What styles are used in Animal Farm?
George Orwell’s famous novel Animal Farm primarily uses satire to explore the communist ideology and criticize its pitfalls. In the novel, famous leaders are made into caricatures and represented as animals who run a farm into the ground and give themselves all the wealth that is purportedly to be distributed to the other farm animals. He uses satire effectively to criticize the evils of a communist society run by inherently flawed individuals.
In addition to satire, he uses an omniscient third person narrator who can observe the events of the novel objectively and give insight into the feelings of each animal. While doing this, it gives an accurate portrayal of how people are tricked by the idealism of communism, while making the flaws in the arguments abundantly clear. It shows the greed and justification of the leaders while also representing the poverty and disillusionment that occurs in the masses...
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The narrative style Orwell employs in Animal Farm allows for deeper insight into the dynamic between characters and their hierarchy in relation to other animals. The third person omniscient point of view is particularly important to understanding the story's Marxist theme and overall political message. This POV allows Orwell to switch between the mindsets of the main characters, particularly Napoleon and Snowball in their power struggle. The narrative style gives readers insight into the discontent among the lower-ranking animals and the duplicitous nature of the pigs—who, under Napoleon's leadership, have the highest rank.
This POV also enables Orwell to reveal events that are occurring outside of the farm. Mr. Jones flees to nearby Willingdon after the animals run him off the farm, discussing his misfortune with other farmers. Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick, who own nearby farms, are concerned that discontent will spread among their own animals. Despite their likemindedness, the rivalry between the three farmers prevents them from working together to reclaim the farm, and Mr. Jones ultimately abandons this hope.
In Animal Farm, Orwell uses a simple prose style that is easy to understand, along with a simplified story line to make his points clear. His intention in writing the work was didactic, meaning the story he told is meant to teach. While some of the language be a little unusual to us because we are reading 70-odd years after the book was published (and because many of us are reading in the United States rather than England), most of the language consists of common words.
For example, Orwell makes use of simple, declarative sentences, such as the following:
This was early in March. During the next three months there was much secret activity. Major's speech had given to the more intelligent animals on the farm a completely new outlook on life.
One of Orwell's main points is that language matters and that people can twist language and distort it for their own purposes. He argues that we all need to pay attention to what words really mean. For that reason, he tried to make sure that the purpose of his story was crystal clear. He made many of the animals, such as the sheep, less intelligent than humans, so we could see how easily people, like sheep, can be manipulated by words. Many writers use ambiguity, which leaves meaning uncertain: Orwell's intent was not to leave his work open to interpretation but to make sure people understood what he was saying.
Orwell uses satire to poke fun at governments that have to much power in hopes people will recognize the danger of this and not let their government become too powerful. He pokes fun of other ideas such as revolutions, communism, and countries that don't make education a priority.
He also uses allegory as a way to symbolically tell the story in an indirect way. This way people can interpret his story as they wish without him being pinned down to a specific meaning.
He also writes Animals Farm as a fable. This could be to simplify the story to draw the interest of the younger generation. As a fable it reads easier than a textbook on Russian history.