Animal Farm

1. Animal Farm Background and Historical Context

2. Eric Blair= George Orwell (b. 1903) • Englishman who passionately hated inequality and political lying • Wanted “Democratic Socialism”- a society where class privileges would not exist • Believed that what was going on in the Soviet Union was a political lie that had nothing to do with socialism • Animal Farm was written to expose the lie

3. Orwell’s Youth • Family was part of Britain’s “lower upper middle class” • Attended Eton, an elite prep school, which he did not enjoy and associated with snobbishness (he was the poorest boy in school) • From ages 8 to 18 he learned a lot about inequality in British boarding schools • He then joined the British Civil Service and spent 5 years in Burma, where he saw inequality and oppression from the top

4. Imperialism • Burma was part of the British Empire • Imperialism- an attitude of superiority, subordination and dominion over a foreign people. • Britain controlled the politics, society, economy etc. of Burma • The people of Burma had a lesser social and political status.

5. Orwell’s Early Writing Career • Blair chose to live in poverty for several years after his experience in Burma • He began writing about his experiences under the pen name George Orwell • Orwell wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, and the Road to Wigan Pier • In 1937, he joined the fight for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War

6. Historical Context of the 1930s • Fascism rising in Europe • Mussolini came to power in Italy • Hitler was in power in Germany • Socialist government was elected in Spain • 3 Important experiences for Orwell during the Spanish Civil War • “comradeship and respect” in his military unit- he thought socialism was working • Fellow fighters were jailed by Communist groups within the Republican government • Orwell returned to England and none of the socialists would listen to what he had to say about the injustices he witnessed in Spain

7. Writing Animal Farm • Orwell had seen the socialist ideal in action and seen it CRUSHED by the Communists on the left • The socialists were frustratingly SILENT • Began writing Animal Farm in 1943 in the midst of WWII • Goal: Expose the Soviet Myth

8. What is the Soviet Myth??? • Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 made Russia the U.S.S.R • Karl Marx believed the history of the world was a struggle between the classes- between the oppressors and the oppressed • Vladimir Lenin brought revolution to Russia in the name of the Proletariat (the working class) against the Bourgeois (the owners) • Marx and Lenin denounced the cruel injustices of industrial capitalist society as they saw it • The vision was a classless society in which all men would be equal

9. Goals of the Revolution • EQUALITY • Workers would own the means of production such as the factories and machinery • Overthrow Czar Nicholas and set up a “dictatorship of the proletariat” • 4 years of Civil War followed • Red Army led by Leon Trotsky v. the Whites loyal to the Czar

10. The Myth develops • Lenin dies in 1924 • Battle for power between Stalin and Trotsky • Stalin wins and expels Trotsky from the party • Trotsky was deported and assassinated in 1940 • Stalin concentrated power into his hands and constantly denounced Trotsky as a traitor • Throughout the 1930s, Stalin “purged” all possible enemies from the Soviet Union • The EQUALITY that the Revolution promised never existed because Stalin abused his power as a totalitarian dictator