摘 要

1. Research Background １

2. Literature Review and Need of the Study ２

2.1 Literature review ２

2.1.1 Domestic research status ２

2.1.2 Foreign research status ４

2.2 Need of the study ５

3. The Insinuation in Animal Farm ６

3.1The insinuation of animal revolt ６

3.2 The insinuation of the battle of the cowshed ７

3.3 The insinuation of the struggle between Snowball and Napoleon １０

3.4 The insinuation of the battle of windmill １１

4. The Grotesqueness of Animal Farm １３

4.1 The grotesqueness in plots １３

4.2 The grotesqueness in characters １４

5. The Contrast in the Seven Commandments １６

6. Language Features in Animal Farm １８

6.1 Appreciation of sentence patterns １８

6.2 Appreciation of some of the phrases １９

6.3 Appreciation of the language style of different animals ２０

7. Conclusion ２２

References ２３

Abstract

George Orwell’ s Animal Farm is a distinguished work around Russian history taken on with the form of fair tale, written by British well-known writer George Orwell.

Politics and artistry are included in Orwell' s Animal Farm. The political nature is mainly reflected in its obvious political implication. Artistry means the artistic techniques of writing and the features of language. Referring to the artistic techniques of writing, George Orwell exposed a post-revolutionary regime to us by using insinuation, grotesqueness, and the technique of contrast. More importantly, Orwell changed this work from a novel about politics to a humorous tale with his unique language charm. The sentences, phrases and the language style of every animal make this novel be full of artistry.

Thus, in this paper, from Chapter Three to Chapter Five, the goal of which is to further analyze the history that insinuated by the plot in Animal Farm, the grotesqueness in this novel and the contrast in The Seven Commandments. In Chapter 6, the language features of Animal Farm will be appreciated, including the appreciation of sentence patterns, some of the phrases and the language style of the typical animals.

Keywords: Insinuation; Grotesqueness; Contrast; Language Skills

中文摘要

《动物庄园》是英国著名作家乔治·奥威尔的传世之作，故事以俄国革命为背景，并以寓言的形式呈现给读者。

乔治·奥威尔的《动物庄园》，在文学作品中，给我们提供了一个很好的将政治与艺术结合的例子。该作品以寓言的形式表达作者政治性立场的同时，又在写作上体现了作者语言的艺术性。在写作的艺术手法上，乔治·奥威尔用影射，荒诞，以及前后对比的手法，向我们揭露了革命后的政权，若没有民主监督，没有法制，必定走向反面，迎来更暴力的专制。更重的是，奥威尔用他独特的语言魅力，将《动物农场》从一个以政治讽刺为题材小说变成一个家喻户晓的寓言故事，小说中的句子，词语，以及每个动物的言语风格，作者拿捏的恰到好处，使每一种动物形象都跃然纸上。

所以，本文主体部分的第三至第五章，主要目的就是进一步分析《动物庄园》中的重要情节所影射的历史，分析小说的荒诞之处，以及分析以“猪”为领导的农场里，《七戒》前后的对比和动物们生活的变化。第六章主要就《动物庄园》赏析奥威尔的语言艺术，其中包括对句子结构的赏析，对词组短语的赏析，以及对各个动物的语言风格进行赏析。

关键词：影射；荒诞；对比；语言技巧

Research Background

George Orwell is a famous British novelist in the 20^th century. He is known to be a political writer too. In 1936, he took part in the government’s antifascist war in the Spanish Civil War. After that, he began to believe in social democracy. Animal Farm is one of his famous novels. His other famous works are the Nineteen Eighty-Four, Notes on Nationalism,Reflections on Gandhi and so on. Animal Farm, written in 1945, is one of his famous novels and a satire of the Russian revolution.

It is a story of many animals revolting against their human master, then they create an Utopian state. However, all of these things have many common points with the Russian history. Therefore, to some extent, it is an anti-Soviet tale.

At the end of 1936, Orwell went to Spain to defend the democracy represented by the Republican government, but he only witnessed a life and death struggle within the Left. In 1937, George Orwell returned from the Spanish Civil War, which gave him a new writing purpose. He was outraged that Spanish Republic was controlled by the Soviet, which appeared to represent progress and democracy, which he wrote a number of articles to expose. After that, he began to believe in social democracy. Animal Farm, written in the form of fairy tales, is the product of this thought.

2. Literature Review and Need of the Study

2.1 Literature review

2.1.1 Domestic research status

Since the publication of Animal Farm, it has acquired a lot of attention. Many scholars confirm its contributing significance on the developing progress of literature. Since Animal Farm has been discussed so many times, and the angles of discussion overlap a lot. Most of them centered on the irony, totalitarianism, or symbolism in the novel. Several critics pointed out that Stalin, which was symbolized by the main character Napoleon, was recognized as the most representative political centralized ruler. That is where the tragedy of the novel lies.

