Media Literacy
Novel and FIlm
THE ENDING
For many, perhaps the most jarring change in this adaptation of Orwell's novel will
be the new ending. Orwell, writing during the Second World War, ends rather abruptly,
with the realization by the animals that the pigs look like the humans they were meant
to displace--indicating allegorically that the Soviet Communists had become much like
the feudal overlords they had deposed.
TNT's ANIMAL FARM ends on a very different note: refugee animals led by Jessie
return to the farm they left behind many years before. They find it in ruins. Actually,
the film begins with this image, and then proceeds to a flashback of the founding of Animal
Farm--only to return to the crumbling compound at the very end of the film. This framing device
reflects the fall of Soviet Communism, but what happens next may cause some shock: a
convertible-driving family roars into the farm accompanied by "I Found My Thrill
(On Blueberry Hill)." This may not only seem a bit too facile (it has not been all
rock-and-roll for Russia since perestroika), but gives a very different air to Orwell's
tale. Orwell's sly allegory--loaded with social criticism that may go well beyond the
confines of critiquing Soviet Socialism alone--is converted into an epic tale. Orwell's
cautionary tale of human choice and human evil becomes a chronicle of good's predetermined
triumph: "Nature," Jessie tells us, washes it all away.
Activity: Ask students what they think of the ending. What does it seem to
mean? What do they make of the car, of the music, of the family? Does it seem appropriate
in tone or substance? Do they believe Jessie's claim that all "scars have been healed"?
Students may wish to study Russia since the fall of Communism to arrive at informed answers.
Based on their knowledge, have students write two different endings for ANIMAL FARM:
a positive one based on their best hopes for the animals, and a negative one based on their
worst fears.
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SNOWBALL VS. NAPOLEAN
Where many will find the film highly successful is in the way it expands upon the
conflict between Snowball and Napoleon. Here the filmmakers use the strengths of the
visual medium to their fullest; in doing so, they not only draw out the implication of
Orwell's insight, but extend it to reflect the history of the Soviet Union since Orwell's
death.
Snowball becomes the heir to Old Major's words: he teaches himself to read,
commits the commandments to print, and always emphasizes the power of knowledge.
He remembers Old Major for his ideas, for his principles. Napoleon, on the other hand,
understands the power of Old Major as icon.
The difference is made clear from the very demise of Old Major: while Snowball invokes
the materialist spirit of Marxism, saying that there is "no hereafter," Napoleon
understands the limits of such talk. In effect, he resurrects Old Major bodily; drawing
upon the power of religious symbolism, he claims that Old Major "died for us all."
Napoleon sees Snowball's wordsmithing as a threat. After banishing Snowball from the
farm, Napoleon begins to imitate Old Major (for example, delivering his speeches from the
perch once occupied by the ancient pig), and even places Old Major's skull on a stick
before him. Borrowing from Mollie's genuine act of mourning in which she places a ribbon
on the spot where Old Major fell to his death, Napoleon devises all sorts of bogus awards
from himself and has ribbons signaling these honorifics draped from his neck. In contrast to
Snowball's constant appeals to rationality, Napoleon uses the hypnotising power of
television and of elaborate, relic-filled rituals to compel the obedience of the
animals.
Activity: Ask students to catalog the differences in the way Snowball and
Napoleon approach power. Ask them to pay attention to: their words, physical
positioning, clothes and other furnishings, ideology (principles vs. "tactics").
Then show them: speeches made by politicians, political commercials, and "photo
opportunities." Have them detail the way politicians use the methods of Snowball and
Napoleon to compel our interest and compliance today.
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