Beyond the Political Allegory: A Study of George Orwell’s Animal Farm as an Ecofeminist Text

Abstract

Animal Farm has variously been analysed as a farce, a fable, a political allegory and a dystopian allegorical novella. However, this study suspends the allegorical interpretations and focuses on the primary or literal meaning of the text to show how Orwell in Animal Farm highlights animal oppression. Suspension of the allegorical interpretations allows the reader to infer that the novella also brings animal abuse to the limelight besides serving as a scathing satire on Stalinism. The animal characters which represent the gullible and oppressed masses of Russia under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin and Trotsky also narrate the painful stories of different varieties of domestic animals. Ecofeminism is built on the notion that every kind of oppression and exploitation is in one way or the other way interconnected. Therefore, the leading ecofeminist theorists like Greta Gaard, Lori Green and Devona Harvey treat speciesism or animal liberation theory as a branch of ecofeminism by merging the case of animals with ecofeminist discourse. The study draws upon the ideas of leading ecofeminists and particularly animal rights theorists like Peter Singer and Tom Regan to bring animal abuse to the forefront.