Zhao (2010) analyzed the Animal Farm from the skill of black humor, in which she claimed that Orwell' s political tendencies were most evident in Animal Farm, which marked the beginning of Orwell' s declaration of war against totalitarianism. Orwell used the black humor of sarcasm, alluding to political figures and events with the characters in Animal Farm. According to Chang (2009), symbolism was used in Animal Farm to criticize Stalinism. Although Zhao (2010) and Chang (2009) wrote the essay from different angles, one was from the artistic feature of black humor, another was from symbolism, which all exposed the nature of human beings and the totalitarian system controlled by Stalin. They implied totalitarian with great vision and foresight and suggested that totalitarian may cause enormous destruction.

Other aspects include the analysis of Wang (2008) which analyzed the rhetorical

methods used in the novel, such as exaggeration, irony, metaphor. She claimed that through the analysis and elaboration of satire, the Animal Farm reflected the ultimate destination of the innumerable uprisings in human history, criticized the selfishness, greed and corruption in human nature, and demonstrated Orwell 's pessimism: the weakness of human nature allows centralism and despotism to exist anywhere in the world. According to Jiang (2011), political and artistic creation are all included in Animal Farm which is a great work of George Orwell.The humorous writing style, the objective delineation of the virtual real scene in the novel, makes the satire of the novel more profound and is full of strong and obscure dystopia colors. Wang (2008) and Jiang (2011) wrote the essay from totally different point of views. One of them was from the aspect of rhetorical methods, another one was from the dystopia colors. However, both of them have revealed the strong political tendency of George Orwell.

Yao (2005), talked about George Orwell’ s view on literature. In 1946, when Animal Farm was published and acclaimed, Orwell was invited to write Why I Write. he has four reasons for writing: pure egoism; aesthetic enthusiasm; historical impulse; and political purpose. Orwell, undoubtedly, was a political writer. "looking back on my works, I have always found that those books that have no political purpose are the most lifeless books I have ever written, and they are always rich and untrue paragraphs, meaningless sentences, decorative and deceitful words”, said Orwell. It was his experience and the unique era that shaped Orwell’ s political view on literature. In addition to this, Yao (2005) discussed a little about George Orwell’ s language view as well, which made the essay different from other papers. “There is no doubt that a writer's view of language is also an important part of this writer's literary view. What is written is considered in terms of content, and how it is written is explored in terms of form. A writer’s writing characteristics relies on its content and form.”(College English, 2005: 282) “The language of the book is simple and easy to understand, with few long and complex sentences. The language is fresh and simple, continuing Swift's tradition of simplicity. No wonder many bookstores put the book in the children's reading board

after it was published.”(College English, 2005:282) From where I stand, I think Yao is different from other researchers who only care about the theme or the rhetorical methods that have been mentioned many times. He showed us Orwell’s view on language from a general perspective, but he didn’t talk about it deeply or explore it in details.

2.1.2 Foreign research status

Since its publication, Animal Farm has always been popular among readers. Animal Farm was discussed heatedly by scholars overseas as well.

Erika (2008) discussed that the betrayal of the socialist utopia is a theme to Animal Farm. He analyzed that a masterpiece of satirical invention, the political allegory was worked as an extended metaphor, where the activities of animals on an England farm represent the activities of historical figures and classes in the Russian Revolution. As for this essay, Erika studied the theme of Animal Farm as many other researchers did. However, DellaSala (2017) expressed his unique insight about the language of George Orwell. He said that Orwell as one of the foremost critics knew how to make use of language and the power of language. Indeed, in Animal Farm, the power of language is one of the special features. As the leaders of revolution, pigs’ words are indefensible, and other common animals must obey their command. Even the words on the wall pained by the pigs are irresistible. DellaSala (2017) argued that euphemism is a means to mask the indefensible. In Animal Farm, Orwell uses his mild, indirect and vague term to describe the harsh, brutal and offensive revolution.

From my perspective, DellaSala (2017), compared with Erika (2008), is more refreshing. DellaSala had an insight for the language of Orwell and euphemism used by other writers. But if he could take some examples that used the euphemism, the essay would be more perfect.

By reviewing, we can see that a lot of researches have been made about Animal Farm, for instance, from the view of black humor, symbolism, dystopia colors, etc. Although they have different angles, their final aims are the same, to a certain degree, to reveal the author’s intention, in other words, to uncover the theme of this novel. With respect to the theme of Animal Farm, Orwell tells people about it with a fable: if a post-revolutionary regime has no democratic supervision and no rule of law, it will be alienated and regime must go to the opposite side. Revolutions always begin with anti-autocracy, as the old major put it when he enlightened the animals: "the root of all evil lies entirely in the authoritarian rule of mankind". But tyranny is not broken down by the revolution, even on the contrary, it tends to build stronger despotism.

