Animal Farm: Writer's Methods and Techniques (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

‘Methods’ is an umbrella term for anything the writer does on purpose to create meaning. Using the writer’s name in your response will help you to think about the text as a conscious construct and will keep reminding you that Orwell purposely put the novella together. Animal Farm is an allegorical novel, and so Orwell uses ideas and symbols across the entire text. As such, it is important to take a whole-text approach when exploring Orwell's ideas, rather than focusing on individual quotations. The following sections allow you to do just that:

• Form and Structure
• Narrative
• Symbolism

Form and Structure

• Animal Farm is written the form of a novella and consists of ten chapters
• The novella is a beast fable or allegorical tale and Orwell uses this seemingly simplistic form to convey his profoundly bitter message:
  • While most beast fables end with a clear moral, it is clear that the animals learn very little in the novella
• The use of animals enables the narrative to be simplified which enables Orwell's message about corruption and the misuse of power to be more plainly evident:
  • Further, as the narrative is relatively straightforward and easy to understand, it can appeal to a larger audience 
• Orwell's novel was originally subtitled ‘A Fairy Story’ and there are elements of fairy tales in the novella, such as the simple plot and location, the conflict between good and evil and the archetypal characters 
• The fable and allegorical aspects of the novella mean the characters and events are primarily based on real historical individuals and events from Russia:
  • However, on a wider and deeper level, the narrative serves as a warning against tyranny, oppression and totalitarian regimes
• The novella employs a simple structure and the events are narrated in chronological order which enables the reader to see the gradual decline of Animalism
• Orwell makes some of the chapters in the novella quite concise in order to quicken the pace and increase the tension
  • This also emphasises the fact that things are spiralling out of control
• The narrative is cyclical and Orwell uses this to underscore the inevitability of the failure of the animals' revolution:
  • The cyclical structure highlights how history repeats itself
• Orwell uses repetition continually throughout to link the events together but to also signify how the new regime is exactly replicating the old:
  • For example, in Chapter I Orwell begins the novella which the description of Jones being drunk and in Chapter X, he depicts Napoleon drinking and encouraging the others to fill their “glasses to the brim”

Narrative

• The novella is a political satire and Orwell makes Napoleon his main target of this device
• Since he lacks any redeeming qualities, Napoleon could appear to be an unrealistic figure:
  • However, as the novella is a political satire and in order to convey Orwell’s message as effectively as possible, events are generally simplified and the characters are two-dimensional in this type of writing
• Orwell largely uses an omniscient third-person narrator, which enables the narrator to be aware of all of the characters’ thoughts and emotions:
  • This could be viewed as giving the narrative a sense of objectivity, truthfulness and realism
• Significant events are also frequently described through the perspective of the animals rather than by this omniscient voice
  • While it is told from the perspective of the animals, who appear to understand very little of the power struggles and political manoeuvrings, Orwell's comments on the narrative are evident
  • Further, the effect of portraying events through the perspective of the animals is to underscore their ignorance and naivety throughout the novella
• While most of Orwell’s humour is light in tone, it can also be quite sardonic:
  • The opening tone is light-hearted and playful but as the narrative progresses, it becomes more bitter which signifies the unfolding corruption on the farm
• Orwell uses dramatic irony to illustrate the animals' ignorance of how much Napoleon takes advantage of them:
  • For example, the pigs pretend that they have not broken or changed any of the commandments, yet the reader is fully aware that they have

Symbolism

• As an allegorical novel, Orwell uses symbolism throughout Animal Farm
• While the animals represent persons or groups from Russian history, the farm represents Russia, with the surrounding farms symbolising the European powers that witnessed the Russian Revolution
• The Seven Commandments symbolise the power of propaganda as well as the malleability of information when people are unaware of the truth:
  • The commandments are continually amended, revealing how the animals have moved even further away from their own original principles
• The windmill represents Stalin’s attempt to modernise Russian and Snowball initially proposes the windmill as a means of improving the farm’s living conditions:
  • Later in the novella, the windmill represents the pigs' totalitarian triumph
• Whiskey is used to symbolise corruption:
  • While Animalism was founded upon the principle that “No animal shall drink alcohol”, gradually Napoleon and the other pigs consume it in abundance