Animal Farm and 1984 are alike in critiquing the totalitarian regimes that arose in mid-twentieth-century Europe, especially those in Germany and the Soviet Union. At the heart of those critiques are several shared points. First, unscrupulous individuals will stop at nothing to grab power and oppress others. Second, language is a key to power, and tyrants will subvert language, twist its meaning, and use relentless propaganda to seize and increase power. Third, in both works, a violent police state terrorizes the average citizen. Fourth, tyranny can happen anywhere, and it is up to all people to be on alert against being deceived before it is too late.

The two works differ in genre. Animal Farm is an allegorical retelling of the way the Russian Revolution of 1917 went wrong, leading to Stalinist totalitarianism. Animals represent people, with Snowball, for example, as Trotsky, and Napoleon as Stalin. 1984, however, is a science fiction dystopia set in a near future in which a repressive totalitarian regime based on hate has already established its power and will stop at nothing to stay in control and dehumanize the population.