2.2 Need of the study

The profound aspect of Animal Farm lies in that it reveals the tragedy of the animal farm revolution. The animals begin to revolt after being oppressed, however, due to the lack of a deep understanding of democracy and the legal system, in the end, personal dictatorship came in, and life reverted to pre-revolutionary times or even worse. Many essays reviewed in this paper have discussed this theme of Animal Farm. However, few of them tried to study the artistic techniques systematically and appreciate the language skills of George Orwell, such as, the usage of sentence patterns, the language style, etc. Therefore, this essay based on the artistic techniques will analyze this allegory, to further present Orwell’ s implication and appreciate linguistic features of the novel, such as, insinuation, grotesqueness technique, contrast and the language skills. The study can provide some enlightening thoughts on the artistic features of Animal Farm as well as enhance the readers’ reinterpretation of the novel.

3. The Insinuation in Animal Farm

3.1The insinuation of animal revolt

The plot of the novel looks as simple as a children's book, but it contains a “compressed version of the history of the Communist Party”, and the old major's dream was the cause of animal revolt. The dream of rebellion is the dream of communism. Animal revolt refers to the October Revolution of 1917.

The Old Major is the old boar on the Manor Farm, and it is named prize Middle White Boar. One night he calls the animals on the farm for a meeting because of a dream he has. In this meeting, he says that “Man is the only real enemy we have. Man is the only creature that consumes without producing,” and points out that it is time to overthrow their human leader. After Old Major passes away, Snowball and Napoleon, two pigs, lead other animals to rebel to expel Mr.John, their master, and all his men from the farm, after which, they change the name of the farm, and the new farm is called “Animal Farm”.

• The Old Major puts forward an advice of changing the living condition for animals. In animal farm, he is the father of “Animalism”. In this novel he insinuates Karl Marx and the Vladimir Lenin . Vladimir Lenin is the original communist leader as the Old Major in animal farm. Napoleon and Snowball insinuate Stalin and Trotsky respectively. Animal Revolt hints at the revolution of Russia.
• Looking back on the history of Russia Revolution, the Russian revolution from February to October is a continuous development process. It is one revolution that contains two stages. The February Revolution cannot be completely separated from
• the October Revolution because the root cause of the February Revolution and the October Revolution is the same——the tsar's autocratic system. The February Revolution in March 1917 (February of the Julian calendar) overthrew the Romanov dynasty and brought the interim government to power. Later, Lenin put forward the famous Outline of April, pointing out that the Russian revolution must be transformed from bourgeois democratic revolution to proletarian socialist revolution and opposed the so-called "bourgeois interim government". Then in July 1917, when "July bloodshed" took place in Petergrad, the Russian interim government suppressed the workers and soldiers of the Bolshevik-backed demonstrations and announced that Bolshevik leaders such as Lenin were wanted. Lenin thought the time was not yet ripe and gave up the idea of seizing power by force for the time being. Under such circumstances, Lenin proposed a plan clearly to seize power through the uprising. Finally, on November 7, 1917, Lenin launched the October Revolution, in which he declared the overthrow of Russia's interim government, and set up a people's committee. During that period, Stalin and Trotsky helped Lenin complete the revolution.
• Therefor, we can safely conclude that George Orwell is a genius, for the reason that he writes down this period of history in a form of fairy in which every character is vivid by his way of insinuating and his deep thought, penetrating insights and a wealth of emotion are fully presented.

3.2 The insinuation of the battle of the cowshed

The Battle of the Cowshed is about the armed human intervention defeated by animal farm. This event insinuate roughly the civil war of the Soviet Union.

Early in October, Jones and all his men, with half a dozen others from Foxwood (owned by Mr. Pilkington) and Pinchfield (owned by Mr. Frederick) are coming to the cart track that leads to the farm, attempting to recapture the farm. However, this has long been expected by the animals and all preparations has bee made. One of the pigs,

Snowball, who has studied the book of Julius Caesar’s campaigns, is in charge of this defensive operations. Most of the animals comply with his order, especially the horse Boxer and the sheep, who are very brave in the battle. Snowball is skilled in commanding and generating strategies, under his leadership, all human beings are bolting away and the animals get the final victory.

