Orwell's Use of Animals

In Animal Farm George Orwell uses animals to portray a utopia, or the attempt of a utopia. He uses all types of barnyard animals and gives them human qualities. Pigs are smart so they are leaders, dogs are guards, and horses are hard workers. Like all utopias, the farm quickly turned into a dystopia.

At first, the animals are unhappy because their leader Mr. Jones, a human, does not treat them well. The animals are underfed and overworked. They get fed up with this harsh treatment so they overthrow Mr. Jones. Once Mr. Jones is gone everyone is happy. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, take control of the farm. The animals are being fed better and everyone is getting along. The farm seems like the perfect utopia. Then Snowball and Napoleon start to disagree. Napoleon uses well trained dogs to run Snowball off of the farm.

When Napoleon is the only leader everything starts to go downhill. He starts to change rules so he gets more than everyone else. They start to run out food so the animals are underfed again. He makes them work harder than Mr. Jones did, but if the animals speak up and disagree with Napoleon in any way, they are killed. None of the animals are happy.

Orwell uses the animals to show that a utopia does not work. He used animals because the idea was different. Most authors use people so we usually say that a utopia is not possible for humans. George Orwell took this a step further and proved that a utopia is not possible. Period.