“Beasts of England” is the song that Old Major teaches to the other animals in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He claims that his parents sang it to him when he was young, although they only remembered the first three words. The song is instrumental in firing up the other animalsContinue Reading
In Animal Farm, George Orwell shows how the public can be influenced by the words, slogans and propaganda through rhetorical skills and the means for manipulation of the language. The public in a totalitarian society is deceived by the dominant ideology through the effective use of the language. Several charactersContinue Reading
Animal Farm is an allegory, which is a story in which concrete and specific characters and situations stand for other characters and situations so as to make a point about them. The main action of Animal Farm stands for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the early years of theContinue Reading
George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950), was a British writer, journalist, and critic, renowned for his sharp insight into politics, totalitarianism, and social injustice. Orwell’s works remain influential for their clarity of language, moral seriousness, and political relevance. Born in British India and educated in England,Continue Reading
A satire is a work which uses humour, irony or wit to highlight the vices, follies and pretensions of individuals, institutions, communities or ideas. Animal Farm satirises the breakdown of political ideology and the misuse of power in the ingenious form of a beast fable. The major players are animalsContinue Reading
A dystopian novel is one in which an author creates a world that is a total nightmare to live in. A utopia is a perfect world, a dystopia is the opposite. In Animal Farm, Napoleon creates a world that is not exactly the worst possible, but pretty close for theContinue Reading
The coming of the railway at Malgudi is symbolic of an industrial and urban society on a predominantly simple agricultural community. The high values of traditional life give way to the modern ways and their attendant evils. This would mean the undoing of old ways of living and the cherishedContinue Reading
R. K. Narayan portrays a South-Indian conservative society in the village, Mangal, in the novel The Guide. Though the contact of Western culture brought many changes in the village, castes and traditional occupations continue to exist. Marriages are still arranged. Astrology is accepted there. Washing the feet before visiting aContinue Reading
It should be mentioned that ‘Marco’ is not the real name of the scholarly husband of Rosie. The research scholar with his Eurocentric culture has been satirized. To Raju, he appears to be a space traveler or an astronaut. Marco is a shortened version of Marco Polo who is anContinue Reading
The title of the R.K Narayan’s novel, The Guide, has a double meaning, and Raju, the protagonist, is in a sense a double character. As a tour guide and lover, he is impulsive, unprincipled, and self-indulgent. After his transformation as a holy man, he is careful, thoughtful, and self-disciplined. ItContinue Reading