The October Revolution of 7 November, 1917 ended the strange situation in which the Russian interim government and the Soviet Union represented by engineers were the two governments in one country, and the Soviet regime was formally established in Russia. However, the Soviet government was not greeted with the joy of the successful revolutionary, because the enemies of the earth, insurgency, civil war broke out throughout the country. Then from 1918 to 1922, the Soviet-Russian civil war, or the war against the Soviet Union burst. The foreign interventionists involved in the Soviet-Russian civil war were each with his own axe to grind, especially the second Deutsches Reich and Britain: the second Deutsches was designed to completely disarm Russia from its ability of continuing fighting with him and to eliminate the threat of double-line combat. At the same time, he made use of Russian resources to supplement the shortage and loss of his own raw materials and agricultural products; The British aimed to restore and maintain a Russian regime that depended on and cooperated with him and the Allies.

Soviet-Russian civil war and foreign armed intervention lasted nearly three years, and ended with the failure of counter-revolutionary forces at home and abroad. The victory of the Soviet-Russian civil war consolidated the achievements of the October Revolution and created conditions for building a socialist country.

In Chapter Four ( George Orwell, 2018: 34-41), the other farmers sympathized in principle, but they did not at first give him much help. At heart, each of them was secretly wondering whether he could not somehow turn John’s misfortune to his own

advantage. It was lucky that the owners of the two farms which adjoined Animal Farm were on permanently bad terms, says the author. One of them is Mr.Pilkington, insinuating the western country, especially the Britain. Another is Mr.Frederick, insinuating the Nazi Germany. Both of them were involved in the Soviet-Russian civil war.

The main characteristics of Soviet-Russian military strategy during this period are as follows: Adopting strategic attack and counterattack, strategic defense and other combat modes；Being good at choosing main front and using force and weapons in the direction of main outbursts; Attaching importance to the formation of strategic reserves and using reserve units in the important direction timely; Regular troops and similar with the strategy adopted in Soviet-Russian civil war. Firstly, Snowball launches the strategic attack, choosing thirty-five pigeons as the regular troops to fly to and fro over the men’ s head and mute upon them from the mid-air, during which time, the geese, guerrillas, who have been hiding behind the hedge, rush out and peck viciously at the calves of men’ s legs. The goal of this attack is to make a little disorder. Then, Snowball launches his second line of attack. On the main front , Muriel, Benjamin, and all the sheep with the Snowball at the head of them, rush forward, prod and butt the men from every side. While men are against them, suddenly, Snowball commands all the animals to retreat with a squeal, which gives people an illusion that they are in triumph. As a matter of fact, this is the strategic defense of the animals. Next, when all the men are well in the yard, with the charge of Snowball, three horses, three cows and the rest of pigs start their counterattack, using the body parts and stones as weapons. Finally, the men are gored , kicked, bitten and trampled on by the animals. They tried their best to bolt away and the animals get the final victory.

The Battle of Cowshed is a spectacle. Orwell used this battle to insinuate the Soviet-Russian civil war, and even the military strategies were presented incisively and vividly.

3.3 The insinuation of the struggle between Snowball and Napoleon

Napoleon and Snowball, who are generally viewed as being the cleverest of the animals, are the two leaders of the farm after the death of the pig, Older Major. As the old saying goes that if two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind. Napoleon and Snowball seldom disagree with each other. Each has his own following, and often there violent debates happen to them. Especially on the point of windmill plan proposed by Snowball, Napoleon turns his nose on it, and he says quietly that Snowball’s will come to nothing. Eventually, Snowball is chased out of the animal farm at the meeting where they discuss whether to start the project of windmill or not.

The relationship between Napoleon and Snowball insinuates the struggle between Stalin and Trotsky. Stalin and Trotsky were two important forces at the history of Russian, who helped Lenin to complete the Russian Revolution. However, after Lenin died, the struggle between them broke out gradually. In Chapter Two, George Orwell told us that napoleon was only Berkshire boar among the animal farm, in which he implied that Stalin had the advantage over Trotsky. Because Stalin represented the orthodoxy of the Bolshevik party-a pure political background. On the contrary, Trotsky was born to Menshevik, which was always being the deadly arm to his political course. Stalin's dual role as the member of the Politburo and the general secretary of the Secretariat made his the only political leader in the Bolshevik party, from which he had both political power and organizational power. Depending on this superiority, Stalin meddled in military affairs in the name of the party and dismantled Trotsky' s power in the army.

Stalin began to lead the socialist construction of the Soviet Union after Lenin's death. Under the leadership of Stalin, some people said that the "Trotsky" was not true-Leninist, and Stalin also said the "The Party's task is to bury Trotsky' s trend of thought". The isolated Trotsky failed in the political struggle and was removed from the office of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission.

Thus, Snowball, who was driven out of animal farm insinuates Trotsky, who was removed from the office of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission.

