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Discuss the appropriateness of the title of the Novel Animal Farm.

Animal Farm is one of the most popular novels written in the history of English literature, though, stylistically, it is not considered to be one of the best novels. This novel is purely a satire on the policies of Joseph Stalin in Russia. Owing to its controversial criticism of Stalia no publisher was ready to publish it. But, ‘Animal Farm’ was not its original title. The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy story, though it was dropped at the behest of U.S. publishers.

The title comes from the face that the story is set in a farm run by animals, though it was earlier named Manor Farni. The animais in the farm are on allegory for men because their behaviour and interaction with other men snow that they are, more or less, like men, especially after they move into the house, begin sleeping in beds, and drinking alcohol just as they had seen their human masters do before the takeover. After the animals revolt against their human master, the name of the farm is changed.

After old Major the prize Middle Boar, holds an assembly where he encourages the animals to rebel against their oppressive owner, the animals revolt against Mr. Jones and take control of the Farm. After the revolt, snowball teaches them the principles of Animalism, which promote equality and integrity. The renaming of the farm is very significant because it shows that they have control over the place where they live.

The novel is a satire about the Russian and its aftermath. Animals have been used as substitutes for various human beings who played an important role in Stalinist Russia. Farm is used as a substitute for a country- Russia.

Animal Farm is an animal parable. Animal Farm stands for any human society, be it capitalist, socialist, fascist or communist. It possesses the internal structure of a nation, with a government (the pigs), a police force or army (the dogs), a working class (the other animals) and state holidays and rituals. Its location amid a number of hostile neighbouring forms supports its symbolism as a political entity with diplomatic concerns.

Animal Farm allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Joseph Stalin. In the novella, the overthrow of the human oppressor Mr. Jones by a democratic coalition of animals quickly gives way to the consolidation of power among the pigs. Much like the Soviet intelligentsia, the pigs establish themselves as the ruling class in new society.

The title ‘Animal Farm’ is very apt and significant as well. It sums up the entire story or its setting whether we are taking the novel as a fairy tale or an allegory meant for political criticism. The title piques the interest of the reader and justifies itself very well.

The resemblance of some of the novel’s events to events in Soviet history is indubitable. For example, Snowball’s and Napolean’s power struggle is a direct allegory of Trotsky’s and Stalin’s. Despite his fairly-tale clarity in satirizing some historical events, Orwell is less specific about others. For example, the executions in chapter VII conflate the Red Terror with the Great purge. The executions themselves bear resemblance to both events, although their details connect them more to the Moscow Trials than to the Red Terror.

In the beginning of Animals Farm the idea of freedom rouses the animals as if from a long slumber. By the book’s end, the animals have become as apathetic as Benjamin always was. Orwell demonstrates the fact the oppression is cyclical and the oppressed becomes the oppressor when given the chance.