Key Facts
full title · Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
author · George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair)
type of work · Novella
genre · Dystopian animal fable; satire; allegory; political
roman à clef (French for “novel with a key”—a thinly veiled exposé
of factual persons or events)
language · English
time and place written · 1943–1944, in London
date of first publication · 1946
publisher · Harcourt Brace & Company
narrator · Animal Farm is the only work by Orwell
in which the author does not appear conspicuously as a narrator
or major character; it is the least overtly personal of all of his
writings. The anonymous narrator of the story is almost a nonentity,
notable for no individual idiosyncrasies or biases.
point of view · The story is told from the point of view of the common
animals of Animal Farm, though it refers to them in the third person plural
as “they.”
tone · For the most part, the tone of the novel is objective,
stating external facts and rarely digressing into philosophical meditations.
The mixture of this tone with the outrageous trajectory of the plot,
however, steeps the story in an ever-mounting irony.
tense · Past
setting (time) · As is the case with most fables, Animal Farm is
set in an unspecified time period and is largely free from historical references
that would allow the reader to date the action precisely. It is
fair to assume, however, that Orwell means
the fable to be contemporaneous with the object of its satire,
the Russian Revolution (1917–1945). It is
important to remember that this period represented the recent past
and present at the time of writing and that Orwell understands the significance
of the story's action to be immediate and ongoing rather than historical.
setting (place) · An imaginary farm in England
protagonist · There is no clear central character in the novel, but
Napoleon, the dictatorial pig, is the figure who drives and ties
together most of the action.
major conflict · There are a number of conflicts in Animal Farm—the
animals versus Mr. Jones, Snowball versus Napoleon, the common animals
versus the pigs, Animal Farm versus the neighboring humans—but all
of them are expressions of the underlying tension between the exploited
and exploiting classes and between the lofty ideals and harsh realities
of socialism.
rising action · The animals throw off their human oppressors and establish
a socialist state called Animal Farm; the pigs, being the most intelligent
animals in the group, take control of the planning and government
of the farm; Snowball and Napoleon engage in ideological disputes
and compete for power.
climax · In Chapter V, Napoleon runs Snowball off the farm with
his trained pack of dogs and declares that the power to make decisions
for the farm will be exercised solely by the pigs.
falling action · Squealer emerges to justify Napoleon's actions with
skillful but duplicitous reinterpretations of Animalist principles;
Napoleon continues to consolidate his power, eliminating his enemies
and reinforcing his status as supreme leader; the common animals continue
to obey the pigs, hoping for a better future.
themes · The corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union;
the societal tendency toward class stratification; the danger of
a naive working class; the abuse of language as instrumental to
the abuse of power
motifs · Songs; state ritual
symbols · Animal Farm; the barn; the windmill
foreshadowing · The pigs' eventual abuse of power is foreshadowed at
several points in the novel. At the end of Chapter II, immediately
after the establishment of the supposedly egalitarian Animal Farm,
the extra milk taken from the cows disappears, and the text implies that
Napoleon has drunk it himself. Similarly, the dogs' attack on Boxer
during Napoleon's purges, in Chapter VII, foreshadows the pigs'
eventual betrayal of the loyal cart-horse.