3.4 The insinuation of the battle of windmill

After Snowball’s expulsion, one evening, Squealer explains privately to the other animals that Napoleon has never in reality been apposed to the windmill. What’s worse, he says that it is Napoleon who has advocated the windmill in the beginning and Snowball steals the plan from Napoleon. Therefore, the windmill is to be built. Three years later, with the exhausting efforts of all animals, especially the hard working of the horse, Boxer, the windmill comes into reality. In fact, the windmill symbolizes the industrialization development of Soviet Union. While animals are struggling with the difficulties they meet in the building of windmill, Napoleon starts his business interaction with other two farms Foxwood (owned by Mr. Pilkington) and Pinchfield (owned by Mr. Frederick) secretly. Sometimes he is friendly with Mr. Pilkington who is the symbol of Britain but in bad term with Mr. Frederick who is the symbol of Nazi Germany. Sometimes he is good relationship with Mr. Frederick but unfriendly with Mr. Pilkington. Thus, the relationship among them are artificial, because each of them only cares about his own benefit. On the timber deal between Napoleon and Mr. Frederick, the bank-notes given by Mr. Frederick is forgeries, which means Mr. Frederick gets the timber for nothing. Finally, the Battle of windmill broke out. It is the largest, fiercest battle. Both Animal Farm and the people headed by Mr. Frederick pay a heavy price. Animal Farm wins, but they are weary and bleeding.

The Soviet-German War is a significant part of the world anti-fascist war. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany tore up the Treaty of non-aggression between the Soviet Union and Germany, and launched a sudden attack on the Soviet Union from north, center and south. The Soviet-German war broke out in an all-out way. In the early days of the war, the Soviet army collapsed as a result of a sudden fascist attack just like the animals

injured seriously at the beginning in the battle of windmill. Later, the Soviet forces launched a series of strategic offensives to recover the vast majority of the land and occupied many countries in Eastern Europe, and finally captured Berlin, the German capital, on April 30, 1945, which meant the end of the Soviet-German war and marked the end of World War II in Europe.

In the novel, the war of windmill means the war between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Although Soviet Union defeated Germany in the end, but the grand windmill symbolizing industrialization collapsed.

4. The Grotesqueness of Animal Farm

The whole story is so absurd that a group of animals have the wisdom to drive away the owner of the farm and set up their own manor. Such absurdity could not have happened in reality, and the messy rule of the boar Napoleon reflects the chaos of the real world. Benjamin, the donkey inside, has the spirit of a black humor, who is though shrewd and able to see through the despicable behaviour of the farm, remains silent and has nothing to do with himself. In fact, he himself knows that even if he takes action, he can not change anything. Absurd plot and absurd role setting make Animal Farm full of absurd color.

4.1 The grotesqueness in plots

George Orwell used many artistic techniques in Animal Farm. Besides the insinuation, the Grotesqueness is obvious as well. Especially the Grotesqueness in some plots is very profound and ridiculous. When it comes to the absurd plots, Animals’ revolt and the Battle of Cowshed in the novel must be discussed.

The first one, after Old Major’s meeting, the animals know the rebellion will be coming sooner or later. As a fact, the revolt is achieved much earlier and more easily. In several years, Mr. Jones has become much disheartened and due to some failed lawsuits, and drinks more and more, which made him often forget to feed the animals that are in hungry. One day, Mr. Jones gets so drunk and go to bed immediately when he come back home. However, he doesn’t realize that a rebellion is coming because all the animals are waiting to be fed and they can not tolerate his maltreating any more. Under such circumstance, animals broke the door and butt and kick Mr. Jones and his men from all sides. Having no any preparation and idea, they just choose to give up and bolt away. Mr. Jones has been expelled out. After that, animals led by pigs enjoy their victory and lay down their The Seven Commandments.

This plot is very ridiculous for the readers. No one will believe that the master can be chased out by his animals. We cannot deny that sometimes animals are much horrible in nature that what we see in the surface. But what we cannot accept is that they have the though----rebellion and being the master of their themselves. Mankind is the cleverest in the world. Who can image that when Mr. Jones and his four men are surrounded by a group animals they have no ability to defeat them. What’s worse, Mrs. Jones sees what is happening in the bedroom from the window, what her first reflection is to escape away with few possessions but to supply his husband with help or turn to others for help to suppress this mayhem. Animals turn to be clever but human beings become silly. How absurd it is.

