Wtite About Symbolism In The Allagories Animal

Farm And The Pilgrims Progress Essay, Research Paper

Although the two books The Pilgrim s Progress by John Bunyan and Animal Farm by George Orwell are very different in content and what they represent they are very alike in the techniques used by the authors. Both authors use the technique of Allegory with symbolism to make their books powerful and interesting to read. Allegory is a form of narrative expression used by many authors, it conveys a symbolic meaning parallel to but also distinct from the literal meaning. Animal Farm has an allegorical use of animals to represent types of humans and their characteristics and The Pilgrim s Progress uses people and things to represent human behaviour and characteristics. The symbolic meaning is mostly expressed through personifications and other symbols. Related forms of allegories are fables and Parables, which are comparatively short and often simple allegories.

The Pilgrim s Progress is one of the greatest allegories of all times, published in most of the world s major languages, and sometimes said to be the most popular book in the world after the Bible. The Pilgrim s Progress , a prose narrative symbolically concerned with the search for spiritual salvation, was written by Bunyan while he was imprisoned for illegal lay preaching. John Bunyan was born in Elstow, near Bedford in 1628. After being taught to read and write he became a lay preacher in the Baptist movement where he attracted large audiences. There were many experiences in Bunyan s life that must have strongly affected him and the things in which he believed. Bunyan lived through one of the most turbulent periods in modern history. Before being sent to prison for his beliefs he had lived through the experience of Civil War, fighting on the Republican side. He had seen the raise of Cromwell s dictatorship and the rebel s dreams of a democratic society disappear. He had lived through the restoration of the monarchy and a time where people were given very little religious freedom. This book became popular for its anti-establishment socio-religious message and has become an inspiration for many political radicals.

Animal Farm like The Pilgrim s Progress is a very powerful book with many messages. Orwell, the author of the book was one of the great English satirists; Satire is a very intellectual type of writing. Orwell was from a middle-class background and in an effort to push him up the class system, which was very apparent in his time, his parents had sent him to a preparatory school. Orwell later won a scholarship to Eton and on leaving he joined the Indian police and went to Burma. Orwell served the police for a further five years, learning about life. He later came back to England with his mind made up that he wanted to be a writer. He lived in poverty striving to be a writer for several years, living in Paris and then London. He joined the Republican forces in the Spanish civil war. He then resigned from his position in Burma, and decided to speak out about against the domination of people over others. This is when he came up with Animal Farm . Orwell saw himself as the exposer of unpleasant truths about society, he saw himself as the voice of the English moral conscience. He had lived through the time of the Russian revolution when the Russian masses had taken over the running of the country, led by Joseph Stalin. He wrote this book as a parallel to this, showing his views on what happened.

Orwell shows in the book that he thought there was something fundamentally wrong with human nature, he thought that idealistic political systems tended to overlook this. Unlike Bunyan in The Pilgrim s Progress Orwell s writing involved politics. This is because Orwell thought that good writers should see things as they are, not as someone else might like them to be.

Animal farm is an interesting book that allows the reader to enjoy what they are reading as well as get a political message. Orwell cleverly adds descriptions that are unnecessary in the symbolic aspect of the story, but keep the interest of the reader and make the book more entertaining. For example on page 23: Mr. Pilkington, was an easy going gentleman farmer who spent most of his time in fishing or hunting according to the season

The basic outline of the book is quite simple. Jones, the owner of Manor farm comes home drunk, he is a careless farmer that does not think about the animals well being. After he has locked up the farm and gone to bed the animals go into one of the stables to listen to a speech by Old major, the oldest animal on the farm. They decide that one-day they are going to rebel and overthrow Jones. This day comes quite quickly, the animals have not been fed, and when Jones gets home they knock down the stable door and run him off the farm. They are left to run the farm themselves, the pigs being the cleverest take charge. Napoleon and Snowball become the head of the pigs, constantly fighting between themselves. In the end Napoleon has Snowball run off the farm by some dogs that he has raised from puppies. Napoleon then took over the running of the farm. Making the animals build a windmill to power the farm, he tells them that they will be able to work less and have more food when it is finished. While they are building it they are working hard for virtually no food, while the pigs are living in luxury in the farmhouse. Jones and his men come back twice