Animal Farm- George Orwell Orwell uses key characters in Animal Farm Essay

Animal Farm- George Orwell Orwell uses key characters in Animal Farm to satirise certain characteristics in human nature. How - Essay Example Significantly, Animal Farm has been recognized as a fairy story told by a great lover of liberty as well as animals, but it reflects the realities of Soviet Russia during the Stalin era. The fundamental themes of the novel, that have generated relentless controversies during the wartime, include the abuse of power, the erosion of civil liberties, democracy versus dictatorship, and, most importantly, the relationship between leaders and followers. Most essentially, â€Å"Animal Farm is not merely about Lenin and Stalin†¦ it has much to say to us today about the relationship between government leaders and followers.† (Rodden, 182) One of the basic concerns of the novelist in Animal Farm is to establish how true leaders inspire the followers while the false leaders deceive them, and the nature of this relationship has played a crucial role in the acquirement or loss of freedom and equality in the society. ... Significantly, the novelist presents the relationship between leaders and followers through the main characters of the novel who satirize various characteristics in human nature. Thus, Orwell presents pigs as taking over the command of the farm at the death of the Major, because they were â€Å"the cleverest of the animals.† (Orwell, 15) Thus, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, become the leaders of the ‘Animal Farm’ and they allegorically represent Joseph Stalin and Trotsky. In a reflective exploration of the major themes and characters in the novel Animal Farm, it becomes lucid that the novelist exhibits the failure of leadership to offer freedom and equality to the followers. â€Å"In short, it can be regarded as the failure of leadership or how an intelligent, devoted leader of the revolution to better the miserable lives of animals on Manor Farm, Snowball, is driven out by a Napoleon that animals think is ‘always right’.† (Moeller and Moeller, 133) In a reflective exploration of the leaders in the work, it becomes evident that the two major leaders are presented in contrast to each other. In the novel, Snowball is presented as a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character.† (Orwell, 15) On the other hand, Napoleon is presented as â€Å"a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar †¦ [who is] not much of a talker, but with reputation for getting his own way.† (Orwell, 15) These leaders were not able to bring about freedom and equality to their followers, although their followers of ‘Animal Farm’ were expecting nothing else. Both Snowball and Napoleon were rivaling each other for power and they