The second ridiculous one is the Battle of Cowshed. Animals in this battle are even more clever. At the beginning, when Mr.Jones and all his men, with half a dozen others from the neighbouring farms come to Animal Farm to recapture his land, Pigeons has saw them and come back farm to inform the animals. In few minutes, under the leading of one pig, Snowball, who has studied an old book of Julius Caesar’s campaigns, every animal is at his post waiting for the war. What’s more ridiculous, they know attack firstly to create a little disorder and make as if they fail to lure the men, which give their the opportunity to counterattack. Humans bolt way as before. This is a beautiful battle.

In this battle, what is absurd is that animals know human beings will evade again and the clever pig has studied some combat skills from the book on the art of war. The carrier pigeons which are used in the mankind are even made use of by animals. In addition, a group of men who come with preparation can still be defeated by animals. What cannot be happened to the animals in reality occurs to the animal written by George Orwell. That is where the Grotesqueness is in.

4.2 The grotesqueness in characters

In order to highlight the absurdity of the novel, George Orwell shows a humanized animal world, and like human beings, animals also experience the

awakening and struggling of democratic consciousness. Pigs, as the leaders in the fight for democratic rights are indeed the most obscure, which are a bit of a mystery. Different from the image of "pig" written by writers in the past, the author entrusts the ideological consciousness of human beings to this group of most obscure "pigs", thus breaking the human thinking pattern for the image of “pig”. In this novel, pig is not the ugly, lazy animal that we see in our life but the cleverest animal who has wisdom over human.

Old Major, as the enlightenment of animals, brings together all the animals and put forward the theory of “Man is the only enemy we have”, encouraging animals to rise up to resist and overthrow human tyranny. Besides this, a song whose tune and words have long been forgot from his infancy, even comes back to Old Major’s mind in the dream. A ridiculous starting makes a more ridiculous ending.

Snowball, after the success of rebellion, it proposes the plan of windmill, from which he means to save labor forever and only enjoy life forever. It really has invention wisdom than other pigs, but the plan of windmill itself is full of absurdity. Just like there’s no such thing as a free lunch and nothing can be once and for ever. Absurdity is absurdity, which will never turn to reality , as the windmill collapses at the end.

Napoleon is the most ludicrous one among the pigs. It plans a scheme to chase out Snowball and become the only leader in the animal farm. It changes the Seven Commandments secretly step by step. Napoleon and other pigs live in house of their former owner Jones, fall asleep in the bed where the Jones has slept, and stand up on their forefeet and put on human clothes like human beings. They even know apple and milk are good for them. What’s worse, at the end of the novel, it begins to make business with people to earn money. All of these are incredible and have deepened the grotesqueness the author uses in the novel.

The reason why Orwell chooses pig as the central character and the leader of animal farm is to use its concrete image to convey the absurd color. The past stupid and lazy pig has become the cleverest animal, and the past moron has become the mental laborer, which are undoubtedly the most absurd arrangement in the novel.

5. The Contrast in the Seven Commandments

After the success of animal revolt, pigs manage to reduce the principles of Animalism to Seven Commandments as following:

• 1 Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
• 2 Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
• 3 No animal shall wear clothes.
• 4 No animal shall sleep in a bed.
• 5 No animal shall drink alcohol.
• 6 No animal shall kill another animal.
• 7 All animals are equal. (George Orwell, 2018: 21).[3]
• Most of the animals agree with these seven slogans and they try their best to read it. Besides these, they have another slogan “Four legs good, two legs bad”, which is the high summation of Seven Commandments. All animals have to abide by it. Especially the sheep, often sing it at some important conditions. The Seven Commandments are laws that ensure Animalism and keep a good order in Animal Farm. Animals bear the Seven Commandments in mind in order to make the animals unite against the humans and keep animals from following the men ’s evil habits.
• But soon after, every thing is changing soundlessly. The pigs begin to sleep in beds. Other animals remember that there is a commandment that forbids sleeping in beds. Then they go to look at the commandments. But the fourth slogan has changed, which is added with some words. “No animal shall sleep in a bed” is changed to “No animal shall sleep in bed with sheets”. When the pigs discover the whisky that Jones left, they immerse themselves in the joy of drinking. “No animal shall drink alcohol” is changed to “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”. No one has had any doubt about it. Although Clover has some doubt, she has nothing to say. Animals are very cold, starving and tired in this new farm, but they
• still believe their life are better than they were ruled by Mr. Jones. On the contrary, their life becomes the worst one. What’s worse, Squealer often alter the slogan in midnight secretly. Again and again, the slogans in animals’ memory are different with the slogan of the wall. However, Squealer always says that their memory is wrong. Squealer always has the ability to turn white to black. He uses his sly language to twist the truth. In fact, these slogans are tools of spirit rule. Later, pigs begin to do business with human, and they wear clothes like human, which is totally different from what the Older major has said. As the pigs become more like human, eventually the laws are replaced with “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, “Four legs good, two legs better”.

