Introduction 👇
Dystopian literature is a form of speculative fiction that began as a response to utopian literature. A dystopia is an imagined community or society that is dehumanizing and frightening.
Dystopian fiction offers a vision of the future. Dystopias are societies in cataclysmic decline, with characters who battle environmental ruin, technological control, and government oppression. Dystopian novels can challenge readers to think differently about current social and political climates, and in some instances can even inspire action.
What Is the Significance of Dystopian Fiction?👊
Dystopian novels that have a didactic message often explore themes like anarchism, oppression, and mass poverty. Margaret Atwood, one of literature’s most celebrated authors of dystopian fiction, thinks about it like this: “If you’re interested in writing speculative fiction, one way to generate a plot is to take an idea from current society and move it a little further down the road. Even if humans are short-term thinkers, fiction can anticipate and extrapolate into multiple versions of the future.”
Here are other reasons why dystopian fiction is significant in literature:
Dystopian fiction can be a way to educate and warn humanity about the dangers of current social and political structures. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a futuristic United States, known as Gilead. It cautions against oppressive patriarchy.Dystopian stories may convey an author’s beliefs. For example, H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine reflected Wells’ socialist views. The story follows a Victorian England scientist who builds a time machine and witnesses the pitfalls of a capitalist society.
- Dystopian stories require a greater suspension of disbelief and can be very imaginative. For example, George Orwell’s allegory Animal Farm is about a group of pigs who stage a rebellion against their human farmer. The farm animals’ rise to power is based on the Russian Revolution.
Characteristics of Dystopian Fiction
The central themes of dystopian novels generally fall under these topics:
Government control
Environmental destruction
Technological control
Survival
Loss of individualism
Let us see the one dystopian novel
The animal farm
By George Orwell
The Animal farm is very different and interesting novel by George orwell. We can say that the novel depict the reality of the society.How politician are living his life . If we can talk that the there are somany characters in the novel but interesting thing is that the pig 🐖 is main character in the novel.so the story is all about the Animal farm but after some time all members become the smart and intelligent in the farm .so all animals are against for some rules and regulations which is handled by the Johns. He is handling and give food to the all Animal but when Animal has some intelligency so after the main problem create in the novel.as soon as the main pig character whose name is Napolian handled the all situation of the all animals.so also some rules and regulations Maken by the animals but we can say that we never imagine that animal will talk with the humans but the major theme of the novel is writer is criticise to the politicians.how political things are going on in the Novel.
Characters analysis of the George Orwell's Animal farm
Napoleon
Napoleon is a metaphor for Stalin. Napoleon is the villain of the book and uses the revolution and the power he gains for his own selfish desires. Orwell felt Stalin had corrupted the revolution in Russia and used it to his own advantage.
Even the name Napoleon is important, as Napoleon Bonaparte the famous French General had risen to power and became a dictator in the 19th century on the back of the events of the French revolution. Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power on the back of revolution against the establishment, a revolution of ideals, much like Napoleon the pig does in the book.
In the book Napoleon has many of the other animals executed after they ‘confess’ to their crimes. On page 56 the text reads ‘Napoleon now called upon them to confess their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any further prompting they confessed that they had been secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had collaborated with him in destroying the windmill, ... When they had finished their confession the dogs promptly tore their throats out,’. This is an allusion to the show trials by Stalin in Russia in the 1930s where political opponents were eliminated after an apparent trial and confession, many of the confessions involved them working with Trotsky against the Soviet Union.
As the narrative develops Napoleon’s rule becomes more and more cruel, and he becomes a dictator, using terror and propaganda to control the other animals and prevent a second revolt against him. While at the same time he and the other pigs become more and more like Jones and take on many human traits.
Snowball
Snowball is an allegory for Trotsky, one of Stalin’s biggest political rivals in Russia in the 1920s, before Stalin exiled him from the USSR in 1927. Like Trotsky, Snowball in Animal Farm is also exiled as a result of being a political rival and a threat to Napoleon’s power, page 31 ‘These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible.’ Despite this a reader should not view this as Orwell simply presenting us with good and evil, Snowball is portrayed as being quite ruthless himself. When Boxer expresses regret at killing a human being Snowball says on page 28 “ War is war. The only good human being is a dead one.’’ This may be a reference to Trotsky’s ruthlessness while turning the Red Army into an effective fighting force in the Russian Civil War.
In the book in the Battle of the Cowshed which is an allusion to the Russian Civil War, Snowball shows military leadership page 26 reads ‘Snowball, who had studied an old book of Julius Caesar’s campaigns which he had found in the farmhouse, was in charge of the defensive operations.’ Under Snowball’s leadership the animals win the battle and Snowball is rewarded with the medal ‘Animal Hero, First Class’ for his actions.
