon gave a strange whimper and the nine dogs he trained came out of hiding. The ferocious attack dogs chased Snowball off the farm. With Snowball gone, Napoleon attained what he had always desired complete control of Animal Farm. Under Napoleon’s leadership he and the remaining pigs became more and more like humans. At the end of the novel, Napoleon is playing cards with a group of humans in Mr. Jones’ former house. As the common animals gazed through the windo... ... two legs it is referring to a human and in the case of four legs it is referring to an animal. This reification is saying that all animals had rebellion built up within them â€Å"Rebelliousness ran through the country side† (46.) IV GENRE The main genre in Animal Farm is a fable. A fable is â€Å"A brief tale told to point a moral. The characters are frequently animals, but people an inanimate are sometimes central† (Harmon 467 68). In Orwell’s Animal Farm the main characters are animals and the reader learns that when there is one leader with an excessive amount of it will lead to corruption. Animal Farm can also be classified as an Allegory sub genre. An allegory is â€Å"A form of extended METAPHOR in which objects, persons and actions in a NARRATIVE are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself† (14.) In Animal Farm everything symbolizes something.