The changing of Seven Commandments means the tragedy of animal’s ending. Compared with the life before revolution, their now living is even more miserable, because they keep silent for this changing. Even that some of them have a little doubt and emotion, they are interrupted by a group of silly sheep, who often says “Four legs good, two legs bad” rather than“Four legs good, two legs better”.

Language Features in Animal Farm

Wonderful content and language make a work outstanding. What is written is considered in terms of content, and how it is written is explored in terms of form. The language of Animal Farm is simple and easy to understand. It has a little possibility to find long and complex sentences words in Animal Farm, which let the readers feel easy to understand the article. It is no wonder that the book was put in the children’s reading section after it was published. However, it is not only for kids, which just like The Little Prince which is not only for children as well. That is why Orwell’ s language is outstanding and appeals to a great number of readers to appreciate his language features.Orwell has his own unique view of language. In Politics and the English Language, he expresses his pursuit of language style. He puts forward six requests which have been embodied in his Animal Farm:

(1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. (2) Never use a long word where a short one will do. (3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. (4) Never use the passive where you can use the active. (5) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. (6) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. (Politics and the English Language,1946:6).[4]

6.1 Appreciation of sentence patterns

Sentences in Animal Farm are not complex. Orwell doesn’t use elaborated words to compose a sentence which will make the book difficult to understand. The success of Animal Farm is not only because it reveals the evil totalitarian in the form of a fairy but also the sentence patterns that Orwell uses to describe a scene and to uncover

a truth which is easy to understand and is vivid.

Taking a scene as an example: “Boxer!” cried Clover in a terrible voice. “Boxer! Get out! Get out quickly! They’re taking you to your death!” All the animals took up the cry of “ Get out, Boxer, get out!” But the van was already gathering speed and drawing away from them. It was uncertain whether Boxer had understood that Clover had said. But a moment later his face disappeared form the window and there was the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the van. He was crying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from Boxer’s hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. But alas! His strength had left him;and in a few moments the sound of drumming hoofs grew fainter and died away.（George Orwell, 2018:122-123).[3]

This plot is describing Boxer being taken away by butcher. All his fellows are crying to call him back, but when he realizes this everything is late. No complex sentences, no obscure words, however, the short sentences with exclamation mark give you a feeling of watching the movie and you can clearly find their sorrow and desperation between the lines. “But alas!”, which only have twos words, show the helpless of animals and mercy of the author.

Here are some classic sentences in the novel: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” （George Orwell, 2018: 031).[3] “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”(George Orwell, 2018:106).[3] “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” (George Orwell, 2018: 140).[3]

Orwell always uses a few words and short sentence to uncover a profound truth as he says that never use a long word where you can you a short word. Short sentences and short words make you know the book Animal Farm. But if you want to understand it, it takes your some time to reflect on the real meaning behind the simple words.

6.2 Appreciation of some of the phrases

Many people reckon that it is necessary to use common English phrases in order to speak English fluently. The use of phrases in everyday spoken English or in writing will be unique in that they will be able to make the meaning more clearly.

In Animal Farm, George Orwell has used a lot of phrases which make the sentences easy to understand, and even for the children, they will accept them with little difficulty.

Here are some examples: Firstly, “Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings?” (George Orwell, 2018: 6) In this sentence, “crystal” of “crystal clear”, has the meaning of being bright, glittering and translucent in itself. When combining “crystal” with “clear”, it will highlight “clearness”, which will make the meaning clearer. Another one, “ frightened them almost out of their wits” (George Orwell, 2018:017).[3], “out of ones’ wits” in this sentence, composed of only for simple words, “wits” means “wisdom”, but Orwell doesn’t use it, which is a good example of his principle---- “Where you can use short words never use long words.” Short words usually make us feel relaxed and make the sentence seem not lengthy. What’s more, “...the looking-glasses, the horsehair sofa, the Brussels carpet...” (George Orwell, 2018:019), “the looking-glasses” means “mirror”, but “looking-glasses” can simply be viewed as the literal meaning of “mirror”. Even for the young children, it is easy to understand without further considering what “ mirror” is . Other phrases like “toiled and sweated”, “to and fro”, “good-for-nothing”, etc, are plain in the form, but don’t weaken the meaning that the author wants us to know.

All the above phrases demonstrate that this is a tale, thus the writer needs to simplify his words to make the novel be accepted widely. Successful writers often express his meaning clearly by the simplest language.

6.3 Appreciation of the language style of different animals

Each animal in animal farm has its own unique trait, especially the representative animals described by the author having their own linguistic characteristics, which plays a key role in helping readers to understand the character of every animal.

