Introduction
Animal Farm, by George Orwell, represents a very interesting and complex satire on communism and the Russian Revolution. It tackles various themes, such as greed, leaders and followers, betrayal, propaganda, appearances, and reality. Greed itself is a predominant theme in Animal Farm and one that needs further research and study.
The Reflection of Greed in the Characters
The author develops this theme through the characters and the use of irony. The story contains many symbolic images, especially because a number of real characters, some common or powerful people, are portrayed through allegorical farm animals. Greed presents different faces, such as of alcohol, food, and power (Bloom 2009).
Mr. Jones drinks to excess, so he ends up losing his power over the farm, enabling the animals to take charge. In his speech, Old Major the pig accuses him of taking everything from animals and not offering anything in exchange, “yet he is the lord of animals” (Orwell 4). After coming to power, Napoleon the pig did the same thing: as his power increased, so did his greed. The moral philosophy of the story shows there were no visible differences between men and pigs: “the creatures looked from pig to man, and from man to pig … but already it was impossible to say which was which” (Orwell 88).
Basically, the greed transformed Napoleon into Mr. Jones and worse, because he became like a man: a greedy, selfish dictator. The dogs had almost the same behavior, taking most of the power for themselves (Mills 2011).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the greed of power corrupted the leaders, and they turned on their fellow animals. This scenario refers, of course, to the fact that communism implies no equity, being the mask of another form of dictatorship.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Chelsea House Publications, 2009.
Mills, Catriona. George’s Orwell Animal Farm. Insight Publications, 2011.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm: A Fairy Story. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Let Us Help You Analyse Novels and Write Book Reviews
Greed in “Animal Farm” is one of the central themes. Our author analyzes its role in the book and uses reliable sources to prove his point of view. If you want to provide your own “Animal Farm” essay sample, we recommend you to check the list of topics on our blog, or use our research paper title generator. We’re sure that you’ll find some interesting research ideas there.
If you’ve spent all your free time reading this novel and don’t have a couple of hours to write the essay by yourself, don’t worry. EssayShark will be your academic helper and make your homework assignment easier. Apply to our experts and get better grades without effort!
Picture by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
