Allegory as a Literary Device in George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945)

Abstract

The power of allegory lies in its flexibility. This device can simplify what is complex and present it in a simple comprehensible way. It has been used by writers and poets since antiquity and it is still being implied by modern writers. George Orwell’s Animal farm (1945) is a political allegory; it symbolizes the Bolshevik revolution that has occurred in Russia in 1917. The Bolsheviks were communists who rebelled to overthrow the Russian emperor Czar Nicholas II. The revolution ended with success, however, the power-hungry leaders lead to the corruption of Russia, and it became worse than it has ever been in Czar’s days. Russia is represented by the farm in the novel, while the abusive leaders are symbolized by the pigs. Allegory has the power of both a metaphor and a narrative. It is implied by political writers either to openly satirize a situation or to add a mysterious touch to their works; by embodying their political opinion inconspicuously in an allegorical works