The virtuous old horse, boxer, is the most impressed image in the book. The two sayings he believes in throughout his life are "I will work harder" and "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right". He works faithfully for the farm, and always takes on the heaviest physical work in the most difficult working environment. However, he never complains, always obeys what the pigs said and never doubts the reality, as if the purpose of his living is to work harder. The character of the boxer's language is distinct. These two sentences demonstrate that the boxer's words and behaviors have been completely controlled by the pigs. The pure language seems to forebode the tragic end of the boxer. At the last, Boxer is sold to the slaughterhouse in exchange for Whiskey.

Squealer is a a sly, crafty, deceitful animal. He could turn black into white. Napoleon's attitude towards building windmills, for example, is inconsistent, and Squealer explains it as "tactics, comrades, this is tactics." Furthermore, every time Squealer explains something secretly and forces animals to accept, he will say “ comrades, you do not want Jones back?” at the end of his words. Then the silly animals have to believe.

As the author says in the novel: He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. (George Orwell, 2018:012-013).[3]

In addition to these, other animals like the sheep, from beginning to the end, only have two sentences from “ Four legs good, two legs bad ” to “ Four legs good, two legs better”. Not only did they have no doubt about the difficult life after the revolution, but they also praised the dictator with their ignorance.

Even more sad is that, at every critical moment, the sheep's stereotypical baa chorus are timely hindering the animals' thinking, and they miss the chance to resist again and again.

In Animal Farm, Orwell, relying on language features, reveals the role of language hegemony and language fallacy in controlling and deceiving the people. He Also outlines the lifelike animal images to the vast number of readers . The skills of language plays an increasing role in the political nature of the novel as well.

7. Conclusion

Orwell is a sincere thinker and writer. He pays attention to the reality and life itself. Through creation, he expresses the crisis and despair of human beings, which affects the generation after generation of people.

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the artistic techniques of Animal Farm. In order to represent the history of Russian Revolution, this paper analyzes the insinuation, grotesqueness and the techniques of contrast in details and systematically. Through the appreciation of language features in the novel, we deeply understand Orwell’ s concise, accurate, vivid language, his charm in expressing his idea and his critical thinking.

I have to admit that as for the artistic techniques of Animal Farm, this thesis is limited, and I want to do further study if I have the chance.

References

[1] DellaSala, D. (2017). Caring, killing, euphemism and George Orwell: How language choice undercuts our mission. Biological Conservation, 174–176.

[2] Erika, G. (2008). A Companion to the British and Irish 1945-2000:George Orwell’ s Dystopia: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

[3] Orwell, G. (2018). Animal Farm. Beijing: Beijing times Chinese language publishing house.

[4] Orwell, G. Politics and the English Language[J]. World Watch, 1946, 13(May):6.

[5] Orr, J. (1989). Tragic Realism And Modern Society. Edinburgh: The Macmillan Press.

[6] 刘阳, 陈榕. 《动物庄园》中荒诞性的集合体——革命的领导者“猪”[J]. 湖北广播电视大学学报, 2013, 33(11):80-81.

[7] 蒋馨. 《动物庄园》的反乌托邦色彩[J]. 海外英语, 2011(5X):246-247.

[8] 吴景禄. 穿越时空的政治寓言——《动物农场》与《生死疲劳》的比较研究[D]. 2009.

[9] 王雪芹. 浅析《动物庄园》中对人性讽刺的修辞方法[J]. 大学英语(学术版), 2008(2):43-45.

[10] 姚国松. 试从《动物庄园》谈奥威尔的文学观[J]. 大学英语(学术版), 2005:279-282.

[11] 张竞文. 理想主义的幻灭——论《动物庄园》中的象征主义[J]. 科教文汇, 2009(29):249-249.

[12] 赵宇红. 《动物农庄》中的黑色幽默[J]. 吉林建筑大学学报, 2010, 27(3):115-117.

Acknowledgments

How time flies! It’s my great honor to be here to express my sincere thanks to the people who have helped me with my paper. During the process of my writing, my supervisor, my roommates and my family have helped me too much. Without their generous assistance, this paper would not have been finished smoothly.

Above all, let me express my great appreciation to my supervisor, Zhu Li. She has accompanied me through a long period of the writing of this thesis. During this period, she has given me many useful suggestions on my thesis. Every time we met with each other, she would tell me a lot about how to write a good paper. Beside this, we also communicated by e-mail or in qq group. What's more, she was very patient with my questions.

Next, I am also thankful to my classmates. We have accompanied with each other for four years. Especially in this period, they have offered me much help. In addition, they assisted me to search for reference materials of great value.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their loving and great confidence in me all through these four years. I am grateful to my parents for their considerable understanding and caring.