Animal Farm and the Stolen Basilus

George Orwell was born in 1903 he changed his name when he became a writer, but originally he was named Eric Blair. He was born and brought up in India. He was brought up in an upper class family. His father and both his grandfathers made their livings in Burma and India were they were police officers. Orwell went to a private boarding school called St Cyprians, which he despised immensely. Even though the other boys were from the same upper class background, he found him self-feeling out of place, as he was not as wealthy as the others were.

He hated everything about it, mainly the lack of comfort and the terrible and frequent bullying. He stayed at St Cyprians until he was 14 years old. In a way, the experience helped him in a great way, as it contributed to his passion for justice and hatred of unchecked power. After leaving the boarding school, he won a scholarship to Eton. He liked the relaxing atmosphere it had which made him feel like he had more room to “develop his individuality. ” After his period at Eton had ended, he followed the family tradition and went to work in the India imperial police.

When he worked in Burma, he watched the working of the police very closely. He already knew it was an unjust system but gradually came to despise them more, as they exploited and oppressed the hungry. However, he was apart of the unjust system and paid to do his job, even if he knew it was wrong. After working for 5 years in Burma, he decided to resign from the police, and tried to try is hand at becoming a writer. He went to the streets to see what life was like at the other end of the social spectrum. He slept in shop doorways and talked to people who had fallen on hard times, such as trams, beggars, prostitutes and criminals.

In 933 at the age 30, he published his first ever book it was called “Down and out in the streets of Paris and London” that was the first time he had used the name George Orwell. Then in 1936, he was asked by his publisher write about the poor and unemployment in the north east of England, especially the mining community that was where he spent most of his time. At that time, there was a very high unemployment list and even working was a great hardship. The anger that raged in him after what he saw committed him to being a dedicated socialist.

The book were he described his experiences was called the road to Wigan Pier. Then and now, the critics said that the book was ill informed and did not show the true picture of working class people. They said he was not very interested in the role of the trade union movement, nor to know much about the strong working class tradition of self-education. After living rough for seven years, he got a job at a private school in order to earn himself some money. While working at the school, and working extremely hard, he wrote two novels and several articles.

At the same time, he moved to the country with his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy who he married a year earlier. Orwell was not the only writer to have views on social justice. The writer H. G Wells was from a different time and background but his writing was linked to the same issues as Orwell’s, one of the stories that Wells wrote was called “the Stolen Basillus”. On a simple level, the stolen basillus is about an anarchist visiting a scientist. The anarchist that believes that the scientist is creating the cure for cholera and slyly takes it. Really, it is a potion will turn monkeys blue.

Orwell wrote a story called “Animal Farm”. Animal farm is about a group of animals that a feed up of being neglected. The pigs then take control of the farm but not in the best interest of the farm or the other animals. In fact, the do a worse job than the farmer. Both of these reads are very enjoyable and entertaining for people who understand allegories and for the people who do not. When an allegory is broken down, it becomes three sections irony, stereotype and simplicity of language. Allegories add more depth, character and interest to a piece of writing.

Irony is when one or more characters in a story don’t know what’s going on but the audience does i. e. “Comrades” he said quietly “do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? snowball! ” he suddenly roared in a voice of thunder. “Snowball has done this thing! In sheer malignity, thinking it will set back our plans and avenge him self for ignominious expulsion, this traitor has crept here under the cover of the night and destroyed our work of nearly a year.

Comrades, here and now I pronounce the death sentence upon snowball. Animal hero, second class”, and half a bushel of apples to anyone who brings him to justice. A full bushel to anyone who catches him alive. ” Of course, we know that it was not snowball that destroyed the windmill but the gale. Napoleon has brain washed the animals into thinking that snowball is an evil enemy, really we know that this has nothing to do with Snowball, but Napoleon is trying to become the good “guy” and make snowball seam like the one who has been the bad “guy” from the start. “The behavior of the cat was somewhat peculiar.

It was soon noticed that whenever there was work to be done the cat could never be found. She would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal times, or in the evening after work was over as though nothing had happened. She always made such excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe in her good intentions “. The animals were convinced that the cat was off doing important things, but we know that the cat was avoiding the work.

Stereotype is a much-simplified character, someone who is reduced to one or two characteristics. i. e. at the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones’s trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing a lump of sugar. She took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plated with”. Just because Mollie is, a pretty white horse Orwell makes you believe that she is an attention seeker and that she thinks of her and her alone.

“The two cart horses, Boxer and Clover, came in together, walking very slowly and setting down their vast hairy hoofs with great care lest there should be some small animals concealed in the straw”. Boxer was an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together.

A white stripe down his nose gave him a somewhat stupid appearance, and in fact he was not of first rate intelligence, but he was universally respected for his steadiness of character and tremendous power of work”. As Boxer is a strong working horse and well respected, he has been given the stupid label. The last part of an allegory is simplicity of language. This is when words are broken down to a more understandable level. If words were too complex in an allegory, it would be too hard to correspond.

Although from first views these two stories (Animal Farm and The Stolen Basillus) seem very different, they both have the concerns of misuse of power. Animal farm is bout the abuse of respect and leadership, and the stolen basillus is about the abuse of science. In addition, another point is that both of the writers use allegories in their stories. Using allegories are much more interesting and make the readers think more about the massage in the tales. Animal farm was based on the Russian revolution in that many of the animals are based on historical figures that were involved in the revolution in some way.

Old major was based on two men one was called Lenin and an other called Marx. Lenin was the prime mover behind the revolution; he was the man who got the ball rolling. It was not Lenin though who came up with the idea for everyone being equal, that idea came from the head of Marx, he also wrote the communist manifesto. Napoleon was based on a wicked man named Stalin; he was a powerful dictator whose name means “man of steel”. He ruled the USSR through fear and political cunning. Trotsky was turned into a pig named snowball, Trotsky was a key thinker and leader in the revolution.

He was assassinated; this was almost certainly under the orders of Stalin. Marx had the idea that there was no need in kings or leaders but that the country and the people in it would be equal. Marx died before he had the chance to tell many people but he wrote it down, he was not the greatest person at making things clear of what he was trying to say which is where Lenin came in. Lenin explained the idea to the country in a way that everyone could understand it. When Lenin died Trotsky and Stalin became the inspirational figures to make the idea come true.

The king and many other leaders that held a strong hand in the running of Russia were overthrown; Stalin began to over rule Trotsky and eventually had him assassinated. At the start of the revolution, it was said that there were to be no kings or rulers, but after Stalin became soul proclaimed it was as the issue had never been raised and Stalin was the leader. Both Animal Farm and The Stolen Basillus are incredible stories. They are both simple to understand even with the allegories in them. Even though it is supposed to make the stories more interesting, it does not make them more complicated.