George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegory about the evils of the Russian Revolution. Use any six animal characters from the novel and explain how they compare to actual individuals or representations of groups of people.

The universal message of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is that all violent revolutions which aim to and initially succeed in overthrowing repressive totalitarian regimes, after a brief idealistic period rapidly deteriorate into totalitarian and repressive regimes themselves. Orwell illustrates and clarifies this profound universal truth by his allegorical novel "Animal Farm" in which the animals and the incidents represent the characters and incidents of the Russian Revolution.

1. Old Major represents either Karl Marx the author of the "Communist Manifesto" (1848) or Lenin who propagated his ideas in Russia which led to the overthrow of the last Czar who is represented by Mr.Jones in the novel.

2.Napoleon stands for Josef Stalin the ruthless dictator who eliminated his close friend and associate Leon Trotsky in the power struggle to take over the governance of Russia.

3. Snowball who is forced to flee "Animal Farm" represents Trotsky who had to flee Russia.

4. Squealer represents the "Pravda" the propaganda organ of the totalitarian Communist State of Russia.

5. Mr. Pilkington stands for England and her allies.

6. Frederick represents Germany.

7. The incidents related to the building of the windmill correspond to Lenin's ambitious plans for the complete electrification of Russia, although in actual history this did not lead to the quarrel between Stalin and Trotsky.

Farmer Jones symbolizes Tsar Nicholas II who was overthrown in 1917; Old Major is a joint symbol for Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. Snowball and Napoleon symbolize Trotsky and Stalin, respectively. The dogs and Squealer are symbols of the KGB and Pravda, the Russian newspaper of the '30s. Boxer and Clover represent the proletariat, who are, in the end betrayed by the Communists.

The plot of the book is a thinly-veiled allegory for the Russian Revolution and its aftermath and how, in the end, Stalin as tyrannical as the old tsars.

or

The plot is an allegory in which animals play the roles of the Bolshevik revolutionaries and overthrow and oust the human owners of the farm, setting it up as a commune in which, at first, all animals are equal; soon disparities start to emerge between the different species or classes. The novel describes how a society's ideologies can be changed and manipulated by individuals in positions of power