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Animal Farm was on the list of forbidden books up until the end of communism in 1989. And in real life, with events in Animal Farm mirroring the real world which under the control of Soviet Union, the Battle of the Windmill represents the Great Patriotic War (World War II), especially the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Moscow. During the battle, Fredrick drilled a hole and places explosives inside, and this was followed by ‘All the animals, including Napoleon’; George Orwell had the publisher altered this to ‘All the animals except Napoleon’ in recognition of Joseph Stalin's decision to remain in Moscow during the German advance.
The novel addresses not only the corruption of the revolution by its leaders but also shows us that how wickedness, indifference, ignorance, greed and myopia corrupt the revolution. It portrays corrupted leadership as the flaw in revolution, rather than the act of revolution itself. This novel also shows how potential ignorance and indifference to problems within a revolution.
This story is a vivid fable which just likes our society. Every character has its antitype in the form of symbolization. The novel reveals many familiar plots in human’s history. George Orwell used the animals to make a clear and meaningful statement about politics and society.
2 A Brief Survey of Symbolism
Animal Farm, known at the beginning and the end of the novel as the Manor Farm, symbolizes Russia and the Soviet Union under the Communist Party rule. But it is more generally that Animal Farm stands for human society, be it capitalist, socialist, fascist, or communist. It possesses the internal structure of a nation, with a government, a police force or army, a working class, and state holidays and rituals. Its location amid a number of hostile neighboring farms supports its symbolism as a political entity with diplomatic concerns.
2.1 The Background of Symbolism
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement which first started from French, Russian and Belgian originated in poetry and other arts. Charles Pierre Baudelaire, a French poet who was the universally acknowledged forefather of symbolism. In literature, his works of Les fleurs du mal was world widely considered as the landmark of the rising of symbolism. Symbolism, according to the historic record, was officially established in the year of 1886.
Many experts attempt to give an accurate definition of symbolism. But so far, like other complicated cultural and linguistic phenomena, no academically unified definition has been reached yet. Etymologically, the word ‘symbol’ derives from the Greek Symbolon, which approximately means ‘to throw together’, literally a ‘co-incidence’. Although we all know that in the simplest sense, anything carrying a certain concept or idea can be labeled as a symbol, scholars still think basic symbols form an interpretable system which is more profound and more deeply-rooted in human thoughts and social lives than that of ordinary signs.
Webster Dictionary has such an interpretation of symbol: ‘A visible sign or representation of an idea; anything which suggests an idea or quality, or another thing, as by resemblance or by convention; an emblem; a representation; a type; a figure; as, the lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is the symbol of meekness or patience.’ The forerunner of semiotics, Perice, sees the inner law of symbolization and its nature of interpretability: ‘A Symbol is a sign which refers to the Object that it denotes by virtue of a law, usually as association of general ideas, which operates to cause the Symbol to be interpreted as referring to that object.’
Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or a character. A symbol is an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself, often of a more abstract nature. Symbolism creates quality aspects that make literature like poetry and novels more meaningful. Symbolism is widely employed in some literary works, where it plays an important role. Symbolism is a writing skill to use a person, place, or thing to represent something else which is larger and often untouchable. It is widely used in literature to allow authors to be objective while still expressing his or her views. Symbols, also, in a story can be interpreted differently by different people. Some symbols stand for things that are obvious while others need a more involved explanation.