The Dystopian Elements in Animal Farm

XIE Kai-peng FENG Jun-xia

【Abstract】Animal farm ，written by George Orwell， describes an “animal” revolution， including the course of brewing， the rise and final transformation. The novel， as a political fable， include many dystopian elements， which are mainly reflected in the term of the allusive meaning of characters and the satire of utopian social form.

【Key words】Dystopian Elements； Animal Farm

Dystopian societies appear in many fictions and are often used to draw attention to real-world issues regarding society， environment， politics， economics， corporations religion， psychology， ethics， science， and/or technology. Animal farm， written by George Orwell， describes an “animal” revolution， including the course of brewing， the rise and final transformation. Many scholars researching the novel mainly focus on the political indication and few pay more attention to the dystopian elements.

1. Overviews of Dystopia

Dystopia is derived from the term Utopia， which was coined by Thomas More in his book in 1516. Utopia means an ideal society which owns a high material civilization， and in the ideal society everyone is equal and everyone happy， while dystopia is the bad side of the ideal society， which was first used by J. S. Mill in one of his Parliamentary Speeches 1868. He said， “It is， perhaps， too complimentary to call them Utopians， they ought rather to be called dys-topians， or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable； but what they appear to favor is too bad to be practicable.” Dystopias are often characterized by dehumanization， totalitarian governments， environmental disaster， or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society.

2. Dystopian elements

2.1 The allusive meaning of main characters

In Animal Farm， the ideal utopia is a farm. Animals in the farm engage in a revolution for their rights and freedom. The author uses the allusive way to show the past， the present and the future of the ideal society in the guide of Soviet socialism. Those animals allude to some big figures or the class in Soviet Union. And some events in the farm satire the events in Soviet Union evidently.

2.2 The satire of Utopian social form

In Animal Farm， the whole Manor Farm probably means the Soviet Union at all. Animals revolution probably alludes to the Bolshevik revolution. At first ， animals engaged in the revolution with the hope of establish an “all-animals-are-equal” society—Utopian society. However， the result is not what they expected.

After the success of the uprising， pigs owned the undoubted advantageous position. They enjoyed by themselves the milk of the three cows in the farm and the apples on the farm. Later， the pigs moves into Mr. Jones's room to live， and Napoleon wear in Mr. Jones's outfits， offending the rules of “seven commandments”. When the hens begin to rebel Napoleons policy， he “acted swiftly and ruthlessly”. He ordered the hens' rations to be stopped， and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of corn to a hen should be punished by death. The dogs became the supervisory organization. When sheep had a rebellion， Napoleon even order his nine dogs to slaughter them. Gradually pigs became decadent and corrupted just like the Mr. Jones， the former owner for the farm. Just like Clovers thinking ，she has ever expected the picture of the future， “it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip， all equal， each working according to his capacity， the strong protecting the weak， as she had protected the lost brood of ducklings with her foreleg on the night of Major's speech.”However， what happened in the farm after the revolutionary success makes Clover and his companies confused， and she “did not know why—they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind， when fierce， growling dogs roamed everywhere， and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.”

From the description ，all animals joined a revolutionary to achieve a utopia society， only to establish a same society full of oppression and totalitarian governments. On the basis of the description， George Orwell told us that if there is no democratic supervision without any rule of law， it must be alienated. The utopian society is too ideal to impracticable.

3. Conclusion

Animal farm， as a political fable， dystopian elements are mainly reflected in the term of the allusive meaning of characters and the satire of utopian social form. This article only cites a few examples as the analysis material， with the hope of casting a new light on the novel.

References：

[1]Definition of “dystopia”.Oxford Dictionaries.Oxford University Press.2012.

[2]Orwell，George.Animal Farm：A Fairy Story.London：Penguin Books，2003.