Snowball is eventually chased off the farm by Napoleon’s dogs, a reference to the fact Stalin had Trotsky exiled from the Soviet Union for the threat he represented to Stalin’s po koiwer. As discussed in the main essay the Snowball in the book is a more sympathetic character than the Snowball in the film. This is one of the differences between the two texts.
Squealer
Squealer is one of the book’s most enigmatic characters; he is Napoleon’s right hand man. Squealer probably represents Pravda, a newspaper in the USSR that was widely used by Stalin for propaganda purposes. In his description on page 9 he is said to be ‘a brilliant talker, ... The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white.’ It is he who uses the sheep’s slogans to put help drown out any voices of opposition to Napoleon. Pages 31 and 32 ‘Of late the sheep had taken to bleating ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’ both in and out of season, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this.’ The sheep represent the masses that can be easily manipulated.
He is the ultimate propagandist, when the animals complain of the pigs greedily hoarding the milk and apples Squealer on page 23 responds ‘’Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. ... We pigs are the brainworkers. ... It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back!’’ He effectively uses the animals’ fear of Jones to justify the pigs taking more and more luxuries for themselves. It is also Squealer who alters the commandments.
Major
Major is the first character in the book to be described and the line on page 1 reads ‘He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut.’ (A tush is a canine tooth.) It is Major who gives the animals the philosophy of animalism and the rules by which they are to live, which become the seven commandments that the animals later paint on the barn. Major is the book’s equivalent to Lenin; here Orwell diverges from Russian history, in the book Major dies before the uprising on the farm happens, while in reality Lenin lived long enough to see the Tsar overthrown. Perhaps Orwell’s reason for doing this was that in part the character of Major also represents Karl Marx, who was the founder of socialism and was dead before the Russian Revolution. Major’s skull is put on display by the animals in the book, much like how Lenin’s body was put on display in Moscow after his death.
The Dogs
The dogs represent the secret police or the NKVD in the Soviet Union. The dogs are important to Napoleon in maintaining his power and preventing another revolution overthrowing him. They carry out Napoleons executions and enforce his decrees on the animals. On pages 35 and 36 it is the dogs that eliminate the greatest threat to Napoleon’s power as ‘nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws. ... He was running as only a pig can run, ... he put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to spare slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.’ For their loyalty the dogs are treated better and fed better by the pigs than the other animals on the farm. They are part of Napoleon’s campaign of terror to maintain is control over the farm.
Jones
Jones is the Tsar of Russia Nicholas II and is portrayed as a poor manager of the farm, though Orwell wrote on page 11 ‘Mr Jones, although a hard master, had been a capable farmer, but of late had fallen on evil days. ... and had taken to drinking more than was good for him.’ This would be a reference to how Russia though once a great power had declined in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution and had suffered greatly in the First World War. Major in his speech on page 4 says ‘Man is the only creature that consumes without producing.’ Major is talking not just about Jones, but about mankind, this is clearly an anti-capitalist sentiment in the book. Major is echoing Marx and his ideas that the capitalists and the rich take from the workers, but do not produce themselves.
Boxer
Boxer represents the workers, those who worked hard under both the new and old regimes in Russia and on the farm in the book and whose dedication is never rewarded. He represents in part the ‘Stakhanovite movement’ in USSR, a labour movement which was dedicated to making known individuals who had worked very hard, the movement was supported by the Communist Party in the USSR as a means to increase productivity. Boxer in part represents Alexsei Stakhanovite, for whom the movement was named and who reportedly in one shift at his coal mined many times the normal coal quota. Boxer in the book and in the film pays the ultimate sacrifice for his unquestioning loyalty to Napoleon and the pigs. Boxer’s female equivalent is Clover, another horse, who though she is somewhat more intelligent than Boxer is also unable to see the pigs for the tyrants they are.
Benjamin
Benjamin is one Animal Farm’s more complex characters, there is no obvious metaphor between Benjamin and Russian history or communism. Some have identified him as Orwell himself, although he is totally unmoved by the revolution and is apolitical, traits which would make him unlikely to be Orwell. He may represent the older generation who have no interest in the revolution and are cynical as to its possible benefits. On page 2 his description by the narrator is that ‘Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did it was usually to make some cynical remark’. Benjamin cares openly for only one other animal, Boxer and tries but fails to prevent him being taken away from the farm to his death. In the film it is Benjamin ,angered over Boxer’s death, who leads to the revolt against the pigs, however in the book as there is no second revolution he has no such central role.
Conclusion
The novel is fully based on the corruption and how political party are working for own purpose.So the novel through writer George Orwell depict the reality of that time.when any person comes on the majority after he always become a cruel and corruption man.who know what is the rules and regulations but he can't follow the things.which established by government.although, he know the rules but can't follow because we can say that સતા એ જ માણસ ને નશો ચડાવે છે.....
1860 words
Thanks 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment